I am now half-way to my goal, both in terms of days and words, with a total of 46,762.

I’ve gotten a free questions on the software that I use to write. I use Manuskript, which is free and open-source. It has several sections for managing characters, plots, world building, outlining, and writing.

For characters, I can tag each scene with the POV character, along with any other character that appears. Using a built in timeline, I can visually see how often each character is the POV (shown below as a black dot) or in a scene (white dot). I can also search up a character and have a list of every scene they are POV or are tagged in.

For plots, I can do the same thing, tagging which plot(s) are important in each scene and seeing a timeline of them below the main writing area, so I can be aware if one subplot takes up too many words.

The world building allows me to make as many notes as I need to track everything. It is a simply heirarchy, but it saves me needing to have a half dozen documents open when writing, and then needing to search through them for a detail about the world.

The outlining is where Manuskript really starts to shine. Each scene is under a chapter/act folder, however one wants to organize their story. I can set the POV, the current draft, and a word count goal. Once I start writing, Manuskript automatically counts my words and gives a colored bar to show progress.

Red is 0-20%, Blue is 20-80%. Green is 80-120%, and Gold is 120+%.

Once all of the planning is done, then the work of drafting can begin. In the main editor page, I can select a scene, which appears in the center. One the right, I have the POV, editing status, word count goal, the summary I gave it when outlining, and any notes or tagged characters.

I’ve found that Manuskript works great for my needs. I can have all of my planning, worldbuilding, characters, outlining, and drafts in a single place. And, it’s easy to back up a single file online.