Use Case

The writing tracker for screenwriters.

Screenwriting runs on pages, not words, and on contest deadlines, fellowship cycles, and pitch dates that nobody cares about until they hit. A tracker built for prose novelists does not always fit. This is what a screenwriting workflow actually needs from a tracker, and how Authorlytica fits next to Final Draft, WriterDuet, and the rest of the screenwriting stack.

Published May 12, 2026

Screenwriters track differently

Novelists count words. Screenwriters count pages. The industry convention, dating back to Hollywood typewriter days, is that one properly formatted page equals roughly one minute of screen time. A feature script lands at 90 to 120 pages because a feature film lands at 90 to 120 minutes. A half-hour TV pilot is 30 to 35 pages. An hour pilot is 55 to 65 pages.

That convention shapes everything. Daily targets are in pages. Studio submission limits are in pages. Coverage reports start with the page count. The script that runs 140 pages instead of 110 is not "longer", it is unsellable without a cut.

The math underneath is still words. A standard formatted page in Courier 12 with proper margins is roughly 200 words. So a screenwriter writing three pages a day is writing about 600 words a day, by novelist measurement. Trackers that log word counts work fine for screenwriters if the screenwriter knows the conversion. Most do.

What general writing trackers get wrong about screenwriting

Most trackers are built around novel-shaped projects: one big word target (80,000), one long horizon (six to twelve months), one finish line. Screenwriting does not look like that.

  • Multiple scripts in flight. Working screenwriters often have a feature draft, a pilot in revision, and an outline for the next pitch all at the same time. A single-project tracker forces a choice.
  • Short, dense projects. A pilot draft is 6,000 to 13,000 words. A feature is 18,000 to 24,000. Compared to novels, the projects are shorter, so the calendar is tighter and the pace projection matters more.
  • Hard deadlines that move fast. The Nicholl Fellowship, Austin Film Festival, the Black List, agency reads, fellowship cycles. Most have a date months out and no extension policy. A pace line that updates after every session catches schedule slip before it becomes a problem.
  • Revision dominates. A novel is mostly drafted once and revised. A screenplay is drafted quickly and revised heavily. Trackers that only count "new words" miss most of the actual screenwriting work.

What screenwriters need from a tracker

Multi-script tracking without overhead

The reality of working screenwriters is parallel development. Authorlytica supports three active projects on the free plan and ten on Premium. Each project gets its own goal, deadline, pace projection, and chart. You can run a feature draft, a pilot rewrite, and an outline in parallel and see at a glance which one is actually getting fed.

Page-based goals via word counts

Most screenwriters who track in Authorlytica use the built-in word counts in Final Draft, WriterDuet, or Highland 2 and log the daily delta. The conversion is roughly 200 words per page, so a 600-word session is about 3 pages, a 2,000-word session is about 10 pages. The pace projection then converts naturally to "weeks until first draft" without any extra setup.

A streak that respects the writers room

TV staffing weeks, deadline crunches, and travel days all break a strict daily streak. Authorlytica records both your current streak and your longest run, so a missed Tuesday during a heavy week does not erase six months of evidence. The screenwriters who finish features over time are the ones who keep showing up across years, not the ones with a perfect 365-day chain.

Revision sessions, not just drafting

Logging works for any kind of session. Some screenwriters log "revision" sessions with a small word delta and a note. Others run a separate revision project alongside the original draft. Either approach captures revision work in the streak and the chart, which is the point.

Time-of-day analytics

Most working screenwriters write between other things: day jobs, parenting, freelance gigs, day-player work on other people's projects. After a few weeks of logging, Authorlytica's time-of-day data shows when you actually produce, which is rarely when you think you do. Move the hardest scenes to those windows.

Realistic page targets by format

Standard delivery lengths in 2026:

  • Feature screenplay: 90 to 120 pages. Comedy and animation often land 90 to 100; drama and prestige often 100 to 120.
  • TV pilot, half-hour: 30 to 35 pages. Network multi-cam often shorter; streaming and cable often closer to 35.
  • TV pilot, hour: 55 to 65 pages. Network procedurals 50 to 55; cable and streaming dramas often 55 to 65.
  • TV episode (subsequent): Same range as the pilot for that show. Pilot length sets the standard.
  • Short film: 1 to 30 pages. Festival shorts usually 5 to 15.
  • Web/digital pilot: 5 to 15 pages, format-dependent.

At a sustainable 2 to 3 pages per day, five days a week, a feature first draft finishes in 9 to 14 weeks. A pilot first draft finishes in 2 to 3 weeks. The daily word goal calculator works for pages too: enter the page total times 200, your actual output, and the deadline.

Workflow with Final Draft, WriterDuet, and Highland 2

Authorlytica does not replace any of these tools. It sits on top of whichever one you draft in.

  • Final Draft: Industry-standard formatting, scene cards, beat boards. Word and page count visible in the Tools menu and at the bottom of the window. After a session, copy the daily delta into Authorlytica. See the dedicated Authorlytica vs Final Draft comparison.
  • WriterDuet: Cloud-collaborative screenwriting with real-time co-writing and revision tracking. Word count visible in the document statistics. Log the session in Authorlytica afterward.
  • Highland 2: Fountain-based markdown screenwriter, popular with TV writers and Mac users. Word count in the document panel. Log the session in Authorlytica.
  • Fade In, Trelby, KIT Scenarist, Causality:Same pattern. The drafting tool stays where it is. The tracker is a layer on top.

Contest and fellowship deadlines

Most working screenwriters orient their year around a handful of fixed deadlines:

  • Nicholl Fellowship: May 1 entry deadline (early-bird earlier in spring).
  • Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition: Early bird in April, regular through May, late through June.
  • The Black List Lab and reads: Rolling, but specific lab application windows.
  • WGA staffing season: Roughly November through May for the next season.
  • Sundance Episodic Lab: Spring deadline.
  • Various network and streamer fellowships: ABC/Disney, NBC, HBO, Netflix all run their own cycles, mostly in spring.

For each, set the script as an Authorlytica project, set the page goal (converted to word count), set the deadline, and the dashboard shows the daily pace required, the daily pace you are hitting, and the projected finish date based on real output. If the projection slips two weeks past the deadline in March, you can do something about it. If you find out April 25th, you cannot.

For TV writers, freelancers, and indie filmmakers

TV writers in or out of staff jobs:Track your spec scripts and original pilots as separate projects. The streak survives writers-room weeks because the longest-run figure is preserved alongside the current run. When you go between jobs and need to ship the next spec, the data on your real productive hours is already there.

Freelance feature writers: Output is income. The pace projection converts your real daily output into a realistic delivery date for whoever is waiting on the script. That keeps relationships intact when life intervenes, because you can adjust the conversation in week three instead of week ten.

Indie filmmakers and writer-directors:Tracking the script alongside any prep work the project demands keeps the writing from getting buried under the production logistics. The script does not exist if you do not write it; the rest follows from the script existing.

Privacy

Project names and notes in Authorlytica are private to your account. They are not public, not shared anywhere on the site, and not visible to other users unless you explicitly opt into social features. You can name a project "Untitled Limited Series Pitch" or "Project A" or "the cursed one." That matters if you are working on something under NDA or development.

Daily targets that screenwriters actually sustain

  • Hobbyist or weekend writer: 1 page a day, 3 to 5 days a week. Finishes a feature in roughly 5 to 8 months.
  • Day job, evenings: 2 to 3 pages a day, 4 to 5 days a week. Finishes a feature in 9 to 14 weeks.
  • Full-time freelance feature writer: 3 to 5 pages a day, 5 days a week. Finishes a feature in 5 to 8 weeks.
  • TV staffer (off-season): Variable. Most stack pilot drafting into 2-week sprints at 4 to 6 pages a day, then take a break.
  • Contest deadline crunch: 5 to 10 pages a day for two to three weeks. Not sustainable past that, but useful for hitting a hard date.

The right number is the one you can hit consistently without burning out before the script is done. A tracker shows you the difference between what you planned and what you sustained, then you adjust.

What you get on the free plan

Daily session logging, streaks, pace projections, charts, mood tracking, three active projects, a year of history. Free forever, no card. Premium ($6/month or $59/year) adds Authorlytica Rewind, the full Writer Profile Radar, ten active projects, and the complete achievement set.

For most screenwriters running one feature plus a pilot and a side project, the free plan covers it. Premium fits writers running multiple parallel projects or who want the year-end report with stats they can post in a "writing year wrapped" update.

Related reading:

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