Do you struggle with making progress on your writing goals? I’m a time-poor writer with lots of projects on the go. At different times in my life I’ve found it harder to make time to write. I have two tools that I use depending on whether I’m writing a first draft or editing. My go-to first draft tool is my Writing Tracker Goal Smasher. But the one I want to highlight today is Pacemaker: a gamechanger for me for editing a WIP. It’s a writing goal tool for authors that makes it easy to track your progress.

Pacemaker, despite the coronary-feel of the name, is a writing goal tool for authors, deadlines and progress. It’s web-based rather than an app. It’s easily used on mobile, though (just save the page to your home screen for easy access). What I love about it is that your goals adapt to how much progress you’ve made on your project. I’ve always struggled with the “write 1000 words a day!” advice (which is why I love my Writing Tracker Goal Smasher). Pacemaker fits into the way I work so well for this reason.

Essentially, you can use this writing goal tool for authors to track whatever you are working on:

• Scenes left to revise
• Words to write or edit
• Chapters to review
• Total time spent writing

… and so on. It’s easily adaptable for a huge variety of creative projects. (I even use it as a tool for tracking of our household budget. As my husband and I both work our own businesses, up and downs in income are a given. I use Pacemaker to easily track whether we’re above, below, or meeting our weekly expenses.) For editing, where there’s no clear goal like “words written” that you can see in the nice little counter in your word processor, it’s perfect.

I’m now at the pointy end of preparing my debut manuscript for Publishable (open now until20 May 2025!). Pacemaker has been perfect to track how many scenes I have left to revise. If I get more done than my weekly quota (or, you know… less), then Pacemaker adjusts. It updates my quota for upcoming sessions so that I still meet my goal on time.  And it’s lovely to get a burst of fireworks when you meet your quota for the day. Who doesn’t love fireworks?

There’s a free version that lets you track a limited number of projects. The Pro subscription is not hugely expensive, if you need All the Things like me. There’s a great group goal function too, where you can work together with your writing group to hit a pool goal. Maybe something your Writing Friday group could get into!

 I’d love to hear your process – do you use a writing goal tool for authors like this?