Notebook.ai is a website that allows you to compile your worldbuilding, character information, timeline and scenes in either a public ‘notebook’ or a private one. In my honest opinion, it’s a handy tool for both hobbyist writers that would like to keep everything together privately, and writers and authors who want to allow their readers to see the full extent of their world without info-dumping in the narrative.
Before delving into the rest of the review, I’d like to say that I haven’t be subsidised for this review nor have I been paid to do it. This review contains my own thoughts and feelings towards the product.
First Impressions
When I first signed up to notebook.ai, I hadn’t bothered to pay out until I got the feel for the website; the last thing I wanted to do was pay for something that I wasn’t going to use. The free package has everything you’ll need if you simply wanted to do some basic worldbuilding as you’re given:
Five universes. These are your novel’s worlds which you’ll be placing the other pages in. You don’t have to make one straight away, or at all, but it helps keep everything together. Think of this page as a folder.
Unlimited characters. These are character pages, similar to character sheets that you’d copy and paste to word and keep in your WIP folder. These are easier to navigate and save your fields, so you don’t have to keep writing them out, all you have to do is fill them in.
Unlimited locations. These are location pages for any locations of significance and, like with character pages, you can customise the fields however you want.
Unlimited items. These are pages for any significant items held by your characters, important to the story or need to be explained to your readers.
Characters and locations are a must have for any worldbuilding too, but I was pleasantly surprised with the items pages. With my most used universe, I’ve created two items. I’d never thought I’d use the pages at all, but it does help in fleshing out the things your character uses or holds onto, even when you think they’re not important.
The two items I added had started as normal items, nothing significant other than them being items my characters are seen with more often than not, and the fields shown (and my natural need to get all the sections completed) gave me enough inspiration to make them a bigger part of the story than I’d intended them to be. While that doesn’t seem important to some, I’ve found it vital in making sure that the details I add have some need to be there, whether these items are sentimental or plot devices.
The ability to customise the fields was something I appreciated, as was the fields carrying over into each page of the same type. It’s tedious to keep rewriting the same things for each page and it wastes time you could be using for more productive things (like actually filling the fields out or, you know… social media).
Being able to link pages is useful too, and it’s so simple. Tagging the page you want to link with an @ and clicking it from the drop-down menu is all you have to do.
Digging Deeper
I soon found that I wanted access to the other pages, especially since I enjoy worldbuilding as much as I do, so I purchased premium. You can pay up to 12 months, which is the option I chose, and you get all twenty-nine pages (as well as any more they may add during your subscription period). You can pay with your credit/debit card or you can purchase a code to apply to your account via PayPal.
Once I purchased the code, I instantly felt overwhelmed, though I wouldn’t say that was a bad thing. Seeing all these page types, which I can select which to hide and which to see, had seriously made me consider how far I wanted to flesh out my worlds (and the magic systems of the ones that take place in our world).
I’ve so far ventured into a little over half of the pages, sixteen of them, and I love the diversity of the fields. The website is clearly geared towards both writers and tabletop RPGs; not only because of how flexible the pages are but because of how thought-provoking (yet simple) the prompts are. Filing out these pages makes me feel as though I’m answering a reader’s questions, rather than asking them myself and trying to find an answer.
My favourite page has got to be the conditions page with how it asks you the impact of the illnesses from every angle, but I’m interested in the food pages too — I just haven’t found the need to use it yet! For now, it stays hidden, which gives the interface a clean and breathable appearance.
Improvements
If I had to suggest improvements, it would be the ability to delete or add fields to individual pages without altering the template. At the moment, if you delete a field on a page or create a field on a page, it deletes it from all the other pages of the same type automatically or adds it to the template of all the other pages of the same type. It’s a minor tweak that isn’t important, but it would be helpful.
Conclusion
I’d recommend this to all writers who want to keep their worldbuilding in one place or on a cloud. If you’re not an excessive or in-depth worldbuilder, the free version is perfect. There’re no adverts you have to pay to get rid of and, while it can be difficult to navigate at first, it’s doesn’t have a steep learning curve.
Rating Breakdown
Ease of Use: ★★★☆☆
Features: ★★★★☆
Customer Support/Communication: ★★★★★
Price: ★★★★☆