Good morning, cyberspace! We are entering the final days of Spring FicFrenzy, and while the first few weeks were rough (to say the least), we are ending the event strong with some actually consistent word counts!!! HUZZAH!

So first thing’s first, let’s talk about some changes in my goal word count.

SPRING FICFRENZY, 2026 – WEEK FOUR RECAP: ACTUAL WORDCOUNTS & A NEW WRITING SOFTWARE

At the start of FicFrenzy, my goal was to write 30,000 words by April 15th. If you haven’t been keeping up with my FicFrenzy posts, allow me to catch you up fairly quickly: THIS DID NOT HAPPEN. After two-ish weeks of barely writing anything at all, I realized there was no feasible way that my goal of 30k was going to happen anymore…so I changed it! My new FicFrenzy goal is to write 10,000 words by April 15th. This is much more manageable in my current state, and I have felt leagues better about writing now that I’m not stressing so much about word counts. The mere fact that I have written the amount that I have written so far–even if it is much less than 30k–is a wondrous thing in and of itself! I’m falling in love with the art of writing again, and I think that’s what has made this challenge a true success for me!

Of course, as of writing this, I’m still only at about 3k for the challenge. But I’m planning on getting some more words in after typing this up, so hopefully my final report for the week will reflect some good old fashioned writing progress…

Speaking of…let’s take a look at the stats, shall we?

WORD COUNTS & STATS

WORDS WRITTEN: 3,130
HIGHEST WORD DAY: March 15, 2026
WORDS REMAINING: 6,780

… Well, I certainly hope that shoots up by the 15th of April, but I suppose we shall see.

Ahem. Moving on…

TESTING OUT A NEW WRITING SOFTWARE – ELLIPSUS

When I find myself in a writing slump, I tend to gravitate towards new, shiny things to help kick me out of it. Usually, I write using the software Scrivener, and I swear by it. It’s a one time purchase (unless they majorly update it), and it truly has pretty much every single thing you could ever need or want in a writing software. It was designed by writers for writing, and the binder and index card outliners are so, so helpful when it comes to organizing my story.

I didn’t used to be a huge outliner, but as I’ve gotten more in-depth in learning about story creation, I’ve discovered that outlining is actually super helpful for me as a writer. I love a little bit of mystery when it comes to story creation, but actually knowing the dips and bends of the story structure helps me stay on track and keep the story from falling apart 65% of the way through.

That being said, while I love Scrivener with all of my heart, I recently discovered a free writing software that has a feature I couldn’t help but want to try out–laptop-phone cross compatibility.

I have been wanting to write more on my lunch breaks, but it’s not always feasible for me to haul my laptop to work every single day. Having an app that I can use on both my phone and my laptop would be so helpful. Scrivener does have a cross-compatibility feature for Mac users, but unfortunately for us Windows creatures, there is only an app “in the works” (and it has seemingly been “in the works” for years.)

Ellipsus, on the other hand, works on both mobile and PC! The downside to this is you need to have internet access in order to write. BUT. This is a very similar situation that Google Docs has. (And, thankfully, the library has internet. Cause it’s…you know…a library.)

I’m not sure if comparing Scrivener and Ellipsus is very fair, since Scrivener definitely has a lot more features than Ellipsus at this point in time. Ellipsus doesn’t have the corkboard or the outliner (tools I use quite often in Scrivener, especially when revising), but it does have collaboration features that Scrivener just can’t implement. Scrivener never was–and never should be–designed as a collaboration tool. It is a writing software made to do exactly that–help writers write. But sometimes, writing needs to step outside of the vacuum we often throw ourselves into. That’s part of the reason I love writing this blog. Despite how many or few people read it, it’s my own little way of keeping myself out of that void. Ellipsus helps cut that void apart by making its foundation the capability for collaboration between various writers.

As someone who doesn’t co-write very often, I don’t particularly see where this tool would help me, but I DO want to open my story up for beta reading once this draft is finished. Which means I can either send it as a PDF to my readers (and they will have to figure out how to write their notes down), or I can send it as a Google Doc for them to highlight and comment on (and then my book will be suspect to the prying eyes of the AI bots…)

I could go on and on about my take on AI in the creative field–and to be frank, I probably will in a future post–but if you are like me and you absolutely loathe the use of AI in the world of art and literature, then you will appreciate that Ellipsus is also anti-AI. So while Ellipsus gives you ease of access for sharing your work, you are 100% in control of who you are sharing it with…not what.

Now, I haven’t gone super in-depth with testing out Ellipsus yet, but it’s something that I want to try more of as I get back into a regular rhythm of writing. I think, while it might not take over for Scrivener in its entirety (I would need a really good outliner and scene synopsis feature for that!), it could be a really useful tool for me when it comes time to start sending this book out for beta reads, especially within my writing group. I could also see myself using this pretty heavily for any cowriting projects I may have in the future–though I don’t necessarily have any as of yet on the horizon. I’ve always wanted to collaborate on a video game project with my brother, though, so perhaps this is what we’ll use when I finally convince him to do that with me. (*hint hint*)

I think I’ll do a more thorough review of Ellipsus after a week or two of actually using it for daily writing, so stay tuned for that. But as of right now, these are my big thoughts:

• Currently, Scrivener is still winning out in the “functionality” category. Though it doesn’t have the collaboration tools, it does have a lot of other features (outliner, corkboard, index synopses, etc.), that I use heavily.
• Ellipsus has prettier themes. It makes the writing process feel more immersive. (You can technically get the same effect–and a lot more fine-tuning–in Scriv, but it’s harder and more of a hassle to change everything around.)
• Scrivener does NOT have cross-compatibility, and this is a HUGE issue for me right now when I want to be writing on my lunch breaks (without lugging my computer to work every day with me)
• Ellipsus has a built-in timer, which…honestly, it’s pretty awesome. Reminds me of the good NaNoWriMo days before they became an AI-slop focused organization that eventually died.

Overall, between Scrivener and Ellipsus, I would have to say that Scrivener is winning. BUT. I have yet to give Ellipsus a truly fair shake, so I will report my findings after a few weeks of focused writing with Ellipsus!

---

With Spring FicFrenzy coming to a close, I find myself looking back on the weeks behind us with a mixture of sadness (not hitting my wordcounts), and gratitude. I may have had to drop my wordcount…I may have failed to write for a couple weeks of the challenge. But slowly, surely, I am getting back to my love of writing. Of creation. Of making stories that matter. And when I look at the past few weeks in that light–at the love I am fostering for this story that sat cold and dusty on my hard-drive for years–I can’t help but be excited for the progress I have made with not just this story, but in my own heart as I continue to better myself as a writer.

Spring FicFrenzy was a success, my friends. Maybe not in the way that I wanted it to be, but in so many others. And, really, spring has only just begun… I know there are going to be so many more words written before the spring is out.

Just you wait and see.

TALK TO ME!

Did you participate in Spring FicFrenzy? Are you writing a story this spring? Have you fallen off the writing bandwagon and are slowly finding your way again? You are not alone, my friend. Let’s talk below. I’d love to connect and hear how you are doing on your writing journey!