Sprints
A word sprint is a short, timed burst of writing. DragonWriter supports both solo sprints, which you run on your own, and group sprints, which several writers run together against the clock. This page covers both — and sprinting has a way of quietly earning you the odd hidden badge along the way.
Solo sprints
A solo sprint is a personal timer. You set a length, write until it ends, and DragonWriter records how much you wrote.
Starting a sprint
You start a solo sprint from within the scene editor, so you can write straight into your manuscript while the clock runs. When the sprint finishes, the words you added during it are counted and saved to your sprint history. You can optionally set a target — a number of minutes, a number of words, or both — and your history will mark whether you met it.
During a sprint
Fill in Target minutes and Target words if you want them, then select Start sprint. While it runs, the timer counts down if you set a time (or counts up if you didn't), next to your word count so far and progress bars for any targets. The sprint keeps running as you move between scenes.
- Pause freezes the timer, and Resume picks up where you left off.
- Finish ends the sprint and saves it, telling you how many words you wrote and how long it took.
A timed sprint finishes by itself when the time runs out. Reaching your word target doesn't end the sprint — you're told you've hit it, and you can keep going or finish when you're ready.
Your sprint history
The Sprints tab on the Writing goals screen lists your completed sprints, newest first, with the date, duration, words written, and any targets (with a tick or cross for whether you met them). A summary line at the top totals your sprint count, words, and minutes across all of them.
Group sprints
A group sprint is a shared timer that others can join. Everyone writes during the same window, and results are ranked at the end.
Creating and joining
You create and join group sprints from the group-sprint controls in the scene editor. When you create one, you choose how many minutes until it starts and how long it runs. Anyone can join a sprint that has not started yet, or leave again before it begins. A separate list view shows sprints that are still open to join.
The sprint timer
Once you have joined, a small floating timer follows you around the editor. Before the start it counts down to the start and shows how many writers have joined. While the sprint runs, it shows the time left and your own word count alongside how many people are racing. When there are leaders to show, Show leaders lists the top three writers and their word counts (and Hide leaders tucks them away again). At the end the timer shows your final count and your place, opens the leaders list, and can then be dismissed with its × button.
Discord announcements
If your community has connected Discord, a new group sprint is announced in the sprints channel with a Join button, and members can also join with a /sprint command. When the sprint ends, its top three finishers are posted back to the same channel. A scheduled background job finalizes each sprint after its window closes, ranking participants and recording everyone's results — so a sprint is scored even if no one is watching the screen at the exact moment it ends.
Sprint badges
Sprinting is one of the surer ways to trip over a hidden badge — whether you race solo, host for others, or write at unsociable hours. Like all the special badges, they stay hidden until you earn them, so think of them as a bonus for showing up rather than a checklist.