How SteadyInk works

SteadyInk connects to one Google Doc and counts its words once a day, so you can see real progress without logging anything by hand. It works out of the box. The details below just help you get sharper numbers.

One thing before the details: I'm not a writer myself. I built this for someone who is. So if I'm measuring or tracking something in a way that doesn't fit how you actually work, tell me at hello@steadyink.app. I'd genuinely like to know, and I'd love to hear any feedback!

The basics

Connect one document

Each project tracks a single Google Doc for its lifetime. When you connect, you pick the file in Google's own picker, and I can only "see" the file you choose (below). Nothing else in your Drive is visible to me. If you want to track a different manuscript, create a new project.

Chapters come from tabs

I treat each tab in your Google Doc as a chapter. Add a tab per chapter (Google Docs shows tabs in the left sidebar) and name them however you like: "Chapter 1", "Prologue", "Part One". The name is what appears on your per-chapter chart.

You don't have to use tabs at all. A single-doc manuscript tracks fine, you just see one chapter bar instead of several.

Tabs can also be nested. Put chapter tabs inside a "Part One" tab and I'll show Part One as a group whose total rolls up its chapters. If a Part tab has its own prose as well as child chapters, its bar shows the rolled-up total with its own words in parentheses, like "Part One — 6,500 (500)". You can nest as deep as you like and the chart adapts.

It counts once a day

At a time and timezone you set per project, SteadyInkreads your document and count its words. The next day it compare against the day before and show you what changed. If you don't want to wait, "Sync now" on the dashboard counts immediately.

Writing, and revising, both count

A normal day shows as "+800 words". A day where you cut more than you added is a revision day. It gets its own colour, never red, and it still counts toward your streak, because trimming is part of writing. A day you don't touch the manuscript is an off day, and I don't treat it as a failure.

Details & edge cases

How the word count is measured

I count the words in your chapters, including text inside tables. I ignore headers, footers, footnotes, and any table of contents, so those don't pad your total. The number is designed to closely match Google Docs' own word count, but it can differ by a few words. Treat it as a reliable measure of progress and not an exact word counter.

How a day's progress is calculated

Each day, today's document is compared to yesterday's, chapter by chapter, and the words added and words removed are recorded. Your daily writing figure is what you added. On a revising day you'll see both numbers, like "+300 / −1,100".

Moving text around

Because I compare each chapter to its previous version, moving text shows up according to where it lands:

• If you move text within the same chapter, it barely registers. You rearranged, you didn't add words.
• If you move text from one chapter to another, it shows as words removed from the first and added to the second, so it reads as a revision day. Your manuscript total doesn't change, and the day still counts toward your streak.

I see words leave one chapter and appear in another. I don't know they're the same words. If a day of reorganising looks wrong on your dashboard, you can adjust it (see below).

Pasting in research or notes

Sometimes you'll paste text into your manuscript that you didn't write, like research, notes, or an outline you drafted somewhere else. Those words count toward how long your manuscript is, but they aren't writing you did today, and if I counted them as such, a big paste would show up as a huge writing day. That throws off your daily average, your pace, and your best-day record, and makes the days you actually wrote look smaller by comparison.

So if you want those words kept out of your daily writing stats, highlight the pasted text in magenta (#FF00FF). I'll still count them toward your total word count, just not toward what you wrote that day.

The app will never change your document. The highlight stays until you take it off yourself, and once those words have been counted, it is never counted again, so clearing the highlight is optional. If you forget to highlight something you pasted, you can mark that day as pasted (see below).

Fixing a day that looks wrong

Some days the raw numbers mislead. Maybe you reorganised chapters, or forgot to highlight pasted text. In your history you can adjust a day:

• Mark it as moved text (reorganising, not new writing),
• Mark it as pasted (imported, not written),
• Or set what you actually wrote by hand.

Adjustments never change your real word counts. They only change how that day is scored, and you can undo them at any time.

What counts toward your streak

Your streak counts any day you touched your writing. Adding words keeps it alive, and so does cutting them, which means revision days and reorganising days count. A day with no changes to the manuscript is an off day.

When the count runs

I count once a day at your chosen time, in your project's timezone. The count is a snapshot at that moment, and anything you write afterward is picked up on the next day's count. A manual "Sync now" doesn't replace the scheduled count, so any words you write later that day are still counted.

Your progress is filed under the calendar date the count runs, not the moment you wrote it. Because of that, I'd set your count time to late evening, before local midnight and after you've usually finished for the day, so a full day's writing is credited to that day.

One honest caveat: if you often write past midnight, this doesn't fit your schedule cleanly yet. Words written after midnight land on the next day, and better support for late-night writers is planned.

Your document stays yours

SteadyInkonly ever reads your document. This doesn't mean that I can actually read your manuscript: Only the latest text is stored and is encrypted, overwritten at every count, and no history of it is kept. When you delete the project, it is deleted too. I never, and will never, train on, sell, or share your writing. If you would like to know more, the Privacy Policy has the full detail.