The Best Notebooks for Keeping Track of World Building
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If you’re an obsessive world builder like I am, then you’ve probably wanted to have some way to keep track of all your insane and expansive ideas. I would know, because every device and every notebook in my house pretty much has random ramblings and world building ideas and concepts. However, I personally find that I’ve been yearning to keep better track of all my stuff more and that feeling’s been growing a lot lately. That’s why today, I’m going to be listing some of the best notebooks I personally find are helpful for keeping track of world building for those of us who prefer a bit more paper-pen than digital.
(affiliate disclaimer: some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means that I make a small commission at no additional cost to you when you purchase through my link)
The Ultimate Guide to World Building
If you want a guided, full-fledged experience for your world building journey, then The Ultimate Guide to World Building is your best friend!
I designed this guide using my over 10+ years of experience writing and building worlds across a variety of genres and put all my workflows into one comprehensive system. You not only get over 340 pages, but there’s guided worksheet pages with questions for you to answer and instructional material, as well as some fun notes pages that have little competitions on them for you to enjoy!
I wanted to create a full toolkit for world builders everywhere to be able to learn and build at the same time, which is why I designed this guide. It’s one of the largest, most comprehensive of its kind with genuine examples, in-depth systems, and a variety of topics from the broad universe to the stock market and the religion of a singular country and beyond.
You can buy this guide on my website’s shop and get instant access. Plus you have unlimited downloads so you can use it as many times as you need! It’s fillable and printable so you can use it on a laptop, your iPad, or you can print it out and place it in a binder for your convenience!
This Fancy Persian-Inspired Journal
If you have worlds that you build that are more inspired by things like Persia or the Middle East in general like myself, I really enjoy having a notebook that reflects that and helps give me inspo when I open it.
The notebook itself has a hardcover outside and is a really pretty design. I honestly see myself world building a ton in this notebook. Plus, the pages are lined so that you can keep things neat and organized.
The leaves and the trees are outlined in gold foil and there’s embossing to add some more detail. Additionally, the spine has gold foil on it and the pages are sprayed metallic gold to give it a much more luxurious look. There’s about 160 pages of acid-free, archival-quality paper that you can use any pen that you want on and it’ll look really nice and write really smooth.
Postcards Anyone?
If you’re a fan of more unlined page options and want something maybe a bit more “pocket-sized” than the first option, then this postcard-inspired travel journal is probably a perfect fit for you. The outside is really pretty and includes a lot of detail, as well as a neat rope feature to close it a bit more.
The cover itself is a leather-style material and the interior pages are unlined and can be inserted and removed wherever you want using the binder system. The pages are also brown-colored, which is really cool because it gives your notebook a sort of older effect to it. The ability to move around pages is also really helpful as it sort of acts like a digital notebook where you can add and remove information and details whenever you want. It’s also refillable in case you need more pages to add.
I think that this is a perfect notebook to keep your world building organized in since it offers that mobility in the pages and it also looks super cool!
You can buy this one on Amazon as well!
French-Inspired Filigree
This amazing and beautiful notebook is probably one of my personal favorite ones in my collection and I use it for some of my more important world building stuff. This filigree style notebook is inspired by a 1697 French binding and uses blue and silver to create a really luxurious look and feel from the outside. The edges are also sprayed with a similar design.
The notebook itself features really high-quality paper and a neat lock feature on the outside. Sure, the lock doesn’t really do much because it can be opened by anyone, but I find that it adds a layer of mystique and intrigue when I go to actually do my world building. It also looks really cool and is a great conversation-starter.
It sports 240 pages inside for you to fill out and it works really well with any writing utensil you have. I’ve used fountain pens, gel pens, ball point pens, pencils, and more on this and all of them worked really well and didn’t bleed through the page. 100% recommend this one!
You can buy it over on Amazon right now!
The “I Go Through A Ton of Journals” Pack
Ah yes, if that title resonated with you, then you might just be me. I have entire shelves in my book shelf for journals. Not books. Journals. And yes, I keep buying more. So, if you’re like me and you need a ton of notebooks all at once to just get it over with, then this 10-pack of multi-colored notebooks is probably your best bet because let me put it at this, you have one notebook for each new world you decide to come up with!
I’m playing around, but seriously, sometimes it’s much easier to just buy a large quantity of something than to keep needing a new notebook every now and then. Plus, if you happen to need a notebook for something else, then you have a lot more to spare.
These notebooks do have that sort of moleskine look with the faux-leather exterior and band to keep them closed. There are 160 acid-free pages, as well as a pocket on the inside to store things, sticker labels and a ribbon bookmark to keep track of where you last wrote.
The Fantasy Enthusiast
This is honestly one of the more unique looking journals I’ve found out there and it’s seriously so cool! The cover is made from real buffalo leather, which is absolutely insane. There’s also a clasp on the side to keep the pages closed and safe and the pages themselves were designed to look like super old pages. It’s really a perfect notebook for those of us who enjoy writing a lot of medieval-inspired fantasy stories.
The nice thing is that the pages are also mixed-media, so if you’re someone that likes to incorporate a lot of drawing in your notes and world building, then this journal will really fit those needs.
I think that just looking at it is really inspiring and interesting, so I really recommend that you check this notebook out if you’re really looking for something fantasy-like!
You can buy it over on Amazon!
For the Dungeon Masters
If you’re a fan of world building but less for story purposes and more for Dungeons and Dragons, then you’ll be stoked to hear about this notebook, which was actually designed specifically with dungeon masters in mind! It also comes with a bonus pen, which is really cool!
This notebook has a 3D cover and it’s genuinely 3D. I actually own a different design from this company and it’s honestly one of the coolest, most beautiful-looking notebooks I own in my house. It’s so unique and so inspiring for world building that I can’t help but recommend it!
The interior also includes two shades of paper, white and parchment. It’s really cool in my opinion and gives a bit more room to make things seem older and more inspired for world building.
There’s 200 pages in this notebook and it’s great for DND and for general fans of fantasy, and I can say that it’s seriously even cooler in person.
You can pick this beauty up on Amazon right now!
For the Cartographer in Us
If you’re more of a fan of unlined pages and you want a different option than the ones I’ve listed before, may I direct your attention to this very cool and very awesome notebook that I personally own and love so much I haven’t figured out which world I’m filling its pages with. I’m pretty sure I’m going to use it for my map designs though, because it looks like it would be a book for maps.
The pages of this notebook are made of a cotton-like substance, which makes it feel more like fabric than standard paper, but that’s the coolest part. Things just tend to look cooler on fabric, I dunno.
There’s 200 pages in this journal and it’s got a lock on the front of it, which lets you have a cooler RPG-feeling to your world building. My recommendation, pretend you’re a little traveler in some fantasy world that’s noting down everything in the world they’ve traveled to. It’s more fun that way.
In any case, the cover is also embossed and has a really nice texture to it. The cover is also made from a leathery substance, which is really smooth and nice for keeping the pages pretty safe.
If you’re interested, check this one out over on Amazon!
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