This guide walks through how to use digital planners in GoodNotes using the Saint Violet Novel Writing Workbook and Creative Planner as examples. The mechanics are simple; the usefulness comes from how you begin to shape them around your process.
If you want to see this on screen, there's a full visual walkthrough on YouTube as well.
What a Digital Planner Actually Is (Inside GoodNotes)
Most digital planners are PDFs with internal links. In practice, that means they behave less like a normal document and more like a simple interface — instead of scrolling through one long file, you move between sections using tabs, linked text, or buttons built into the planner design.
Inside GoodNotes, you are not editing the PDF itself. You are writing on top of it. The original page design and text stay intact, and your notes, handwriting, text boxes, highlights, and inserted images sit as annotations over the existing page.
Import your file
Open GoodNotes → New → Import → select the PDF. You can also drag and drop the PDF directly into GoodNotes, which is usually faster.
Once imported, the planner opens as its own notebook.
Read-only vs. edit mode
GoodNotes runs on a simple toggle:
Read-only mode → navigation. Links work; you can move through the planner by clicking tabs and section markers.
Edit mode → annotation. Links don't work, but you can write, draw, type, and build.
If links aren't responding, you're in edit mode. If you can't write, you're in read-only. Most people move between the two constantly — click through in read-only, switch to edit when you want to work.
Navigating the Planner
Saint Violet planners and workbooks include built-in navigation links. In read-only mode, use the tabs, headers, or section markers to move around the planner. Click the linked area; GoodNotes jumps to that page. If nothing happens, you're in edit mode — switch out and try again.
Writing on the Page
In edit mode, there are two main tools:
Text tool → for typed notes. Click anywhere to create a text box, type, and resize or reposition as needed. Adjust font, size, and alignment.
Pen tool → for handwriting, rough notes, diagrams, or anything that doesn't fit neatly into typed structure.
One thing that confuses a lot of people: you cannot click into the workbook's existing prompt text and rewrite it. The headers, prompts, and design elements are part of the PDF — they stay intact. What you add in GoodNotes sits on top as annotation. If you want to write in a different direction, add a text box over the existing page or annotate around it.
Adding Images and Visual References
You can insert images directly into any page — useful for visual references, moodboards, research material, screenshots, or diagrams.
Image tool → select from your files or photo library → resize and reposition.
Building Internal Links
GoodNotes lets you add your own internal links — link a word or phrase to another page, create your own section markers, or build shortcuts between related parts of the planner. This becomes especially useful once the notebook starts to expand and you want to move between projects or phases without scrolling through everything.
Duplicating Worksheets
Most worksheet pages in the Novel Writing Workbook are designed to be used multiple times. A single character worksheet won't hold every character. A single planning page won't hold every act.
To duplicate:
Open the thumbnail view (page sidebar) → click the arrow icon below the page you want to copy → choose Duplicate.
GoodNotes creates a copy directly next to the original. Drag it to wherever it belongs.
The workbook is built to expand with the project — one worksheet per character, separate planning pages per act, multiple versions of a problem you're working through, repeated revision pages. You don't need to stay inside the original page count.
Adding Extra Notes Pages
Sometimes a worksheet gives you the structure you need but not enough writing space. Inserting a blank or lined page directly after the relevant worksheet keeps the exploratory thinking attached to the original prompt, which is where it belongs.
These added pages are often where the most alive material lives — the rough drafting, the thinking that doesn't fit inside a neatly designed box. Place them directly after the relevant worksheet, at the end of a section, or wherever they make sense.
Reordering Pages
The original order of the planner is a starting structure, not a permanent one. As the notebook grows, move pages around to group material in whatever way serves the work.
Thumbnail view → select the page thumbnail → drag it to the new position.
This lets you cluster pages by character, plot line, act, project, revision stage, or whatever grouping matches how the work is actually organized. If your story material is scattered across the notebook, you can pull all the pages for one character into a single block. The planner evolves alongside the project instead of trapping the work inside its original architecture.
Exporting Pages into Separate Workbooks
Once a set of pages has developed into something coherent, you can move them out into a separate notebook.
Thumbnail view → select the pages → Move To → save to an existing workbook or create a new one.
This is useful for pulling finished planning material into a clean archive, separating early exploratory work from the active notebook, or building dedicated files for individual projects. One notebook for development, separate workbooks for each project as it matures.
Use Case: The Creative Planner
The Creative Planner works differently from the Novel Writing Workbook. Where the workbook has a broad, section-based structure meant to hold a complex project over time, the Creative Planner is short and modular — a small set of template pages designed to be duplicated and reused.
The intended workflow is less about moving linearly through the notebook and more about building your own stack of repeated pages:
One planning page per active project
Weekly pages duplicated across a month
Separate clusters for ideation, active making, and looser notes
Different page groups for different phases of a project
Because it starts short, the Creative Planner is really designed to be copied outward — you take the base templates and multiply them into the system you need. That makes it especially well-suited for people whose process changes from project to project.
Building Your Own Navigation
Once you've duplicated pages, added notes pages, and reorganized materials, you may want more explicit navigation. That might mean creating an index page, using linked text as a jump point to a project section, or grouping different projects inside one notebook and linking between them. Optional, but it's one of the better ways to make the notebook feel genuinely personal rather than predesigned.
A Note on Use
The planner becomes more useful the further you move away from using it "correctly."
Duplicate the worksheet. Add another page. Move things around. Pull sections out into their own files. Build separate clusters for separate projects. Let the notebook become more specific, more idiosyncratic, and more useful as the work takes shape.
Watch the Full Video Walkthrough
If you want to see this workflow in action — how the planner behaves on screen, how navigation works, how pages get duplicated and reorganized — the full YouTube tutorial is here: