Amazing Tool: Notion

[Deleted member 29081]

You guys should check this tool out. It makes it easy for me to datafy my work and keep it organized. There aren't really any ready-made templates for writing novels, but if you learn the program, you can make your own novel-outline template quite easily.

It's not 100% perfect for what I'm looking for, but out of all the products currently on the market, it ticks the most boxes.

Some key features:

• It's got a dark theme.
• Nested documents with text formatting.
• Pretty much all necessary features for writers in the free plan.
• Smooth desktop and mobile (iOS/Android) apps.
• The ability to write to-do lists for planning.

And the best part? I'm shilling it for free. They canceled their referral program a while back, so I'm pretty much just writing all this at the expense of my time.

Please. Give it a try. Tell me what you think.

 

[LotsChrono]

I've been using Notion for more than two years now. Originally, it was for studying, note taking, and managing projects and tests in my final year of high school and it worked wonders for me. Intuitive, well designed, and well organized with everything I could ask for when it came to schooling. Then when I graduated I realized. . ."Shit, I could use this for writing too." And I have. It's a great tool which has everything you could realistically need for planning and, if you like writing in it, writing too. I personally don't like creative writing in it, but you could still do that as well.

Basically, @deu6 is correct in every way.

 

[Typing...]

There is software out there that accomplishes the same thing except that it's designed for writers. Such as Campfire, Liquid Story Binder, One Stop For Writers, and to some extent Scrivener. Though it's true that any tool that's meant to help with planning is going to do that regardless of what you are actually planning.

No matter what is used, if it works it works. I never heard of Notion until now, if I didn't have other options I would give it a shot especially since it's free. Good find. Is it possible to share templates? If so you could make a package.

 

[IvyVeritas]

There is software out there that accomplishes the same thing except that it's designed for writers. Such as Campfire, Liquid Story Binder, One Stop For Writers, and to some extent Scrivener. Though it's true that any tool that's meant to help with planning is going to do that regardless of what you are actually planning.

No matter what is used, if it works it works. I never heard of Notion until now, if I didn't have other options I would give it a shot especially since it's free. Good find. Is it possible to share templates? If so you could make a package.

Does anyone know of a good review that compares the features and ease-of-use of the different options? I love Scrivener for the writing side of things, but not so much for notes (except for scene-specific notes, which Scrivener's interface makes very accessible). I still keep most of my other notes in a spreadsheet. I looked briefly at Campfire and Aeon Timeline, but they seemed like they had a steep learning curve, and I didn't have time to delve deeply into them. I haven't looked at Notion yet, or any of the other options you mentioned.

 

[Freesia.Cutepearl]

Does anyone know of a good review that compares the features and ease-of-use of the different options?

+1
I'd like to find and try out some stuff besides my current normal workflow of just Google Docs + Scribblehub editor with Grammarly. (I disabled it in docs because it lags way too much, I guess 119+ pages so far is a bit much for it.)

 

[Typing...]

Does anyone know of a good review that compares the features and ease-of-use of the different options? I love Scrivener for the writing side of things, but not so much for notes (except for scene-specific notes, which Scrivener's interface makes very accessible). I still keep most of my other notes in a spreadsheet. I looked briefly at Campfire and Aeon Timeline, but they seemed like they had a steep learning curve, and I didn't have time to delve deeply into them. I haven't looked at Notion yet, or any of the other options you mentioned.

+1
I'd like to find and try out some stuff besides my current normal workflow of just Google Docs + Scribblehub editor with Grammarly. (I disabled it in docs because it lags way too much, I guess 119+ pages so far is a bit much for it.)

I find campfire useful but it's too expensive for what it does. If you want it I would look for it in a sale. It's in essence a binder with ready made separators filled with cards that you can fill and rearrange at will. As for the learning curve it's not that difficult. If anything the only learning curve it does have is if you are unfamiliar with planning in general.
Planning is a skill that must be practiced like all things, software won't help you.

There is an alternative to grammarly that I use called Prowritingaid. I prefer it more to grammarly though I personally do not recommend writing with any grammar assistance on. I find it breaks my flow and disrupts the creative process. When writing I need to focus on the story and not if my words are proper.

Liquid Story Binder is old. It's from an era when people used the term Shareware. It's highly functional but it lacks modern quality of life features. The best benefit from this option is that it can run on a potato without issue.

Unfortunately I have never used One Stop For Writers so I can't say much about it.

 

[Freesia.Cutepearl]

Liquid Story Binder is old. It's from an era when people used the term Shareware. It's highly functional but it lacks modern quality of life features. The best benefit from this option is that it can run on a potato without issue.

The best benefit from this option is that it can run on a potato without issue.

it can run on a potato without issue.

Great! Time to pull out my 486 and get writing!

 

[Deleted member 29081]

+1
I'd like to find and try out some stuff besides my current normal workflow of just Google Docs + Scribblehub editor with Grammarly. (I disabled it in docs because it lags way too much, I guess 119+ pages so far is a bit much for it.)

Notion has an online version that works well with Grammarly Chrome Add-On.

You can build a database quite easily by making a Stories table and then a Chapters table and assigning a story to a particular chapter using a "relation" field. You then store the content of that chapter in that row. You can also add a "Summary" column to summarize the content of that particular chapter as well as a "Release Date" date column to tell yourself when you plan to release that chapter. And a single select "status" field to tell yourself whether the chapter is finished or not.

There are "views", which let you easily change how your data is represented. Remember how I said that there is the option to add a "Release Date" field. Well, you can modify the view of your table into a calendar that shows you intuitively when you plan to release the chapter.

All from one source. It's very modular (meaning, you change something once, and it changes everywhere).

Also, the interface has a dark theme. Did I mention that already?

 

[Deleted member 29081]

I find campfire useful but it's too expensive for what it does. If you want it I would look for it in a sale. It's in essence a binder with ready made separators filled with cards that you can fill and rearrange at will. As for the learning curve it's not that difficult. If anything the only learning curve it does have is if you are unfamiliar with planning in general.
Planning is a skill that must be practiced like all things, software won't help you.

There is an alternative to grammarly that I use called Prowritingaid. I prefer it more to grammarly though I personally do not recommend writing with any grammar assistance on. I find it breaks my flow and disrupts the creative process. When writing I need to focus on the story and not if my words are proper.

Liquid Story Binder is old. It's from an era when people used the term Shareware. It's highly functional but it lacks modern quality of life features. The best benefit from this option is that it can run on a potato without issue.

Unfortunately I have never used One Stop For Writers so I can't say much about it.

I like using Grammarly to catch spelling errors and uncomfortable sentences. I tend to leave some errors in though if I feel like they make sense or if they're coming from a character's dialogue.

 

[Freesia.Cutepearl]

Also, the interface has a dark theme. Did I mention that already?

The only feature
that really matters!

Thanks