Introduction:

Welcome fellow writer to my first Notion template! Let me introduce you to the ultimate writer's workspace with a bit of backstory.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... there was a huge lack of specialized tools for writers. Having tried everything, from classics like InDesign to more creative products like Scrivener, I always felt like something was missing. Yes, I could design margins, pagination and work with thousands of different fonts, but I ended up asking myself - What is the most important part in the process of writing a book? -

You guessed right, it's Writing The Book.

That's how I came out with this template. I needed a space where I could collect and refine all concepts and ideas flowing through my mind without switching between tons of mindmapping and writing programs. Even better, a space where I could access everything I needed, even sub-plots and progress tracking, without ever leaving my writing canvas.

In the end, Notion was the answer and despite its quirks, gave me the opportunity to create something special. I hope that you'll enjoy The Modern Writer experience as much as I do!

How does it work?

Using this template should be straight-forward, expecially for long time Notion users, but a brief overview of each section might help maintaining a solid structure in the long run and assist in case you want to implement your own customizations. So, without further ado, there we go:

The Progress Section

The top of the page will display all the informations you need about progress and consistency. It's a good way to quickly get back on track whenever you start a new writing session!

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The left Timeline has two views:

• The Chapter Progress will list all chapters and display progress bars based on word count over word count goals (min and max). You can edit these values by accessing the Timeline or by setting them manually in each page. The star based quality rating ****value is also displayed to keep track of how close the chapter is to what's considered its final form.
• The Timeline view displays all events occurring in the timeline, sorted by date and type. You can drag pages through the timeline to change the start date and end date values or edit them manually in each page.

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The right Timeline has two views:

• The Sub-plots view will list all the sub-plots and display wheter they've been placed in the timeline (✔ or ❌) and the star based quality rating value to keep track of how close the sub plot is to what's considered its final implementation.
• The Drafts view allows quick access to drafts. If you're not satisfied with your new chapter, you can easily drag it inside this list to automatically convert it to a draft.
• Note

The Canvas

The central column under the Progress Section is your writing canvas. Here, you can write the actual content of the book following the pre-built structure (Acts → Chapters → Scenes, with Synopsis toggles at the bottom of each scene) or your own custom structure.

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Each chapter in the canvas column is syncronized with a dedicated page inside the Timeline database. This way, you can write your chapters from the canvas if you want all sections availiable at a glance, or open each individual chapter as a page to isolate yourself in a hyper-focused environment. You will also find special buttons to quickly create new Chapters and Scenes. Please be sure to follow the instructions inside the newly created pages in order to keep them syncronized inside the canvas.

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