I am wondering if there is some plain text way of writing something and emailing so that it is automatically added.
There is no plain text method for adding calendar entries to a recipient's calendar (can you imagine the abuse?).
As I understand it, Google will "automatically scan" certain incoming emails, picking out important pieces of information. This feature is documented here: Events from Gmail.
In the Troubleshooting section, there is a section titled "Events from Gmail don't show up in Calendar", which explains why things might not appear.
An alternate option might be to send an iCalendar invitation (*.ics
file) as an attachment, with a suitable message in the email's body.
Gmail will show a calendar banner over the email, allowing you to easily click "Yes" / "Maybe" / "No" in response, and the event will be added to your calendar tentatively:
→