Writing sprints

A writing sprint is a short burst of writing against the clock: pick how long, maybe set a word goal, and write until the time is up. Mythforge keeps time, counts your words as you go and shows how you did at the end.

Start a sprint

You can start a sprint from these places:

• In a scene: on a wide window, the stopwatch button at the top of the scene. On a phone, choose the … button, then Writing sprint.
• On a Scratchpad page: the stopwatch button at the top, for a sprint that's just for practice.
• From a world's Home tab: choose Writing sprint. When the sprint starts, the scene you last wrote in opens, ready to go.
• From the keyboard: ⌥ ⇧ R on a Mac or iPad, Alt Shift R on Linux, Ctrl Alt R on Windows.

Then choose:

• Minutes: 10, 15, 25 or 45, or Custom for anything from 1 minute to 4 hours.
• Word goal (optional): how many words you want to write in that time.
• Focus mode: when you start from a scene, turn this on to hide everything but your words. See Focus and typewriter modes.
• Chime at the end: a soft sound when the time is up. The same switch is in Settings → Writing, under Writing sprints.

Choose Start sprint. Mythforge remembers your choices for next time.

A sprint passes through a few states, and only one can run at a time:

While it runs

A small timer sits at the top of the scene, showing the time left and your words so far (and your goal, if you set one, as in 12/300 w). It stays out of the way: it never moves the cursor or interrupts your typing. In focus mode it sits beside Exit focus, and on a phone it rides on the bar above the keyboard while you type.

Choose the timer (or press the shortcut again) to:

• Pause and Resume. The clock stops while you're paused, and words you write meanwhile don't count.
• End sprint early. It's saved with the time you wrote for.
• Discard sprint if you started one by mistake. Nothing is saved, and your writing stays as it is.

The sprint keeps going while you move between scenes, open other screens or reload the page. If you close Mythforge and the time runs out while it's closed, you'll see how it went the next time you open it.

How words are counted

A sprint counts the words you add to any scene while it runs, minus any you delete, in the same way as your daily goal. Switching to another scene mid-sprint is fine: everything you write counts.

When the time is up

You'll feel a gentle tap on the iPhone app and hear the chime (if it's on). Then a summary shows:

• Words written,
• Words/min, your pace,
• Time spent writing, not counting pauses,
• whether you met your goal.

If you were typing when the time ran out, Mythforge doesn't pop the summary over your writing. A note says Sprint over, and the timer turns into Sprint over until you select it (or the note's Summary button) to see how it went. Another sprint starts the next one straight away.

Your sprints in stats

Every finished sprint is saved in the world you started it in. Once a world has one, its Home tab shows a Writing sprints card in the Stats section: sprints in the last 7 days, your best pace and how many you've done in all. The world's Stats screen, in the Writing view, has a Sprints card: how many sprints you've done (and how many goals you met), your total sprint time, your best pace in words a minute, and your latest five. See Writing stats.

Sprints are part of your library, so they're backed up and synced with everything else. Each sprint is saved on its own, so sprints from your phone and your computer never get in each other's way.