NaNoWriMo Notion Template

Note: This template was designed specifically for NaNoWriMo. If you are looking for a more general template to help you organize and draft your novel, check out my Novel Writing Template for Notion.

As a NaNo veteran, I really wanted to create a template that made the drafting process as simple as possible, and this was the result – a Notion template designed to help you track and organize your NaNoWriMo project with a 30-day plot template to help guide you through your novel, pages to house and organize all of your notes, word count tracking, and milestones and rewards to incentivize your writing.

It’s always easy to get bogged down with features and widgets in Notion, and it was important to me that this template be functional first and foremost, which means it had to be as clean and simple as possible without compromising on some of the more important features. That being said, there are plenty of pages and databases here to help you organize your writing before and during November.

This template includes:

1. The 30-day NaNoWriMo plot beat database is the primary database of this template, and as its name suggests, it includes a different plot hook for each day so you’ll always know the next part of the story to write, whether you decide to outline ahead of time or write by the seat of your pants. These plot beats loosely follow the three-act structure and the Save the Cat beats, but you can move them around and adjust as you see fit. Whether you decide to use them to write a scene or an entire chapter is up to you. You can also keep track of your day-to-day word count, and the database will automatically calculate how many words you have left to reach your daily goal. A progress bar will also fill up slowly as you add to your word count. And finally, to help provide an overview of your story, there is a place for you to make note of the location where the scene or chapter takes place as well as track all of the characters that make an appearance.
2. Each page of the 30-Day Plot Beat database includes a daily page for each day of the event so you will have one place with which to access everything you need. Each page includes a note on what that particular plot beat includes, a synced menu so you can easily access your story notes, a place to outline each scene or chapter, word sprint tracking, a scene checklist, and a place for any additional notes you want to make
3. A synopsis page for writing an overall synopsis for the project. If you like to add layers (like with the Snowflake method) this might be a good place to start outlining. Otherwise, you can use it to help condense the major plot beats of your story later on.
4. An outline page for you to write a detailed, beat-by-beat story outline that follows the 30-day structure of the main database.
5. A character bank database that allows you to store all of your notes on the characters, all displayed in a gallery so you can include pictures and see the most important details at a glance. A simple character sheet template has also been included.
6. A world notes database that allows you to organize all of your world-building notes into categories. A setting template has also been included.
7. An idea vault for storing ideas and plot bunnies you don’t want to lose, but also don’t want distracting you from your writing
8. A research page for storing any research you do for your story
9. A selection of pages to help keep you motivated during the event, including a page to remind you why you wanted to write this story in the first place, as well as a place for storing or linking mood boards and/or writing playlists.
10. There is a couple of sections near the end for tracking milestones and rewards to help give you that extra incentive.
11. A basic NaNoWriMo prep checklist to help you get everything ready before the event starts. Feel free to add more as you find necessary.

Note: The story notes menu is a synced block, so you will be able to access it from other pages. Anything you add, remove or change will be reflected in all instances of the menu. Feel free to add or remove any pages you don’t need. You can click and drag the page outside of the red outline to remove it from the synced part of the menu.

While the daily pages are all numbered and assigned a plot beat, these are purely suggestions – feel free to move pieces around to better suit the story you want to write. The number icons on the individual daily pages have been included in a zip file in the credits toggle so you can change them if necessary.

You can use this template just for outlining and tracking your writing in November, but space has been left on each daily page for you to draft in Notion itself, which you might find especially useful if you like to keep everything in one place. If you prefer to draft elsewhere, feel free to use it for backing up your writing!

Support NaNoWriMo!

NaNoWriMo is a really exciting event for writers, but is also, at its heart, a nonprofit organization that supports writing fluency and education, so if you’re a fellow Wrimo and you’re in a position where you’re able to donate, I highly encourage you to do so!

Thank You for Checking Out my Templates!

If you have any suggestions for things to add or ways to improve the template, you can leave a comment below or drop me a message through my contact page!

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