Notion for Writing: In-Depth Tutorial, Tips & Templates

Looking to explore how to use Notion for writing? You're in the "write" place!

I'm Mel, a creative and professional writer with 20+ years of experience and 2 degrees under my belt. I'm also a Notion consultant, power user, and template designer. I'll guide you through how to use Notion for your creative and professional writing projects, plus share some tips, resources, and freebies to get you started! Oh, and you'll also see some sneak peeks of my own workspace along the way.

We'll cover:

- What is Notion?

- How I use Notion as an experienced creative writer and freelancer

What is Notion and what makes it good for writing?

Many writers, myself included, have project materials scattered across a dozen places, from physical notebooks and research items to digital photos and resources. This makes it hard to find the things you need quickly — and it also means your materials don't "talk" to each other.

To help solve these problems, Notion combines the functionality of word processors, calendars, spreadsheets, to-do apps, and more into an all-inclusive workspace. Its clean, minimalist style makes it the perfect companion for writers looking to get ultra organized.

The best part? Notion is kinda like Lego.

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Notion is especially useful for all the behind-the-scenes work of professional and creative writing, like plotting your stories, managing your to-dos for big projects, and tracking things like income and client work.

A few features that make Notion especially well suited for writing:

• Databases: Notion's databases are super powerful, letting you lay out your materials in table, board, timeline, and calendar views. You can display databases anywhere in Notion, and you can connect them to other databases to keep everything handy.
• Filters, Sorts, and Groups: Show, hide, sort, and organize your stuff with Notion's database customization options.
• Automations: You can do all sorts of things with Notion's built-in automations, from creating and opening new pages to sending emails!
• Buttons: Set up a button to add a new writing session, client invoice, or writing assignment — they're totally customizable.
• Formulas & Charts: See your writing stats with Charts (1 per free account), or set up a Formula for a free DIY version!

This list is truly just scratching the surface of what Notion can do. You'll see these features in action throughout the rest of the post. For now, let me take you inside my workspace to show you how I actually use Notion for writing.

How I use Notion as an experienced creative writer and freelancer

I use Notion to plan my creative writing projects, as well as my freelance work for clients and my own businesses. Writing is my day job, my side hustle, and my hobby, so I have a ton of plates spinning at any given time.

For creative writing projects, I use Notion to:

• track word counts and time spent working on creative writing projects
• plot my novel, including outlining chapters and scenes
• store research items and notes
• develop characters
• keep to-do lists

For professional and freelance writing, I use Notion to:

• track freelance income and expenses
• analyze my income growth through Notion's charts
• rough-draft blog posts, email newsletters, and other client deliverables
• manage large projects, like website redesigns and campaigns
• plan, create, and organize content (this post was written in Notion!)

- snapshots of project dashboards

Things to know before switching to Notion

I strongly recommend that you use another word processor tool (like Microsoft Word or Scrivener) to store any drafts of your creative work.

For me, Notion is fine for drafting blog and social content, but I don't quite trust it with my novel and short story drafts. Let's talk about why.

Steep learning curve

With so many Notion writing templates and tutorials out there, it can be easy for new users to get overwhelmed. Notion also has a ton of bells and whistles to play around with. It's always a good idea to start building something you actually need, rather than something you could eventually use, or something that just looks pretty.

It's not always the best option for formatting

Notion has a few formatting limitations that might well be dealbreakers for many writers:

• No center-align or right-align option for text
• No H4, H5, or H6 formatting options
• No option to set a custom text or background color
• No ability to change the font, margins, and other settings

No offline mode (yet)

This is a big sticking point with many Notion users, for good reason. But the good news is, offline mode is on the horizon! On March 17, 2025, Notion co-founder Ivan Zhao shared a post on his X account saying the team is testing offline mode.

Offline mode hasn't been an issue for me since I have near-constant internet access, but it may be a dealbreaker for some writers who need to access their stuff offline.

Ideas for your Notion writing templates and dashboards

All-in-one writing dashboard

Template CTA

Writing project and word count tracker template

Research dashboard

Creative self-care

If you're storing all the practical stuff in Notion, why not keep some creative-self care materials on hand too?

Battling self-doubt and imposter syndrome? Keep a list of affirmations that get you fired up and help you bounce back from those self-deprecating beliefs.

Feeling uninspired? Draft up your favorite creative exercises and choose one to get your creative juices brewing.

Struggling to make sense of all the noise in your head? Map out your creative dreams and goals in Notion.

Blog and social media content

If you're writing digital content of any kind, Notion is a great place to do it. Database connections make it easy to connect content to other stuff in your workspace, like products and campaigns.

Technical folks who know their way around integrations can set up Notion to publish content to the correct platform right from your workspace! (I'm not quite there yet, but hoping to learn and add this feature to my templates in the future!)