worldbuilding
for fantasy writers
A story has many elements. Culture. Creatures. Magic. The worldbuilding of every detail and facet, from the political maneuverings of kings to the pebbles between a traveler's shoes and the scent of earth after rain.
My blog is full of posts focused on walking you through each step of the worldbuilding process, from building your landscape and the crust of your planet, to crafting a unique magic system, creating intriguing and rich cultures, developing engaging and powerful characters, and plotting the arc of your story to bring everything together. But it isn't just fun worldbuilidng stuff, either - I also have posts on writing craft and a series on different aspects of publishing (traditional and self-publishing), as well as tons of content in my various Notion templates.
notion templates & icon sets
for fantasy writers
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Notion is an amazing tool and it's something I've incorporated into every aspect of my life and business. I can't start any sort of new project without first making a Notion page for it, I swear. Because of that I have lots of ideas for templates for science fiction and fantasy authors (or really authors of any type of stories ... but all of my templates will definitely aesthetically fit speculative fiction themes.)
You can find my latest notion template featured down below! To see a selection of all my paid templates, follow the links to my shops. I also have fun freebies of both templates and icon sets posted on my ko-fi, which is also the best way to directly support me and all of my ideas for future templates and icon sets. ^^
You can find my latest notion template featured down below! To see a selection of all my paid templates, follow the links to my shops. I also have fun freebies of both templates and icon sets posted on my ko-fi, which is also the best way to directly support me and all of my ideas for future templates and icon sets. ^^
What is Notion?
Notion is a software that lets your organize any type of information in various ways. It's basically like building yourself a personal website that's as easy to update as a notes app. You can use it as a database of worldbuilding info, a place to layout your author dashboard, track submissions and schedule for publication, or even write a full novel. (Or, if you're like me, for all of the above!)
How do I use Notion?
Notion is free for personal use so all you have to do is create a free account to get started. You’ll start with a few templates on your dashboard and you can poke around and get a feel for how the system works. If you’re totally overwhelmed by all of the features, here’s a few links you can use to get more comfortable with what Notion can do: Once you’re ready to search out some other templates, it’s even more simple. All you do is find the template you’d like and click on the provided link (if it’s a paid template, you will usually receive this link after checkout). That link will open the template in another window, but you are only viewing the template and can’t change anything yet. To copy the template to your own dashboard, you go to the top right and click “Duplicate” (it may look like an icon of two overlapping boxes).
And you are ready to go! Most templates come with instructions from the creator on how to use the template. For instance, my template starts out with detailed instructions showing you how to navigate the template and further links to learning other features of Notion.
And you are ready to go! Most templates come with instructions from the creator on how to use the template. For instance, my template starts out with detailed instructions showing you how to navigate the template and further links to learning other features of Notion.
What if I've never used Notion before?
If you're unfamiliar with Notion, no worries! I've included detailed instructions on how to use the template and get started building your system as well as links to resources for learning Notion. But, if you have no desire to learn (which is fair) I also have a selection of downloadable PDF Workbooks (Magic System Workbook and Character Creation Workbook) in my Etsy shop!
Do Notion templates cost money?
Some do! Many templates are quite time consuming to build and require a lot of thought and effort to set up, so creators charge a price for other people to copy their template and customize for their own use. For instance, my Ultimate Magic System Template took me a good few months to build and was the culmination of even more research and effort writing the content for the guided steps. So I choose a price that I felt was fair for the work I put into it and the value it will bring, finally settling on $16.50 for lifetime unlimited access to the template.
But over on my Etsy shop I run promos periodically so you can check in to get a discount every so often. I'll also run giveaways on my Instagram every once in a while as well!
But over on my Etsy shop I run promos periodically so you can check in to get a discount every so often. I'll also run giveaways on my Instagram every once in a while as well!
Are there any free templates?
Yes! There are tons of free templates for writers available as well! Here’s a couple of great resources below for getting started finding free templates and notion resources for writers:
- My own collection of free templates (and a free writing icon set!)
- A collection of writer templates by author Rebecca Mix (these are actually the very first templates I found and started using when I first discovered Notion!)
- Notion marketplace has an extensive collection of all types of templates and you can filter to only see free ones
- Here's a blog post showing a collection of free templates for writers
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This Notion template is designed to walk you through the process of creating your magic system, from choosing the types of powers, to figuring out how your magic is cast, the source of your magic, and how it will affect and interact with your culture, worldbuilding, and story as a whole. Each step includes an explanation, questions to help get you thinking, examples to give you ideas, space and prompts to brainstorm your thoughts, and lists of potential answers to the questions posed.
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notion icon collections
You may have seen artists create cute themed desktop sets (like immabunnishop or BoraPandaShop over on Etsy). These sets let you change your files and folders on your computer into custom icons matching a desktop background. But did you know you can also use these icons on Notion? Wherever you can upload an image or emoji on Notion you can use a custom icon to make your Notion pages even more aesthetic (which is at least equally as important as functional). To that end, I'm creating themed sets for every type of writing genre I can think of. Find my collection so far down below, and feel free to give a shout out on any of my socials if you have a specific genre you'd like to see next!
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etsy shop
Check my Etsy shop to find fun promotions and bundle deals for all my paid templates and icon sets. (This is also where you can find the original PDF Worldbuilding Workbooks for those who don't use Notion.)
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gumroad shop
Check out my Gumroad shop for access to all of my Notion templates and icon sets. This is also where I host my fun collection of freebie templates (My Writer Dashboard) and my freebie writing icon set.
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ko-fi shop
My ko-fi shop has all the same freebies as Gumroad plus extra content in the form of blog posts, updates, and sneak peaks about future templates and icon sets. This is also the best way to directly support me and all of my future projects!
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