Notes from the desk
Short, honest posts from the two writers who built Inkling: how we think about your words, the craft, and the tools we all use.
For your table: D&D players and DMs
Backstories, NPCs, session notes, recaps, maps and the novel your campaign keeps trying to become. Twelve practical posts for tabletop players and the people who run their games.
- A D&D backstory template your DM will actually use
A short D&D backstory template with hooks, living NPCs, open threads and a secret for the DM, plus a worked example and how long a backstory should be.
- Character arcs for D&D characters
Traits, ideals, bonds and flaws describe a character but not how they change. Borrow four novelist tools to give your PC an arc that works without the plot.
- A session zero questionnaire that turns answers into characters
A copyable session zero questionnaire for players: tone, lines and veils, schedule, play style and party ties, plus how a DM turns each answer into hooks.
- One page and a map: a player primer for your homebrew world
How to write a one-page campaign primer for your homebrew world: the pitch, six truths, factions, character notes and safety tools, plus a player-safe map.
- A world map that grows every session
Start your D&D world map with one region, keep a DM's map and a players' map, add places as the party finds them, and draw kingdoms as realms.
- How to make a town map for your campaign in 20 minutes
A 20-minute routine for a D&D town map: start from real streets, place the five spots the party will visit, name them, add a rumor to each, make a player copy.
- How to keep track of NPCs
Tier your NPCs, keep five fields per card, update after the session, and tie NPCs to factions and clues. A copyable NPC card template for DMs, with an example.
- DM session notes in ten minutes
A DM session notes template you can fill in ten minutes after play: improvised NPCs, consequences, open threads, clues found and missed, and a status page.
- A D&D session recap you can read aloud in 90 seconds
A D&D session recap template you can read aloud in 90 seconds, a full worked example, a group chat version for absent players, and how to recap after a break.
- A player’s campaign journal: 30 prompts for between sessions
Thirty journal prompts for D&D players, in and out of character, plus how to keep a dump page at the table, a shared party journal, and a keepsake at the end.
- How to turn your D&D campaign into a novel
A real workflow to turn a D&D campaign into a novel: session notes to a storyboard to chapter one, what to cut, asking your table, and selling homebrew.
- Campaign notes apps compared, honestly
Notion, Obsidian, OneNote, World Anvil, Kanka, LegendKeeper, D&D Beyond, a Google Doc and Inkling: who each campaign notes app suits and where it falls short.
Everything else from the desk
- Burnt out and reading romantasy every night? Try writing one, ten minutes at a time
No quota, no finish line, nobody watching: a gentle way to start writing the kind of story you read to unwind, and what to make on nights with no words left.
October 28, 2026
- Finished A Court of Splintered Harmony? Write your own fae story before January 12
Eleven weeks until the next book. Here is a week-by-week plan to draft the first 40,000 words of your own romantasy in that time, with a checklist you can copy.
October 28, 2026
- How to organize a long fanfic
Thirty chapters and counting: your divergence point, a canon-facts sheet, a chapter list with a posting schedule, who knows what, and a safe home for your drafts.
October 28, 2026
- Too tired to write after work? What actually helps
You are not lazy, you are tired. Move the slot, shrink the session, write the easy scene, keep a one-sentence floor for the hard nights, and come back after a missed week without catching up.
October 16, 2026
- Writing as a creative outlet after work: how to make it yours
How to make fiction the part of the day that belongs to you: no pressure to publish, a floor instead of a quota, a story you want to come back to, and low-energy creative play for nights without words.
October 16, 2026
- A Preptober plan: get your novel ready for November in three weeks
A week-by-week October plan for novelists: premise and cast, an outline or loose plan and a scene list, then a schedule and daily target, with checklists you can copy.
October 11, 2026
- Google Docs is lagging on my novel. What actually helps?
Why long manuscripts make Google Docs slow, the fixes that genuinely help, and when it is time to move to a tool built for long fiction.
October 11, 2026
- How do I move my novel out of Google Docs without losing anything?
A step-by-step way to move a manuscript out of Google Docs: freeze a copy, count, export all tabs, keep comments and versions, and check what arrived.
October 11, 2026
- What happens if Google Docs locks or flags my novel?
What has actually happened when Google Docs flagged writers' files, how to request a review, and the habits that mean no account can take your book.
October 11, 2026
- Haunted town map ideas for a Halloween story
Twelve haunted town and village map ideas with story hooks, how a map builds dread (isolation, one road in, landmarks that become scenes), and how to build one in an evening.
October 9, 2026
- Cozy fantasy and winter village maps
What makes a cozy fantasy map feel like home (small scale, a few loved places, a river and a bridge, a snowy road out), plus winter village ideas for holiday stories and winter romances.
October 9, 2026
- Map before you write: a Novel November prep plan
A four-evening October prep plan: sketch the world map, mark the places the plot visits, find conflict in borders and routes, then turn the map into a story and set your November word-count goal.
October 9, 2026
- We redrew the Inkling map maker: castles, dragons and realms
Over thirty buildings redrawn in one bold ink style, dragons and sea serpents, realms with borders you can redraw or split, painted terrain, roads that route themselves, and cities on real streets. What changed, and what it looks like.
September 27, 2026
- Does Google Docs use my novel to train its AI? (2026)
Google says Docs is not training data, but the Gemini app is a different story, and Grammarly's training setting ships on by default. We read the policies so you don't have to, and explain what "connect Google Docs" really lets an app see.
September 16, 2026
- Will readers think my book was written by AI? What to do
Nearly half of 5,202 surveyed writers fear being mistaken for a machine, and a prize-winning writer was cleared only by his dated drafts. Why the accusations happen, why em dashes and detector scores prove nothing, and the habits that let you show the work.
September 16, 2026
- How to turn off AI in Google Docs, Word, and Scrivener
Gemini in Docs, Connected Experiences in Word, a training toggle in Grammarly, and Apple Intelligence inside Scrivener. What each switch really controls, where it lives, and what off means in Inkling.
September 16, 2026
- Do I have to tell Amazon KDP I used Grammarly or spellcheck?
KDP's AI-generated versus AI-assisted rule in plain words: Grammarly and spellcheck need no disclosure, a generated cover does, and readers never see the box. Plus an honest note on where Inkling's cover art lands.
September 16, 2026
- How do I make sure I never lose my novel draft again?
Drafts almost never die in a fire; they go missing in quiet ways, through sync conflicts, offline edits that never saved, and one copy on one machine. The 3-2-1 rule for a manuscript, how often to export, and the one step nearly everyone skips.
September 16, 2026
- How do I get back into my novel after months away?
The draft is still there; the problem is the door. Why rereading the whole thing is the most common way to lose another month, how to write yourself a "previously," and how small the first session back is allowed to be.
September 16, 2026
- Stuck in the middle of my novel: how do I push through?
Every novel has a stretch around the forty percent mark where the word count stops moving. Why that happens, and six practical ways out: a one-page outline, writing the ending early, squeezing the plot you already have, bracketed scenes, and leaving revision for later.
September 16, 2026
- Moving off Scrivener: how to switch without losing work
A fair account of why writers leave Scrivener (learning curve, per-platform licenses, Dropbox sync losses) and the three steps that get a manuscript out intact: compile, archive the .scriv, check the chapter breaks. Candid about what does not travel, and about Inkling being a subscription.
September 16, 2026
- How do I start writing a novel in 2026 as a total beginner?
Starting a first novel does not require a plan, a system, or a dozen software decisions. It requires one place to write, a way to keep your notes, and a habit, and here is how to set up each one.
September 16, 2026
- How do I actually stick to a daily word count goal?
Most word count goals die in week two because the number was too big, there was no rule for a missed day, and nobody was counting. A smaller target, recalculating instead of catching up, and a tracker that lives next to the writing fix all three.
September 16, 2026
- Your words stay yours
Where your stories live, exactly what the generator reads and when, what is never kept or trained on, and how to switch it off. Our stance on AI and your intellectual property, in plain language.
September 7, 2026
Inkling is an independent writing app. Dungeons & Dragons and D&D are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC. Inkling is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Wizards of the Coast.