#writersCoffeeClub 5. Do you track your word count? How? Why? I've always tracked word count. When I was writing and submitting short stories, there was usually a word limit. It was essential to know how long the story was. With novels, I used to record word count on a spreadsheet to track progress. I'd set a target of so many words per day. These days I don't need to, yWriter shows it automatically. Right now I'm revising, so word count isn't relevant. Instead I number of days worked.