How a Discovery Writer Mapped Her Fantasy World With Notion
Cully’s fantasy series is the kind of saga that demands its own wiki: five corrupted kings, cults manipulating elemental magic, black markets, criminal underworlds, and nine original languages.
She’s building a six-book series to tell it (and loving every minute).
But as the world expanded, so did the mess. With dozens of tabs and buried ideas, her OneNote setup wasn’t built to handle this level of complexity.
When she sat down to rewrite the first half of her book, she knew it had to hold up to rereads. Twists, reveals, layered character arcs—it all had to click.
So she did what most of us do: she googled “worldbuilding tips.”
She wasn’t looking for a system. Definitely not a template. Just something to bring clarity without killing the joy of discovery.
What she found was an intuitive worldbuilding tool that gave her a whole new lens on her story.
Before: A sprawling epic too complex for OneNote
As a discovery writer, Cully’s process was more “follow the spark” than “follow the outline.”
She wrote 50+ chapters fueled by intuition, until she hit a point where the scope became too much to hold in her head (or in OneNote).
“I want [my story] to be airtight so when people do look back, if they missed it or guessed wrong, there’s enough breadcrumbs for readers to think, ‘oh, it makes sense’—instead of, ‘oh... it came out of nowhere’.”
To do that, she needed something to help connect the dots.
But she wasn’t about to give up the freedom that made writing fun in the first place.
The problem: Most templates felt like creativity-killers
Cully wasn’t new to organizing data. She builds relational tables and dashboards for work.
But when it came to her story, she avoided worldbuilding systems on purpose.
“I didn’t want my process of discovery, which is the self-rewarding piece of it, to get distilled… I didn’t want it to be black and white and make it a checkbox.”
Still, with such a massive project, she needed a better way to connect her ideas. Something flexible. Visual. Story-first.
That initial search brought her to a fantasy worldbuilding guide on Quill&Steel.
The turning point: “I couldn’t get the visual of that tool out of my brain”
She read the post, browsed the website, and eventually discovered the Notion Worldbuilding Template & Story Planner.
Notion Worldbuilding Template Dashboard - Quill&Steel
“I found your romance stuff… and I found the Notion system… I just needed to think on it longer. But I couldn’t get the visual of what that tool had to offer me out of my brain. It was such an elevated aesthetic and look and feel that I just knew this was gonna take my story to the next level.”
Eventually, she took the plunge and bought the Notion Worldbuilding template.
After: “A whole other way to touch and engage with my story”
Cully feared she’d be faced with a rigid, checkbox system. What she got was the opposite.
“[The Notion Worldbuilding template] gave me a whole other way to touch and engage with my story. There was something about it that allowed me to step into my world in a way that I hadn’t been able to before and look around.”
Notion Character Profile Template - Quill&Steel
Here’s what changed:
Her overflowing OneNote system turned into two dedicated spaces: Notion for worldbuilding, OneNote for drafting.
Her character notes, once pages long and impossible to reference, became punchy, skimmable snapshots using the template prompts.
The interconnected databases let her track characters, relationships, plotlines, and locations across her story.
The fantasy aesthetic helped her feel more immersed in her world and more inspired to create.
Even unexpected features stood out.
“That freaking Distance Calculator? I called my husband in and said, ‘look at this thing! This is incredible!’ I literally have spent half a day of writing time trying to figure out how long it takes someone to go by sea or horseback… To now be able to just put it in [the Distance Calculator]… never again will I have to waste my time.”
Notion Travel and Distance Calculator - Quill&Steel
And because she’s never used Notion before?
“I made myself a cup of coffee and settled in and said, ‘I’m gonna watch the video tutorials on how I’m gonna do this’… It felt like going to the movies, but of my world, in a weird, nerdy way.”
Notion Worldbuilding Template Tutorial Library - Quill&Steel
For the skeptics (especially the pantsers)
Cully gets it—really. Templates can feel rigid. But if you’re building a big world and you want to stay immersed in the process without dropping threads?
This Notion Worldbuilding system will get you there.
“[The Notion Worldbuilding template] has empowered my writing process by showing me that even as a hardcore pantser, plotting and sketching is not going to take away from the exhilaration of discovering as I go. But it will help provide some guardrails.”
And it’s not just functional. It’s immersive. The aesthetic design (dark/light modes, maps, dragon logo, the cohesive visual style) sets the mood before you even start writing.
“It felt like a very classy, kind of elevated product that made me feel immediately like I was creating an elevated story,” Cully said. “It’s just sexier and cooler [than OneNote].”
Ready to worldbuild in Notion?
Watch the demo and explore the Notion Fantasy Worldbuilding Template & Story Planner for yourself.
