Goals & targets

Calliope separates two different questions writers ask: “can I finish by then?” and “how big is each part meant to be?” They’re the goal and the target, and they behave differently on purpose.

The book goal

A goal is a word count with a deadline — say, 70,000 words by the 1st of August. You set it on the book, and you also tell Calliope how many days a week you actually write, so pace is measured against writing days, not idle weekends.

With a goal set, the structure header shows you where you stand:

• current words against the target, as a count and a percentage;
• days remaining until the deadline;
• the words per writing day you’d need to finish on time;
• your recent actual pace (the average day-over-day change across the last week);
• an honest verdict — ahead, on track, or behind.

A goal is optional. No goal is a perfectly valid state; clear it whenever you like.

Part targets

A target is a plain volume estimate on a part — this part should be about 5,000 words — with no deadline attached. Set, edit, or clear it right on the part header. Unset, it shows a quiet + target; set, it reads / 5,000 target beside the part’s word count, with a percentage as the part fills.

The book’s planned volume line sums every part’s target, so you can see the shape of the whole book — how big you’ve planned it to be, and how full each part is — independent of any deadline. (Targets live on parts, not individual chapters.)

Today’s words

As you write, the editor’s top bar shows the chapter’s word count and, beside it, +N today — the number of words you’ve added across the whole book since your local midnight. It ticks up live as you type.

A few honest details:

• It’s book-wide, not per-chapter — move words between chapters and your day’s total reflects real progress, not shuffling.
• It’s measured from where you ended yesterday. Leave the editor open across midnight and it re-baselines, so the new day starts at +0.
• The display never goes below +0 on a day you net-deleted — but the real numbers are kept, for when charts arrive.

It’s a small thing that does a specific job: on a slow day, it’s still proof you showed up.