Plan Draft Days From Act Word Budgets — Free
A total word target hides which act is actually behind. Subtract what is drafted, divide the remainder by a realistic daily word count, and see how many writing days each section truly needs.
The proof surface
Chapter argument trackers audit claims and evidence in finished prose. This converts unfinished word budgets into writing days per section so the plan matches the pace you keep.
Why the flat version breaks
Planning on your best-ever day
A daily count you hit once is not a pace; use a median over the last fortnight of writing.
Counting outlining and research as drafting
Planning days produce few manuscript words and still consume the calendar.
Ignoring revision time
Draft days are not the whole project: a completed draft still needs revision passes.
How to work the manuscript pace docket
Use acts, chapters or sections you actually sit down to write. A single whole-book row cannot show a stalled middle.
Take the targets from your outline or the genre expectations you are writing to, and keep them consistent across units.
Count words in a file, not words in your head. Fourteen thousand words of a twenty-thousand-word act leaves six thousand to write.
Enter the words per day you have really written recently, not a hopeful figure. Six thousand words at 800 a day needs eight writing days, and the docket flags any unit that will take more than a fortnight.
What the manuscript pace docket replaces
| Question | Before | Visible working |
|---|---|---|
| Planning on your best-ever day | A daily count you hit once is not a pace; use a median over the last fortnight of writing. | Enter target words per unit |
| Counting outlining and research as drafting | Planning days produce few manuscript words and still consume the calendar. | Enter the words already drafted |
| Ignoring revision time | Draft days are not the whole project: a completed draft still needs revision passes. | Use a daily count you have measured |
A local arithmetic aid replaces hand calculation, not expert review. No paid AI service is needed.
Run it on the samples, right here
FIRST-LOAD
Input is processed locally and a draft is saved automatically in this browser profile when storage is available. Reset to sample clears that draft; Pro history has its own clear button. A state link encodes your inputs in its URL: share only non-sensitive rows. Browser history, clipboard and anyone receiving the link may retain it. Optional AI use below leaves this device; it is not required.
Pace arithmetic on word counts and a daily rate you supply. Not a publication schedule, contract promise or editorial assessment; confirm deadlines and deliverable definitions with your editor, agent or publisher before committing to dates.
Data note: Everything runs in this browser tab on the manuscript pace docket: your manuscript act | target words | words drafted stays on this device, nothing is uploaded, and the reading is rebuilt only when you press run.
Go deeper: the companion app files the same reading as a clerk's docket sheet
The article demo above runs without limits. The companion app keeps a local history, exports the rows as CSV, prints the manuscript pace docket reading, and holds your drafts on this device — one free run, then $ 4 one-time for the layer that keeps filing.
The manuscript pace docket reading is complete for free. The optional $4 layer adds print, row CSV and the last five local reading summaries; it does not add hidden answers. Checkout is not configured yet; the article demo remains unlimited.
Open the plan draft days from act word budgets companionBoundary
Pace arithmetic on word counts and a daily rate you supply. Not a publication schedule, contract promise or editorial assessment; confirm deadlines and deliverable definitions with your editor, agent or publisher before committing to dates.
What this is built on
- Method: Count words in a file, not words in your head. Fourteen thousand words of a twenty-thousand-word act leaves six thousand to write.
- All sample records are invented examples. The app does not fetch measurements, policies, files or personal records.
- Google’s official pricing page, fetched 2026-09-29, lists free-tier access including AI Studio. Optional formatting only; limits and availability can change. Free-tier content may be used to improve products. Never paste private records there.
Before: A daily count you hit once is not a pace; use a median over the last fortnight of writing. After: the manuscript pace docket shows the working beside each named row so the reader can change the assumption and inspect the consequence.
Optional AI formatting, not calculation
For this manuscript pace docket, use the free AI Studio interface only if available to you, with no paid API key. Manual entry completes the same workflow for free. Supply only fictional or non-sensitive notes. Review its output against the source; never paste unresolved questions into the numeric rows.
Format my non-sensitive notes for a manuscript pace docket. Return plain rows only: manuscript act | target words | words drafted. Preserve supplied quantities exactly. Do not guess missing values; list questions separately. Do not calculate or add advice. I will check every row before pasting into the local tool.
Accepted schema: manuscript act | target words | words drafted. No AI response is executed as code.