Launching WriteDaily: A Tool to Build a Daily Writing Habit with Data-Driven Insights
I’ve spent the last few months heads-down building something I believe every writer, blogger, and knowledge worker could benefit from. It’s called WriteDaily, and it lives at writedaily.co.
The Problem
Most writing tools fall into two camps: glorified text editors (Google Docs, Word) that tell you nothing about your process, or complex distraction-free environments that make you feel good but don’t help you improve.
I wanted something different. A tool that treats writing like the measurable practice it is — with data, streaks, and insights that mirror what fitness trackers do for exercise.
What WriteDaily Does
The core loop is simple: write 750 words every day. That number comes from the well-known morning pages practice, popularised by Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. Three pages of longhand works out to roughly 750 words.
But WriteDaily doesn’t stop at word count. Here’s what’s under the hood:
Real-Time Word Tracking and Pace Analysis
The editor tracks your words-per-minute in real time, plotting your pace on a graph as you write. You can see exactly when you hit flow state and when you slowed down. Knowing your own rhythm is half the battle.
Auto-Save and Session Persistence
WriteDaily auto-saves every 35 seconds using AJAX. Close the tab mid-sentence? It’s still there when you come back. No saving, no file management, no friction.
Sentiment Analysis with LIWC
This is where it gets interesting. WriteDaily runs your writing through the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) system — the same psycholinguistic tool used in academic research. It surfaces your emotional state, cognitive patterns, and concerns as you wrote. Were you positive or negative? Introspective or outward-facing? Focused on work, family, money, or achievement?
Content Rating
The tool gives each entry a content rating (PG, R, etc.) based on language use, swearing, and mature themes. It’s a playful feature, but it also reveals patterns you might not notice about your own writing voice.
The Tech Stack
WriteDaily is built on PHP with Doctrine ORM for data persistence. The frontend uses jQuery with jqPlot for the pace graphs and pie charts. Auto-save is handled via AJAX calls to a lightweight endpoint. The LIWC integration uses the standard LIWC2007 dictionary with a custom PHP parser I built.
The project is open source. You can follow development at writedaily.co.
Why I’m Building This
I’ve been writing daily for years — blog posts, journal entries, project specs. But I had no visibility into my own patterns. When was I most productive? What emotional state produced my best work? How consistent was I, really?
WriteDaily is my answer to those questions. It’s a tool for writers who want to treat their craft as a data-driven practice, not just a mysterious creative process.
What’s Next
The MVP is live at writedaily.co. I’m using it daily myself and iterating fast. Coming features include streak tracking, distraction counting (how often you switch tabs while writing), and weather context — because I’m genuinely curious whether rainy days produce better prose.
If you write regularly, give it a try. I’d love to hear what patterns you discover about your own writing.
