13 Ways You Can Use Notion for Writing and Organizing Your Story (+Free Templates!)
Using Notion for writing offers a perfect blend of utility and flexibility. Imagine having a dedicated personal assistant to keep your story organized, and connected, and to provide the motivation you need to see it through to the end.
From brainstorming brilliant ideas, and mapping out plot structures, to developing captivating characters and immersive worlds, Notion is your all-in-one workspace to organize and visualize your work effortlessly. It’s like having a superpower that saves you time and effort.
Track which scenes are in different stages of the writing process
To effectively keep track of and manage the progress of your book, you might want to consider using a Kanban board view with a Notion database tailored specifically for your scenes. This intuitive system allows you to seamlessly move each scene through different stages of the writing process, ensuring that you stay organized and have a clear overview of your writing project’s development from beginning to end.
Quickly capture ideas when they come to you
Easily capture new ideas with a simple click of a Notion template button, and effortlessly organize them later. Notion template buttons are an awesome way to create new story elements that are already categorized based on your setup. Use the Notion mobile app on your phone for on the go access!
Create blank templates for character profiles and other story elements
Looking to create standardized character sheets for each of your characters? Notion’s template capabilities have got you covered! Create your own character profile template, or borrow StoryFlint’s Character Profile worksheet, and load it into a character database.
With a blank template that automatically fills in every time you create a new character in your character’s database, you’ll have consistency across the board. That means everything stays on point! 😉 You can also do this over other elements of your story such as locations, scenes, chapters, and events.
Keep your themes, motifs, and symbolism organized
Create themes, motifs, and symbolism and link them together using relations in a Notion database. By organizing a tree structure of themes, motifs, and symbols throughout your story, you can easily keep track of them and ensure they all serve a purpose. Organizing and clarifying these elements adds depth to your story and makes it more engaging.
Organize your story outline in a database
Gain a comprehensive overview of your project’s plot outline by utilizing a dedicated scenes database in Notion. With this functionality, you have the flexibility to create distinct views of your scenes database and further categorize them by books, chapters, and plot lines. This allows for a more organized and detailed breakdown of your project’s structure.
Create a world building bible
With Notion, you can create your world building bible. It’s like having a secret weapon to organize all the juicy details of your fictional world. Say goodbye to losing track of your notes because Notion’s got your back. Build your world’s bible using databases to connect your characters, locations, settings, research, and so much more. It’s truly the ultimate tool to keep your fictional world connected and up-to-date.
Connect all elements of your story using a details database
When it comes to storytelling, the details are like the carefully crafted notes that weave through every element of your story. They bring to life the vivid descriptions of locations, the depth of characters, the captivating scenes, and the pivotal events.
By organizing and connecting these details in a comprehensive database, you can effortlessly refer back to them and maintain consistency, even if you make changes along the way.
Create a historical timeline for your fictional world with databases
You can keep track of every individual event in your fictional world, whether the event takes place in the past or occurs during the plot of your story by creating a historical timeline database in Notion. By creating this, you can also incorporate custom historical eras and months if your fictional world doesn’t use the Gregorian calendar of our world.
Read this article to learn more about creating a history timeline in Notion.
Keep track of character appearances and locations for each scene
If you want to keep track of which characters appear in which scenes and where each scene is located, you can create separate databases for characters, locations, and scenes. Then, you can connect your character and location databases to your scenes database using a relation property. This way, you’ll have a better understanding of the connections between characters, scenes, and locations.
Build characters using archetypes and Enneagrams
You can create a database of character archetypes that you can use repeatedly when building different characters. This allows you to store information and characteristics of these archetypes neatly in the database. By connecting this archetype database to your character list database, you can easily incorporate the stored archetype information into each corresponding character.
You can also apply this approach by creating an Enneagrams database and connecting it to your character list database.
Organize your scenes in a chapter x plot line matrix
Connect your scenes database to a plot line database and a chapter database to create an interactive Kanban board, a powerful tool to effectively organize and manage your scenes. By utilizing a Chapter x Plot Line Matrix for your book in Notion, you can effortlessly reorganize scenes with ease and convenience through a simple drag-and-drop interface.
Set a work schedule to accomplish your writing goals with a calendar or timeline
To stay on track with your book’s chapters, set designated times using a calendar or timeline view of your chapters database. This process will help you stay productive and give you a clear sense of progress within each project’s books, chapters, and scenes.
Organize your research notes for your fictional world
To keep all your research for your story organized, create a research library database within your story’s workspace. By connecting it to different story elements, you can easily refer back to your research notes as you build your fictional world. This ensures that all your research is in one place and easily accessible, making the storytelling process smoother and more efficient.
Bonus: Use Notion templates to expedite your writing process
Notion is an incredibly powerful and versatile tool, but if you’re new to it, you might find the learning curve a bit steep.
Don’t worry; you’re not alone in this! One effective way to ease into using Notion is by exploring free Notion templates for writers. Templates can be used as a starting point to build your own workspace, saving time and effort. You can find various templates for outlining, world building, character creation, and more.
Build, organize, and connect all your story notes together
Crafting a story from scratch can be quite the task. If you’re a writer who leans toward planning before you write, you might encounter some common challenges like:
😱 Worrying about plot holes or falling into retcons.
🤯 Juggling multiple documents and scattered notes across various apps.
😳 Feeling overwhelmed by an overflow of story ideas.
🫠 Dealing with motivation struggles due to a lack of structure.
❇️ The solution
Introducing the Storyteller OS by StoryFlint, a game-changer for writers! This all-in-one system in the app Notion streamlines your storytelling process. Bid farewell to scattered notes and say hello to a unified haven for characters, setting, and plot. Boost productivity, reach your writing goals, and stay motivated with Storyteller OS.
Experience storytelling enlightenment with the Storyteller OS! View Live Demo of the Storyteller OS.
Conclusion
With Notion, you have the freedom to personalize your workspace to match your unique style. It’s your own creative sanctuary where you can let your imagination run wild. So go ahead, unleash your writing prowess with Notion and experience a whole new level of efficiency and productivity.
Check out StoryFlint’s Storyteller OS — the ultimate Notion for writing workspace with all the capabilities mentioned above. Or check out more of StoryFlint’s best Notion templates for writers to start out.
When you’re ready, here are 5 things to help you level up your storytelling game:
Learn How to Build a Story Organization System — Read this helpful article to get essential steps and tips to focus better, increase productivity, and improve your narrative.
Learn How to Become a More Productive Writer — Read this helpful article to boost your writing productivity with effective strategies and practical steps.
Learn How Notion Can Help You Build Your Story — Discover 13 ways you can harness the full potential of Notion as your go-to tool for organizing and streamlining your storytelling.
Free Notion Templates for Writers — Explore these free StoryFlint-made templates to start you on your story-organizational journey with Notion.
Storyteller OS | Notion Workspace — Build, connect, and organize every detail of all your stories. The Storyteller OS is the ultimate Notion system for writers to organize their story notes, gain clarity, and boost their writing productivity.
Originally published on storyflint.com
