IllyasArt
Active member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2023
- Messages
- 30
- Points
- 33
:Introduction:
Hello, like many writers, I am insane. Insane in the sense that I need my workflow to be as perfect as humanly possible. Most writing software, such as Scrivener, word, etc. Aren't up to these tasks. Most of them have major, major drawbacks.
The solution? Obsidian! Literally, it is the perfect software for lots of things, including writing. The problem is the lack of knowledge around it for anything other than scholar or academia work. So, to help other writers, and future writers out, I decided to make a guide on how I use Obsidian.
Note: This guide is for windows, but Obsidian is on Linux and Mac. And most of this should apply to whatever OS you use. Before starting to follow along with this guide, please read it all the way through. There is a major time save at the end.
(This guide will also be posted on RoyalRoad.)
:What is Obsidian?:
It is a markdown editor. Which... honestly, I don't know what that fully means. But that just goes to show how you don't need to know everything about Obsidian to use it. As of now, I have finished and released many novels using it, and it is a blast to use for writing.
:Start Writing, Bare Bones:
To get started writing with Obsidian, you first need to download it here. Once you do, please navigate to the Community Plugins tab, and turn off restricted mode. There, you're done with the setup. Jk. You will need some plugins first. The cool thing is that you can search for, and install plugins directly inside the Obsidian program. (Note, if you pay for Obsidian sync, you can use the same vault, themes, plugins, etc, in the mobile app.)
With Obsidian installed, please install the Plugin, Longform here. (With Obsidian open, that link should open in Obsidian for easy install.) This plugin is the foundation for writing with Obsidian. The fun thing about the program, is how crazy the plugins are. Obsidian isn't really for writing by default, you see.
With Longform added, you can now start writing!
Here is a small tutorial, as it is somewhat confusing when you first start to use it.
Make a folder for your novels, either for each individual one, or in a collection. For me, I have a folder called, "Novels" where I have individual folders named after each of my novels. If you use my method, then please right click the folder of your specific novel, and create a longform project in it. This will give you an easy time of organizing your novel. At least, it is for me. (Note: You cannot title your novels with !?.'s. It won't let you, due to windows not liking folders and files named with such characters. You can use ! in your novel chapters, though.)
With that, you can now start writing. Just click on the new second button in the specific Longform tab, and name it whatever, and boom! Start writing! Hint: To change what novel you're working on, click on the novel title in the longform tab. It will pop up a list of every novel project that you've made with longform.
Note: Obsidian works with Vaults, which house various kinds of markdown, and other files. Think of it like a second file explorer.
:What's Next?:
With your now basic knowledge of Longform, there really isn't anything stopping you from writing now. This section will be about compiling, and exporting your novels.
Basically, there is a compile option on the Longform tab. Click it, and then scroll down all the way to the bottom of the menu. Click compile, and you're done! It will add whatever chapters(Or scenes, as LF sees them.) into one document. It will put it in the same folder where the longform project for the novel lives.
Just click on it, and then use the little dot menu to export it in any format your little heart desires.
But you see, we skipped a step. What's that? Only, you cannot export anything other than PDF from Obsidian by default. To do this, we will need the Plugin, Obsidian Enhancing Export here. The thing is, to get that to work, you must install a program called, Pandoc. Which you can get here. Once you have it installed, the Plugin in Obsidian should autodetect it.
With that, you're now absolutely ready to use Obsidian for reals now. But what if you could do... more?
:More!:
There are many, many Plugins for Obsidian. I would recommend that you look through them and see if you can find anything you like. People do crazy things like Obsidian, I swear. This section will be in two parts. The first part is the Plugins that I recommended highly, and the second part will be ones that are kinda cool.
Here is the list of good stuff! (Note: Lots of Plugins will be housed in the left or right sidebar.)
Better Command Palette.
Better Word Count.
Completr. (This is basically an autofill plugin, similar to what gmail does. For better use, you can add word lists to it. You can find them easily online.)
Copy as HTML. (Needed to copy things like bold or italicized text into sites like Royalroad and Scribblehub. Just set up a hotkey.)
Dictionary. (Needed for you want to look something up, but don't want to google it.)
Easy Typing. (Absolutely needed!!!)
Editing Toolbar. (Not really needed, as you can just use * to make italic text)
Hard Breaks.
LangaugeTool Intergration. (Somewhat buggy, and you need to set up an account with LangaugeTool. What I use instead is ProWritingAid Anywhere. Which you can download here.)
Novel Word Count. (Yes, another plugin that does something similar to a different one. I honestly have no idea which does which, oof.)
Plugin Update Tracker. (Very useful, as it will prompt you when a plugin has an update. Otherwise, you have to go to the Community Plugins tab in settings, and click the check for updates button.)
ProZen. (Useful if your theme doesn't have something like it already.)
Readability Score. (Tells you if you write bad, heh...)
Reading Time. (Tells you how long each chapter would take to read.)
Smart Typography. (highly recommended this one. I would say that it is absolutely needed, actually.)
Style Settings. (Tons of themes use this plugin for extra customization of the theme.)
Text to Speech.
Typewriter Scroll. (It would be useful, but it is buggy with Longform. Just use it for the zenmode, which dims inactive lines. Easier for focusing.)
Cool Stuff!
Admonition. (I don't use it often.)
Advanced Slides. (I don't use it often.)
Advanced Tables. (I don't use it often.)
Calendar. (I don't use it often.)
Daily Stats. (Very cool to see how much you write in a day!)
Data View. (I don't use it often.)
ExcaliBrain. (Only cool if you have a lot of things in your vault!)
Excalidraw. (Drawing in Obsidian! Woo! Very useful for making notes!)
Fantasy Content Generator. (Helpful for giving you some ideas for a fantasy novel.)
Fantasy Stablocks. (Don't really use it, but it is cool. Its like a RPG character sheet. Problem is that it's very, very complex to set up.)
File Color. (Colors!)
Iconize.
Icons. (Both of the Icon plugins do the same, just more options.)
Kanban. (This one is crazy! Basically, it is Trello, but in Obsidian.)
Mathpad. (I am too lazy to open up windows calculator, okay?)
Minimal Theme Settings. (This is needed if you decide to use the Minimal theme and want to customize it.)
Obsidian Tabs. (Don't recall if I ever used this one, but is installed...)
Privacy Glasses. (Useful if you want to screenshot your Obsidian project, but don't want to leak anything. It blurs it for you.)
QuickAdd. (Helpful for putting other files into your vault. You can use Obsidian to read books, you know.)
Recent Files. (It does what it says on the tin...)
Red Pen. (Useful, but kinda annoying, so I have it off most of the time.)
Reveal File in Explorer. (Same with this one.)
RPG Manager. (Useful for DND, I think? Again, I don't recall installing this one. But if I added it, I probably use it at some point. I don't have good memory, haha.)
Stopwatch Plugin. (Good for writing sprints. What do I use it for? To set timers for when I cook food...)
Templater. (Many templates for Obsidian exist, for many different uses. I set up my own, though.)
Typing Speed. (Fun, I guess?)
Phew... that's a lot of plugins. I told you that I was crazy, right? Cool... Two more sections left. I am tired...
:Themes!:
What theme you want to use will be completely up to you. And trust me, there are literally hundreds of them to choose from. Go crazy, and just look at the theme section of the Appearance tab in the settings menu. You'll find your forever theme. In time...
(I can't actually link these like with the Plugins, sorry...)
Prism (What I am using right now.)
Minimal. (Considered to be the best theme.)
Things.
Mado Miniflow.
Mado 11.
Border.
Shibu Inu.
Origami.
Maple.
Chime.
:It's done, and also, a gift!:
Yay! This is the end of the guide! I do hope that you actually learned anything from my kinda bad guide. Obsidian is honestly the best program that I've used for writing. I have tried every other one, and none of them suited me as well as Obsidian does.
Now, as a final gift... I give you an easy out! Download my vault, and skip all of the damn setup! The cost? Please don't ask me a million questions on what everything does... You see, you can share your vaults, and load them up on Obsidian. So, you can download a vault, which is a base version of my vault. Every setting, Plugin, theme, etc. Will be in it.
All you will have to do is... just learn the software. There aren't that many tutorials for using Obsidian for writing. But there are many for using it in general. Besides that, doing this skips all of the setup, and gets you writing faster. I hope that you've enjoyed this guide!
The link to download the vault is here. You will need a program to extract it, such as winrar. (I use NanaZip.) Also, you still need to install Pandoc!!! Happy writing!!!
Last Hint: I have a hotkey to hide every menu in Obsidian, so I can focus on writing alone. If hotkeys carry over in Vaults(I have no idea if they do.) then Ctrl +the down arrow key, will activate, and deactivate it.
Hello, like many writers, I am insane. Insane in the sense that I need my workflow to be as perfect as humanly possible. Most writing software, such as Scrivener, word, etc. Aren't up to these tasks. Most of them have major, major drawbacks.
The solution? Obsidian! Literally, it is the perfect software for lots of things, including writing. The problem is the lack of knowledge around it for anything other than scholar or academia work. So, to help other writers, and future writers out, I decided to make a guide on how I use Obsidian.
Note: This guide is for windows, but Obsidian is on Linux and Mac. And most of this should apply to whatever OS you use. Before starting to follow along with this guide, please read it all the way through. There is a major time save at the end.
(This guide will also be posted on RoyalRoad.)
:What is Obsidian?:
It is a markdown editor. Which... honestly, I don't know what that fully means. But that just goes to show how you don't need to know everything about Obsidian to use it. As of now, I have finished and released many novels using it, and it is a blast to use for writing.
:Start Writing, Bare Bones:
To get started writing with Obsidian, you first need to download it here. Once you do, please navigate to the Community Plugins tab, and turn off restricted mode. There, you're done with the setup. Jk. You will need some plugins first. The cool thing is that you can search for, and install plugins directly inside the Obsidian program. (Note, if you pay for Obsidian sync, you can use the same vault, themes, plugins, etc, in the mobile app.)
With Obsidian installed, please install the Plugin, Longform here. (With Obsidian open, that link should open in Obsidian for easy install.) This plugin is the foundation for writing with Obsidian. The fun thing about the program, is how crazy the plugins are. Obsidian isn't really for writing by default, you see.
With Longform added, you can now start writing!
Here is a small tutorial, as it is somewhat confusing when you first start to use it.
Make a folder for your novels, either for each individual one, or in a collection. For me, I have a folder called, "Novels" where I have individual folders named after each of my novels. If you use my method, then please right click the folder of your specific novel, and create a longform project in it. This will give you an easy time of organizing your novel. At least, it is for me. (Note: You cannot title your novels with !?.'s. It won't let you, due to windows not liking folders and files named with such characters. You can use ! in your novel chapters, though.)
With that, you can now start writing. Just click on the new second button in the specific Longform tab, and name it whatever, and boom! Start writing! Hint: To change what novel you're working on, click on the novel title in the longform tab. It will pop up a list of every novel project that you've made with longform.
Note: Obsidian works with Vaults, which house various kinds of markdown, and other files. Think of it like a second file explorer.
:What's Next?:
With your now basic knowledge of Longform, there really isn't anything stopping you from writing now. This section will be about compiling, and exporting your novels.
Basically, there is a compile option on the Longform tab. Click it, and then scroll down all the way to the bottom of the menu. Click compile, and you're done! It will add whatever chapters(Or scenes, as LF sees them.) into one document. It will put it in the same folder where the longform project for the novel lives.
Just click on it, and then use the little dot menu to export it in any format your little heart desires.
But you see, we skipped a step. What's that? Only, you cannot export anything other than PDF from Obsidian by default. To do this, we will need the Plugin, Obsidian Enhancing Export here. The thing is, to get that to work, you must install a program called, Pandoc. Which you can get here. Once you have it installed, the Plugin in Obsidian should autodetect it.
With that, you're now absolutely ready to use Obsidian for reals now. But what if you could do... more?
:More!:
There are many, many Plugins for Obsidian. I would recommend that you look through them and see if you can find anything you like. People do crazy things like Obsidian, I swear. This section will be in two parts. The first part is the Plugins that I recommended highly, and the second part will be ones that are kinda cool.
Here is the list of good stuff! (Note: Lots of Plugins will be housed in the left or right sidebar.)
Better Command Palette.
Better Word Count.
Completr. (This is basically an autofill plugin, similar to what gmail does. For better use, you can add word lists to it. You can find them easily online.)
Copy as HTML. (Needed to copy things like bold or italicized text into sites like Royalroad and Scribblehub. Just set up a hotkey.)
Dictionary. (Needed for you want to look something up, but don't want to google it.)
Easy Typing. (Absolutely needed!!!)
Editing Toolbar. (Not really needed, as you can just use * to make italic text)
Hard Breaks.
LangaugeTool Intergration. (Somewhat buggy, and you need to set up an account with LangaugeTool. What I use instead is ProWritingAid Anywhere. Which you can download here.)
Novel Word Count. (Yes, another plugin that does something similar to a different one. I honestly have no idea which does which, oof.)
Plugin Update Tracker. (Very useful, as it will prompt you when a plugin has an update. Otherwise, you have to go to the Community Plugins tab in settings, and click the check for updates button.)
ProZen. (Useful if your theme doesn't have something like it already.)
Readability Score. (Tells you if you write bad, heh...)
Reading Time. (Tells you how long each chapter would take to read.)
Smart Typography. (highly recommended this one. I would say that it is absolutely needed, actually.)
Style Settings. (Tons of themes use this plugin for extra customization of the theme.)
Text to Speech.
Typewriter Scroll. (It would be useful, but it is buggy with Longform. Just use it for the zenmode, which dims inactive lines. Easier for focusing.)
Cool Stuff!
Admonition. (I don't use it often.)
Advanced Slides. (I don't use it often.)
Advanced Tables. (I don't use it often.)
Calendar. (I don't use it often.)
Daily Stats. (Very cool to see how much you write in a day!)
Data View. (I don't use it often.)
ExcaliBrain. (Only cool if you have a lot of things in your vault!)
Excalidraw. (Drawing in Obsidian! Woo! Very useful for making notes!)
Fantasy Content Generator. (Helpful for giving you some ideas for a fantasy novel.)
Fantasy Stablocks. (Don't really use it, but it is cool. Its like a RPG character sheet. Problem is that it's very, very complex to set up.)
File Color. (Colors!)
Iconize.
Icons. (Both of the Icon plugins do the same, just more options.)
Kanban. (This one is crazy! Basically, it is Trello, but in Obsidian.)
Mathpad. (I am too lazy to open up windows calculator, okay?)
Minimal Theme Settings. (This is needed if you decide to use the Minimal theme and want to customize it.)
Obsidian Tabs. (Don't recall if I ever used this one, but is installed...)
Privacy Glasses. (Useful if you want to screenshot your Obsidian project, but don't want to leak anything. It blurs it for you.)
QuickAdd. (Helpful for putting other files into your vault. You can use Obsidian to read books, you know.)
Recent Files. (It does what it says on the tin...)
Red Pen. (Useful, but kinda annoying, so I have it off most of the time.)
Reveal File in Explorer. (Same with this one.)
RPG Manager. (Useful for DND, I think? Again, I don't recall installing this one. But if I added it, I probably use it at some point. I don't have good memory, haha.)
Stopwatch Plugin. (Good for writing sprints. What do I use it for? To set timers for when I cook food...)
Templater. (Many templates for Obsidian exist, for many different uses. I set up my own, though.)
Typing Speed. (Fun, I guess?)
Phew... that's a lot of plugins. I told you that I was crazy, right? Cool... Two more sections left. I am tired...
:Themes!:
What theme you want to use will be completely up to you. And trust me, there are literally hundreds of them to choose from. Go crazy, and just look at the theme section of the Appearance tab in the settings menu. You'll find your forever theme. In time...
(I can't actually link these like with the Plugins, sorry...)
Prism (What I am using right now.)
Minimal. (Considered to be the best theme.)
Things.
Mado Miniflow.
Mado 11.
Border.
Shibu Inu.
Origami.
Maple.
Chime.
:It's done, and also, a gift!:
Yay! This is the end of the guide! I do hope that you actually learned anything from my kinda bad guide. Obsidian is honestly the best program that I've used for writing. I have tried every other one, and none of them suited me as well as Obsidian does.
Now, as a final gift... I give you an easy out! Download my vault, and skip all of the damn setup! The cost? Please don't ask me a million questions on what everything does... You see, you can share your vaults, and load them up on Obsidian. So, you can download a vault, which is a base version of my vault. Every setting, Plugin, theme, etc. Will be in it.
All you will have to do is... just learn the software. There aren't that many tutorials for using Obsidian for writing. But there are many for using it in general. Besides that, doing this skips all of the setup, and gets you writing faster. I hope that you've enjoyed this guide!
The link to download the vault is here. You will need a program to extract it, such as winrar. (I use NanaZip.) Also, you still need to install Pandoc!!! Happy writing!!!
Last Hint: I have a hotkey to hide every menu in Obsidian, so I can focus on writing alone. If hotkeys carry over in Vaults(I have no idea if they do.) then Ctrl +the down arrow key, will activate, and deactivate it.
