Why I love Obsidian for writing novels and fiction worldbuilding
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- čas přidán 3. 01. 2024
- Try Obsidian: obsidian.md/ | This is a different kind of video today; During a morning writing session, we talked around our writing tools. When I heard that people were struggling to worldbuild in documents, I shared a tool that I've fallen in love with. Speed this up, and enjoy this walkthrough.
Check out this quick overview of how I'm using Obsidian to write fiction novels, brainstorm my worldbuilding, and get organized - for free. I share a little of my quest for the perfect writing tool and the specific features I needed.
Download from Google Drive:
Watch the walkthrough: czcams.com/users/livepNWQRjeZu0Y
Download here: drive.google.com/file/d/1fIjM...
After watching this, what are your questions? Drop them below!
🔍 Key Points:
Dominic's Objectives:
Dominic's needed a free, flexible tool that fosters creativity without constraints and provides simplicity and control.
Obsidian's Versatility:
Dive into Obsidian's vast array of features, including mood boards, kanban boards, and seamless idea organization.
Inspiration Integration:
Explore how Obsidian seamlessly integrates AI-generated art, Pinterest boards, and multimedia elements to fuel creativity.
Effortless Organization:
Witness the ease with which Obsidian handles world-building, character development, and location mapping through canvases.
Wiki-Like Connectivity:
Learn about Obsidian's unique linking feature, allowing for a wiki-like structure that enhances connectivity between different elements of the novel.
ChatGPT Collaboration:
Discover how Dominic incorporates ChatGPT within Obsidian for brainstorming and co-writing, turning it into a valuable writing companion.
Community Plugins:
Explore the additional features provided by community plugins, enhancing Obsidian's functionality and tailoring it to individual needs.
🚀 Conclusion: Dominic's Obsidian adventure transforms a writing tool into a creative haven, providing aspiring novelists with inspiration, flexibility, and a co-pilot for their writing endeavors.
ABOUT LEGENDFICTION
The community for Christian nerds - Catholic & Orthodox fiction authors. Share your works in progress, give and get feedback, and double your writing output! Join our private community: legendfiction.com
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Helping authors write exciting novels, connect faith with fiction, and be a better Catholic! legendfiction.com/free-course - Zábava
Want to download this Obsidian setup as a free template? I recorded a walkthrough that you can download on my new video: czcams.com/users/livepNWQRjeZu0Y Hope it's helpful!
This is a great testament for the flexibility of Obsidian. Your point at the beginning is exactly why I love Obsidian - it isn't opinionated. It's not someone else's workflow, but rather you make it into the workflow that you need. I use Obsidian for research, but it is always cool to see how others are using it.
Thanks for chiming in!
What’s your research setup like? I stumbled upon this because I’m considering writing something - but I’m actually a researcher 🤓
@@danielleps0 Obsidian is great for both use cases. For research, I am primarily taking meeting notes, brainstorming ideas, linking ideas together, and syncing my Readwise (reader) account with Obsidian as a way to bring in what I read and then link it to relevant notes/writing.
@@andricheli The reader-notes linking is definitely something I need. I have a clunky onenote process for that now. Thanks!
I'm not a novelist but a filmmaker working on a new series with lots of lore and collaborators. This seems like an easy way to keep the worldbuilding in one place. Thanks mentioning this!
What a great idea! what kind of film series are you working on?
@@legendfiction A flipped supernatural world where the protagonists are cryptids (vampires, werewolves, etc.) navigating human society trying to eradicate them. There are multiple formats of content (video, audio, text) that will augment an eventual mainline series. Basically it's a DIY Marvel MCU ;)
Sweet! That sounds really fun. Hope to hear more about that sometime! I love cryptozoology - cryptomythology stuff.
It's pretty rare to have this much detail on a writing workflow. I love how you organise your ideas. It's simple enough to be clear but complex enough to be extensive and deal with a lot of type of data at the same time.
I will definitely use your workflow as inspiration. Mine is a bit messy.
thank you for the video
hey there! really cool to hear from you. :) what kind of project are you working on? I'd love to know what ends up working for you as you test stuff.
@@legendfiction I am usually using Obsidian for research. I mainly focus on the linking of ideas for a book that I'm writing.
At first, it was only non-fiction with some storytelling to explain and expand subject, but now it's more concentrated on the story. The main character live his life then reflect on event in a journal to better handle what's coming next.
I wanted to use your approach to add more clarity with character, places, and especially general structure.
That sounds like a smart way to go. Come back and let me know what works for you. I'm still evolving my workflow!
I use Obsidian to do worldbuilding for my dnd campaigns. Basically use it as a local wiki. It has been quite amazing!
fascinating. I've long wondered how worldbuilding for games could help worldbuilding for novels. :) would love to learn more about your usecase!
Thanks for taking us through the ways you use this. There seems to be a hundred tutorials on CZcams all covering the basics, but very few actual demonstrations of day-to-day use! Thanks.
Really glad you found it helpful. I think I watched all the ones you did, and didn't find one with my use case. :) How are you using it?
Thanks for sharing your experience with Obsidian! I am not very familiar with the different writing tools out there (I'm pretty technologically illiterate and just use Word or Google Docs for everything) but I am loving the idea of having a tool like this where I can organize all of my various projects and thoughts to more effectively craft my nonfiction books and fiction stories. I'm excited to look into this more!
Agreed! It's something I'm really glad I discovered too. Come back and tell us what you find out, if you go with it. :)
The reason I stopped using Obsidian is that it's too big. I ended up spending all my time configuring it, learning features and making it look pretty. I recommend Anytype for a more distraction-free version of the same thing.
That's helpful to know. I guess I haven't learned enough of what it can do to get stuck in it.
wow, the canvas feature is exactly what i've been looking for in a program! i can't believe i've used obsidian for a couple years and never noticed that feature. thanks!
glad its helpful!
As a user of Obsidian have you looked at Excalidraw as a plugin alternative to canvas? I find it great for building how different things link together. Great video and I love your layout of your vault
It was added in December 2022. If you right click on folder to add new, you will see it.
Obsidian has been such a relief. I've been using it for a little over a year now, and it's exactly what I didn't know I needed.
Awesome! How has it been a relief for you? What were you using before?
@@legendfiction A scattered assortment of Word files. And for years I was muttering to myself, "there has to be a better way than this..." Obsidian allows me to structure all of my projects, plans, reminders, etc. in a way that feels natural and is efficient to search through and update.
@@OldTomato44 that's exactly how I've been.
This is awesome!
I used obsidian for nanowrimo last year and had a lot of fun physically linking scenes together. I'm gonna have to mess around with the features you're showing, I don't think I even touched the canvas features quite yet
Thanks for chiming in! Come back and let us know what you think after messing around a bit. :)
Just so everyone knows, when you use obsidian for your job you will have to buy the commercial license. Yes the Obsidian team doesn't check this, they believe in honesty in the community so please be honest when you use obsidian
Great point. Obsidian deserves our support for making such a good tool free to use. I haven't yet used it for work. Interesting idea.
This is a great video for someone on the fence about switching to a new program. You had a very calming way of explaining how you use it without making it feel like you were hyping it up unnecessarily. I learned more from your video than I have from many other (longer) videos.
You made this simple. Thank you for that.
I'm so happy to hear that, and thank you for the kind words! What kind of tools have you been using to date?
@@legendfiction I’ve used Craft, Ulysses, Notion, Scrivener, and probably some others I can’t think of.
I'm quality assurance engineer, and I work with Obsidian myself. Honestly I use it with zettelkasten methodology, and it works perfectly. I'm more of note-oriented person, than building worlds, but projects and features I have designed in hub/second-brain like method, and I can easily go around and search relationships between features
how cool to have you stop by :) thanks for the comment!
@@legendfiction my feed is so random that it showed up to me, your workflow looks neat and nice
I was going to be mad that this video is a 19min ad, but then I saw it's free for personal use. If it's even close to as useful as the (imo) expensive Scrivener, I'm in. I'll give it a try...wearily.
Hope you find it helpful... and its not an ad. It's just me sharing my workflow. But hey, Obsidian... if you're noticing, I'll take my paycheck now!
I'm blown away by the almost Escher like perpective twist of the archway in the world building screen.
lol AI do be doing that at times.
I stumbled across this gem by pure chance and, wow, what a delightful surprise! I was so captivated that I watched the entire video! This is a really handy tool; I definitely will adopt it in my workflow. A huge shoutout and a heap of thanks for sharing this with us!
Wonderful! I'm so happy it might be helpful for you. Come back sometime and let us know how you get along!
exactly what i need. thanks for sharing!
I'm very glad! Have fun!
Just discovered your channel today and I love your content. You seem so centred and sincere. No BS content and very useful. Thank you so much! Subscribed, hit the like button and even shared with a few author friends.
That's really nice of you! Totally made my day here. Glad its helpful, and hope to follow more of your journey.
I absolutely love this ❤ Thank you for this insight. I didnt know about the canvas thing. This looks really amazing.
Awesome! Yes, the canvas may be disabled by default,and many miss that. Let me know sometime how you get along with it!
Thank you for this amazing video - all your tips are so clever! I've been using Obsidian on-and-off for years never quite managing to customize it to my liking and always switching back to Notion. I still use Notion for my everyday task management and workflow but I've really been struggling with using it as a writing tool. Your video has now given me so many ideas to try and implement in my own Obsidian system.
I'm glad it was helpful! Come back sometime and let us know how you make it work for you!
Love the Kanban board for acts! Very inspiring and keen to try that out. I also love the use of generative art for moodboards and plotting character journeys on Obsidian Canvas. I haven't given any of these a go so thanks for the ideas and inspiration. Much appreciated!
Awesome! Thank you! What kind of writing project are you working on these days? :)
Been looking for a way to set up obsidian for writing and worldbuilding. Thanks so much. :)
Glad its helpful! What kind of worldbuilding projects are you working on?
@@legendfiction something where a city state is the main focal point in a high fantasy setting.
I didn't expect to find a new channel or tool I love but here we are! Also, great voice, needs to do audio books. Soooooo soothing. But seriously, thanks! Also this works well for older macOS where others don't, I'm running Mojave.
Nice to meet you! Glad you enjoyed the walkthrough :)
I am planning to write my first novel this year so this sounds perfect and exactly what I need... thank u
Congrats on your first novel! what are you writing about? Glad this walk-through might be helpful for you :)
You explained this like the bob ross of novel writing and I meam that as the highest of compliments. I will be downloading.
thanks friend :)
(takes a clumsy bow.)
what are you writing these days?
Exactly what I needed to see! Great work!
Really glad it's helpful! What kinds of projects are you working on?
WOW! This is pure magic! Thanks for the video
So glad its helpful! Are you writing any projects these days?
@@legendfiction Quite a few, actually! But what catches me the most is the option to jump from regular writing to the canvas mode. As a visual professional, sometimes my brain just work better dragging boxes around 🤣😆 Thank you again for your content!
I hear you! I think I work in the same way.
Wow thanks youtube for the recommendation, I was looking for such a tool since 3 years... I am using a paying one but don't use it for month too, this one is very close to what I need in term of organisation and being able to visualy follow things. I'm so happy !
Many thanks !
I'm really glad you found it helpful! What was the tool you were using before?
@@legendfiction World of Andvil, which is more like a wiki online tool but with organisation subtool like Timeline, ancestry, map management etc... At first it was nice but the more they added feature the less I found my way in it and I started to complement with OneNote a lot for mindmap, research or extra idea.
That was becoming a nightmare to organise to be honest, I see plenty of things were Obsidian is going to actually be more flexible without the bloat :D
That's so cool to hear that you're seeing a new way forward. I haven't used those tools - mostly because their sense of design and identity was too strong, and interfered with my own mindflow. :)
@@legendfictionYou are right it is very difficult to abstract the visual and organisation identity of World of Andvil, they aimed at roleplayer from big franchise at first, that's why... For OneNote I feel it was more neutral but could become very laggy... both require internet connection too, which is a liability when "on the go".
In the end, I was back to the very trusty paper sketchbook full of post-it always in my backpack. That's how I managed until then... sktechbook idea --> export onenote --> convert to text --> wold of andvil...
That was way too heavy... spend too much time on tool rather than creation...
Anyway, downloaded Obsidian and gonna fiddle a bit with it :)
This is absolutely great, Thanks mate! ❣
Fantastic! Thanks for stopping by!
Wonderful video. I didn't know Obsidian was this capable. Thanks for sharing.
Glad it was helpful! What tools are you using these days?
I'm used to using CherryTree but I want to move to something else. So I've been eyeing Obsidian and Logseq@@legendfiction
God I've been looking for something like this since YEARS!
Finally!
Hope its helpful! What kind of tools have you been using so far?
this will help so much, thank you
I'm glad 👊 I'd love to know how you get along with it. Come back and share your hacks sometime!
I've been using Scrivener and WOW. I had no idea what I was missing out on. I'm spending my evening converting everything over and going to be on this a lot! Thank you so much
Glad it was helpful! I never used Scrivener, but it looks like Obsidian has other uses Scrivener doesnt. and vice versa. What features in Scrivener would you leave behind?
@legendfiction Truthfully it seems that Obsidian does everything Scrivener does but in a much better and streamlined way! The Canvas festure and being able to create boards is incredible. Being able to drop videos and pictures etc... will be a game changer for me!
That is so cool :) I'm glad for you. I'd love to know how you end up afyer playing with it for a while.
@@hartlessforever Well I think Scrivener is better in outputting the Text in the right Format. But yes. Obsidian is so powerfull
I use both, and like them both a lot. I tend to get more immersed in my writing when in Scrivener, while I’m better at brainstorming in Obsidian.
This is great - started using this for my grpahic novel series (which is very deep lore and I am trying to add in the lore as nuggets, background info and in picture) so working through your demo was excellent. Thank you very much.
That sounds awesome! Glad my walk-through was helpful for you. What tool have you been using so far?
@@legendfiction Miro and Google Docs but a lot of the storyboarding and details get lost in documents
@@legendfiction Google Docs, Google Sheets, Miro (for storyboarding, linking contexts/character graphs), scanned pages of doodles... ...anything and everything
@@brianhourigan lol yeah, me too. I did all of that too!
This was great! A big help. I was trying to see how I could use Obsidian for exactly this purpose. Thank you.
How cool! Thanks for stopping by. What kind of project are you working on?
It was really helpful, thank you. I was looking for something like that to start my project.
excellent! what kind of project are you working on? a fellow fiction author?
I'm aiming at high fantasy, but who knows, it's still in an embryonary phase. I'm certain that the obsidian tools are going to help.
That's awesome. I'd love to know how you get along. Come back and sometime and share your own workflow tips! Plus, I want to hear what your high fantasy is about 🎉
Thanks I did not know that canvas would be so powerful, I try to use and migrate my document to obsidian now.
Hope you have fun with it! Let us know how you get along!
I DIDN'T KNOW CANVAS WAS A THING, that's amazing i always wanted something like that.. Damn i may have to learn obsidian as a test now. When i tried it it felt so clunky but this looks great compared to my basic notion page haha
Haha! yeah, it's quite a nifty tool. I'm enjoying it. Let me know how you get along! I tried notion for a hot minute, but the learning curve was steeper than my ADHD brain had time for. XD
felt like it's obvious to use canvas like this but it doesn't really register until I saw you using it 😭 thank you for sharing your workflow ❤
Very glad its helpful :) What kinds of projects are you working on?
OH WOW!!
working on my first ever book and dnd campaign, this will be so so useful, the apps i'm using rn are, as you said, work on someone else's workflow
also knowing me, i'm a very detailed worlbuilder so this is heaven
thank you so much for sharing about this and even explaining in details!!
Im stoked it can be helpful for you! Come back and let us know how you get along. You'll probably have other use cases that I've not thought of!
@@legendfictionhonestly, thank you again, i've already finished some very important things and kinda getting a grip on how everything works.
amazing program!!
surely will update on progress
that's awesome! best of luck, and I can't wait to hear how you get along. :)
Thank you for the detailed review! Good old suffering with Scivener cannot compete 😁
Glad it could be helpful for you! What kind of stories do you like to write about?
I’m currently on a writing block/ procrastinating but maybe this can help me come out of it and start writing again. Thank you for showing this😄
I'm very glad! Keep at it!
@@legendfiction will do, or try at least
I installed your template. It works really well.
I'm really glad!
@@legendfiction Thanks. I’m new to Obsidian and want to use it for writing historical novels (fiction based around actual events) and collecting research materials towards publishing. I will need notes of all types and materials. Can you reccommend a channel that can guide me through setup and collecting from various sources, preferably at beginner level? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. M
I don't have a favorite channel for learning Obsidian yet. I just watched a bunch of random videos to get an overview of it. wish i could be more helpful!
This looks super cool!
Hope you find it helpful!
Thanks!@@legendfiction
thanks to this video i decided to use the canvas feature for the first time, and i LOVE it. how i'm using it so far is, i am popping notes in with things i want to fully realise at Some point, and when i'm ready to expand on them i convert them into documents.
I'm also using the grouping feature a lot on the canvas, and i love you can have groups in groups, i have a "high council" group that's included in the "characters" group right now.
i'd been using obsidian occasionally for about a year and a half, since before the canvas feature was added, and i never really paid it much mind, but that was a mistake!
i still prefer scrivener for writing my actual prose, but it's also got a cost to it, and for brainstorming and worldbuilding i prefer obsidian
Smart thinking, there. Ive yet to really use the canvas seriously, and group things better. I'm already at the point where im thinking about the next easiest step to share chapters for feedback, and am thinking of Google Docs... I might look at what publishing Obsidian online can do...
I appreciate this video, didn't know obsidian existed. I tried Scrivner and liked it, but I think this may fit my needs more tbh.
That's really cool :) What kind of projects are you working on?
@@legendfiction I have a specific universe I’m writing for that will eventually be in a game my buddy and I plane on developing. I also have some other discovery written worlds that I have yet to dive much into. So a little bit of everything!
I’d love to do a video like this! I only use obsidian for my writing at this point. I’ve got a multi pov, non linear timeline series that I’m 500k words into and it became a lot. Obsidian allowed me to get more organized than I ever thought I would.
Wow! Dude, you totally should. I'd love to see how you've scaled up the use to that level.
I've been an Obsidian user for about a year. I started using the NovelCrafter App but it's not flexible enough (yet) so I agree with you that having a more flexible tool is the way to proceed, especiallly if you write fiction AND non-fiction (as the processes aren't identical and tools like NovelCrafter aren't designed for both).
I've also used Scrivener which is MORE flexible that most Apps but I've abandoned that also in favor of Obsidian.
Great into to Obsidian for Writers!
Thanks! I like how you break these down. I've never been able to use Scrivener, which is the OG in this space... but I don't think I'd enjoy it much anyway. Not my speed. :D What kind of stories or workflow have you needed that Obsidian meets for you?
Such neat ideas -- I like the way you think about writing. I have Notes from a dozen sources or so for world building -- ready to get a little more complicated. I want to use Dataview to make lists while I'm weaving subplots and character arcs... We'll see how it goes.
Hope you have fun with it!
Is it just me or is there a delay in the voiceover? Maybe I'm crazy, haha. Either way, this seems like an awesome program and I can't wait to use it!
nope, you're not crazy. I accidentally left a gap when I was doing a trim on the video. It was meant to be for 2 friends, so I wasn't worried about it being perfect. LOL now its out there making a ton of friends I didn't expect. Hope you have fun with it!
Great for organization.
agreed!
I've used Scrivener for years, but I really love Obsidian. Mostly planned on using Obsidian for my TTRPG games. They are very similar in so many ways, but now that I'm starting some rewrites I'm considering using Obsidian. I'm restructuring a lot of what I do, so I may as well try this.
How cool! Thanks for dropping by. I've not used Scrivener. What do you like more about Obsidian?
@@legendfiction I currently use it to create a database of my life. Personal things like my library and my professional gear (I'm a filmmaker). I don't know if I like Obsidian more than Scrivener. However, I've been thinking of using Obsidian for part of the writing process. Which would still include Scrivener.
smart. good for you!
Hey! This is incredible, and because of your video I've chosen to start using Obsidian as well. What plugins would you recommend? Would it be possible for you to make another video of the ones you use?
Really glad it's helpful :) So far, the plugins I'm using are few, mostly to keep it running fast. I've got
- Editing Toolbar
- File Explorer ++
- Image Converter
- Kanban
- Plugin Update Tracker
-Typewriter Mode
- Canvas Send to Back
I was using Iconize, but for some weird reason the icons wouldn't stick after reloading, so I dropped it. Might be a bug, and I don't have the tech knowhow to dig into things.
The Theme is called Minimal.
The Kanban setup is interesting. It also has occurred to me that text in Kanban cards supports ! embedding, meaning each scene can be worked on in separate files and then combined on the board. Files can also have a short summary and the full script, so Kanban can embed only descriptions by paragraph for visibility.
If you're that good ar Obsidian, you're probably right! Im not, and I haven't slowed down to learn more of the tech. But yes, you totally could have full on chapters in a Kanban, if you can truncate them.
I learned about this app a few weeks ago b/c it has a small (dedicated) following for people that play tabletop RPG games. It is a clever way to plan out multi-session scenarios or campaigns. None of those videos mentioned your plugins though. I'm DMing for a group and I started using the app. I can't wait to add some of these plugins and start tinkering.
How cool! I'm glad it's helpful. It's fascinating how many use cases there are out there. What kind of RPG games to you play?
@@legendfiction Pathfinder + DnD. Running my group thru a PF scenario that I converted to 5th edition DnD rules. Obsidian is honestly a perfect tool for campaign management. File Explorer++, Iconizer, and Banners are perfect additions. To get Copilot/ChatGPT working my understanding is I have to tie a credit card to my API key, but I only pay per usage. Can you comment to give an idea of how much it realistically costs? I use ChatGPT a ton to create descriptions and flavor text.
Ive used ChatGPT for a year now, and its been like pennies. Maybe a few bucks after several months
I’ve been between several notes apps for my projects through the decade. Aside from having a good and quick editor, one of my requirements has been something that syncs well on mobile devices. If I’m ever out in the wild and get a notion (pun not intended) that I want to capture, I want to be able to do it from my phone! There are a myriad number of ways to do it, but the ideal for me is to 1) not be “stuck” in Apple Notes or Google Notes, and 2) not have to spend a bunch of time copying and pasting from one system to another. I personally love Notion, but I’ve worked myself into a corner in having too complex a system that it becomes difficult to categorize everything. I gave Obsidian a try in the past, but it was slow to open each time. I think I’m going to give it another go, and just make sure to turn off all plugins on mobile (if possible). The plugins you showed for your writing process look incredible!
I hear you! I've struggled to try to get obsidian to sync or to access notes on my phone but that might be a paid plan and I do like trying to figure things out for free first. So my go-to is to use Google keep on my phone and then transfer it over on my desktop to obsidian.
I'm using Doom Emacs with Org-Roam. Mainly because it allows me to just create functions specific to how I like to work. Entry is really fast. Single key-presses call the most common tasks. It's my main hub that pushes to Obsidian for specific franchises / projects. So Emacs has everything in a way that would bring Obsidian down too much in performance. But using custom links that call Obsidian pages/vaults is pretty close to my ideal setup. Proper Desktop Bus support would make it more seamless.
I have no idea what this means, but I'm really glad you do. (not tech savvy on this end!) Thanks for stopping by :)
@@legendfiction if you ever want to give Emacs a try anyway: I made an Emacs for Writers repository on GitHub. It’s based on Spacemacs which is slower than Doom but more beginner friendly. It’s what I learned Emacs with. If I put a link here, the comment just gets removed again.
Very great video! I love your workflow and some ideeas actually mighy help me too.
I, personally, use obsidian for a lot of things, but mainly for reading books and learning code, which makes me change it's appearance a lot because I found that useful for learning css.
If you change the appearance a lot though, the canvas might not work properly, so I try to find an alternative ^^" .
Have fun in obsidian! It's truly a very powerful tool
Thanks for sharing your take! I'm looking forward to playing more with it.
I would love to see more on your setup( plugins, icon packs, look-and-feel, themes) and how you use them. Ghostwriter for several years; love the way you keep yourself motivated by adding AI art! Brilliant!
Oops! Never mind, found it! Thank you so much. Please keep these videos coming.
Thanks, friend! I don't have much else to add at this point. You can check out the free vault setup that Im using today. Might be good to do a 3 months later review, or something :) anything more specific I can be helpful with for you?
@@legendfiction Thank you so much. Right now I am having fun setting up a new space on my Obsidian. I have also been tasked against my nature to be repulsed by AI to delve into it. Not going to lie: it's very interesting. Thanks again for the inspiration.
Come back and let us know how you get along!
Thank you so much for sharing. I have installed Obsidian thanks to your video. The kanban board pluggin was exactly what I’ve been missing, and just the overall organization of my thoughts. I’ve been really stuck on my first story and I hope this will help propel me forward. What ai art generator do you use? I love the idea of spurring my imagination and creativity with some images for my sci-fi story
So glad it's helpful for you too! I'm still trying to decide if it's the best tool for actual writing in, but it's good for organizing. I'm using Midjourney for my art generation. There are several others, like Leonardo AI. It's become a phenomenal source of inspiration for me! What kinds of projects are you working on?
How did you modify the Kanban width? Did you create your own version of the Github repo and model it from there, or is there a more accessible way to do it?
Also, are you concerned about relying on mods that don't seem to be updated, at all?
All I did was add CSS file, and add a line of css there. If you check the video of the template I'm sharing, I walk through how to tweak some of the settings.
I'm not too concerned about updates since Im not forking or modding anything substantial. Just cosmetic.
The problem with it is that even when paid for the more expensive subscription tier for sync, the sync itself is still extremely limited, especially when you consider it's 2024 and the sync should be basic optional feature when you pay for it...
Good to know. Thanks for chiming in!
this is awesome, thanks. I will try, Question, is the information on your Canvas about Characters coming from the notes ? In order words, do you write in the notes and then create the canvas to organize them, so they are linked together ? or is it more of a copy and past from notes to canvas (or kanban)
Yes, I start out creating notes, then add images, and when they start to get longer - meaning they scroll - then I convert them into documents. That way my canvas is the visual way I organize my worldbuilding. The canvas shows the original notes on a single page, so you're not copy-pasting. :) hope this helps!
You made me realize that I don't need PureRef, having Obsidian canvas. Thank you.
good for you! what kind of projects are you working on?
@@legendfiction Game development and systems administration. I think I'm an Obsidian fanboy at this point.
lol good for you :) I'd love to learn more about game dev sometime
I have scrivner, it has alot of features but you can easily get overwhelmed by all of it. I still think its worth the money at 60 bucks. Espeically when i want to get into screenplay writing.
Obsidian looks interesting to use.
That's helpful to know! Scrivener has a huge fan base, for sure.
Thanks for the info, my oldest daughter has written 5 books but it still trying to make money at it.
we all wish her the best!
Great vid
Glad you enjoyed it!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hey! I would like to ask how did you make something like your scenes tab possible? I mean, I don't find such a function in obsidian. Is this some kind of plugin? This feature looks very cool❤
Hey there, you mean the Kanban board? Toggle that on in the main settings.
What plugin are you using for the mood board? Great video, thank you 😊
That's the inbuilt Canvas feature. May just be switched off for you?
Well shit this was exactly what I needed for my project. My word wiki doc is long, clumsy and way too tedious to edit so I have notes spread everywhere. Very nice.
Glad its helpful! What's your project about?
HOLD UP! Firstly, I agree with you about Obsidian. I LOVE it for writing. It makes organizing and referencing so sleek. It works wonders for my very easily distracted brain and keeping on track with what I am trying to accomplish. This vid earned you a subscriber in me!
But secondly, I just happened to stumble upon this video, and saw what you have on your wall! I may be extremely biased, but I think you have excellent taste! (Made my day seeing that tapestry pop up on a random video I clicked! Is that one the printed version or the woven version?)
LOL thanks for the fun comment! It's really awesome in that way. Tell me more about what you're working on, and how you've made it work for you?
Yes! I love Redwall. Need to read the books again someday. The version I have is printed, not woven. What's your favorite book in the series?
@@legendfiction I do a lot of world building in obsidian for a fictional universe of mine that is very Jacques meets Tolkien with a dash of Lewis, mid-fantasy animal fiction. But I do have a bad case of world builder's disease in that I am so wrapped up in the world building I have not yet wrote out a full novel in universe as of yet. But it's only a matter of time now thanks to obsidian. I find that because I can use it like a wiki for my own brain, keeping my writing consistent with what I have developed for the world is a million times easier. I like using the canvas feature to develop timelines for each character, or family trees, or even to map out the plot in a visual way.
Methinks you need the woven version 👀. If that interests you, perhaps we can get in touch.
Ok... that world sounds pretty epic. I have my own Jacques meets Tolkien and Stargate world... but mostly about mice.
World building is tough. I've got a world Im writing that keeps expanding, and I have to use specific techniques to get me writing, or I'll get lost! 😅😢
tell me more about the woven version?
@@legendfiction I was thinking the content you were showing in this video demo seemed somewhat Redwall-esque with the creature characters! Definitely caught my attention :)
The woven version is a 60" x 80" cotton blanket, made of woven threads, meant to mimic an actual tapestry, where the design is part of the construction of the blanket, rather than a print which is ink layered on top of the fabric. Basically the higher quality version of my tapestry design.
@@NovaNocturneArt Now it's my turn! HOLD UP! You're the artist for that tapestry? That's so cool! yes, the story I demoed has a Redwall-ish inspiration. Your cotton blanket sounds epic.
I used to use Anvil for worldbuilding, but the features I really wanted I would have to pay for. I recently started using OneNote, and that has a decent amount of features. It seems as if this program is similar but even better, though OneNote does have a better layout. Now it looks like I'll spend the day learning how to use Obsidian lol
I watched a couple of tutorials, and its easy to get into! How did you make out with it?
Personally I like Notion more. I do not say that it is better or easier, I just like it more. Obsidian, I haven't tried it yet but I have seen many videos about it.
thanks for chiming in. I tried Notion for a little while. Its quite powerful.
Looks like a versatile tool that could be used for novels, role-playing games, film scripts, and more. I'm wondering even about historians using it to organize writing projects, research, footnotes, bibliographies. Is there a feature built in that already incorporates footnotes/citations and citation styles (Chicago Style, etc.?)
You're right! folk use it for all sorts of reasons, exactly as you describe. For footnotes, great question; I've not needed it yet, so I can't say. you'll want to explore their community plugins, or they have some relatively simple coding where you can link to external notes, then display them inline.
thank you so much for the video it helped me alot ~ but can i ask for the image that u used at the start of the video i fall in love with it ... i want to use it as wallpaper
It is a graphic I generated with Midjourney :) Here is a link to it:
drive.google.com/file/d/1T88lfLo3Uy796LCThhtIv50DXurfzXdN/view?usp=drivesdk
@@legendfiction THANK YOU so much !!~~ amd yes i love it ~
I do too! one of my favorites :)
This looks very similar to what I've been using "One Note" and "One Note for Windows 10" for. So this might be a very useful backup or alternative.
Very cool. I've not played with that. I've used Upnote, which has a lovely design. This has more function for me, so far.
@@legendfiction Yah, looking at your videos i see the functionality. I just downloaded your Obsidian template. Thank you for that, I'll need to learn and test out a setup that'll work for me.
The sight of it looks like Figma all over again.
Visual planner and worldbuilding outliner? It's interesting.
Really? Fascinating. I've not used Figma much, but I can see what you mean about the canvas.
@@legendfiction Figma is mostly used for Web Development. I saw the layout and tried it, but the organization of the hierarchy feels similar.
Trello is also an interesting site, but it's more of a planner for projects...
yeah, I've used those as well in the past. have you tried them for fiction worldbuilding? I almost tried Asana, but never started.
I would definitely use gpt4
This is real encouraging. Going to try it today. Does anyone know if the pc version and mobile version sync(found it on iPad)?
good for you! I think they do if you pay for the full version of obsidian. I haven't done that yet. :)
in this example he has 2 books in a single vault. There are some advantages to this however, if want to go ham with the linking then I would recommend keeping each series in it's own vault. This way if you have say a character named greg two different series you won't run into conflicts.
Very smart. Yes, that's exactly the way. I've considered using a vault per novel. If It ever gets too complex, I'll just clone the vault and delete the books I don't need. Thanks for chiming in!
I use it in a really similar way. I a am a comic creator so I am really visual. And Canvas is a blessing. But when the canvas got really big it started to slow down, it seems to have performance issues. So I started using the excalidraw plugin. I use it for almost everything, but really similar to the structure you presented. I write the chapter more in a screenplay format So I had to play a lot with the format and the themes for that.
That seems really smart. I haven't yet used Excalidraw. A lot of folk have recommended it! What kind of comics do you create?
@@legendfiction Right now I am writing two comics. The first one is a Dark Fantasy one about a girl that is in a Asylum because she started seeing and hearing things that most people can't. She is crazy, basically...but is she?
The second is Fantasy/action about a Dreamworld and a battle that happens there, but which also affects the Real world in particular ways.
I come from an Illustration and concept art background. So if I created stories they were short just for the specific illustration or concept design. But I had so much fun that I started thinking that I wanted to create something more complex. So this 2 are my first stories. I want to have both of them to decide which one to serialize. So I have a long way to go!
Wow, these sound very cool! Im especially fascinated at your dreamworld idea. Love how much thought you put into your art!
I've been using Obsidian for a year. I can't believe I only now learned about the canvas lol I'm feeling like so stupid right now. I sure am glad I decided to click on this video
Thanks for chiming in! i think it's disabled by default. what do you use obsidian for?
@@legendfiction I've got one monolithic vault for note taking. Research, study notes, even recipes go there. It's huge, but Obsidian is really fast so doesn't lag at all. Seeing a recipe for chicken cacciatore next to a summary of convolutional neural networks, next to a workout routine may sound weird but I got used to it. Everything is in its own folder anyway so things are pretty tidy.
Then for each individual project I have a new vault that I use as the primary source of truth. I was also using Miro with it, but now that I learned about the canvas I may start relying less and less on Miro.
Seriously underrated software. I used to work with Evernote but they made some changes that I didn't like at all and made me look for an alternative. All in all I'm pretty happy with Obsidian.
thats incredible. my journey is only just beginning!
hi nice video what do you do to avoid the pictures showing in your side bar and making a mess?
I don't remember that feature! peobably poked through the settings and disabled everything that didnt feel obvious to me. Over time, I switch things back on as I realise I need them.
how did you change the width of the canban board columns?
I added a bit of CSS for myself. If you check the template video that I've pinned, you can see the code I used. I merely Googled a way to add a code snippet for my vault.
Great video! Thank you! I hope I'm the first one to ask this cz I couldn't find other comments about this: what do you use for AI gen.? Would you do a video about your process?
I'm a worldbuilder myself, I use OneNote and for now it's enough, but I've been out of the AI thing for a while now and I feel a bit lost
Glad its helpful. :) I'm using Midjourney, because I get a lot of use out of it. AI does move quickly! I try to use it regularly so that its a part of my tool and skill set.
Check out Midjourney tutorials on CZcams :) I dont know that I could do it better than them!
Great video. If possible, could you please share the file of the image in timestamp 1:08? Looks very cool!
That image is one I generated myself for my novel. :) It's created in MidJourney with the --niji feature.
The whole thing about being stuck on someone else's workflow is too real,
I "use" millanote but im missing a bunch of things i would use differently.
Trello too.
And this is free aswell? I must try this..
Seeing you go through this makes me feel excited to throw and try and make sense of, and organise my own because i have accumulated soooo much stuff over the years, it's currently stuck in notes only. Thanks for sharing. I wonder why i haven't seen these tools fly by yet..
I used to use Milanote and loved it. It works beautifully, and I completely loved the little design approaches they have. Plus the app is excellent. I started a whole 70K novel in that. But then I went 6 months not using it (job change), and even though the price was low, I didn't want to keep paying for it. So Obsidian has been an awesome replacement. Doesn't have all the nifty features, but close enough.
Hello ! This is a bit of a superficial comment, but I was watching your video when I realized that you have a very nice collection of symbols, in the library displaying the titles of your notes on the left of your screen. Do you remember where you got them or how I can get them ? Also I apologize if my English isn't clearly understandable, I can rephrase if necessary !
Not superficial at all! I really like having those icons. You can use the community plugin Iconize to download packs and assign them.
@@legendfiction Oh so that's a plugin! Thanks a lot for your answer! I discovered Obsidian yesterday, and your video really helped me understand how to organize and use the app to its best potential. Your explanations and classification are inspiring !
Do you create a separate vault for each book?
that's one idea :) For now, Im building all my books in a single vault and just expanding or collapsing the folder I'm working on. In the future, I could see one vault not being enough for all of the different notes and ideas. It might make sense to either create a new vault or clone my existing vault and delete all the stuff I don't want in it. I'm not using enough of Obsidian's amazing networking infrastructure to really make use of how it interconnects things. With my current process, it would end up interconnecting all kinds of different novels, like with the mind mapping tool. So I guess the answer is you create your own way that works best for you :)
how did you get those symbols by your labels?
Its an icon plugin, called Iconize, I think
Can you make a video on the art how you make this? Or in particular how to use ai to create character images?
The art is generated with Midjourney, using the Niji model. :) You'll find plenty of tuts on that. I don't know that I'd be able to add more value than what you can already find by amazing accounts here on CZcams.
That's interesting. I never use canvas because I normally don't use images while working. Maybe it's a good way to improve my work process. The reason I started using obsidian is because campfire suck. The developers seem to focusing on monetization than caring about the users of their desktop app. Though the real problem is that campfire won't allow me to work like I wanted to. The moment I tried obsidian, that's love at first sight. Obsidian is free and superior. Before campfire I used google doc too, but I don't even know where to start about my hatred for light mode that google love so much.
LOL ive not used Campfire, but I've seen it. Google doc is what Im using for my feedback round with beta readers.
Which plugins are you using?
My list has changed a little since this recording, but I go through the list of plug-ins in this video.
What theme are you using?
I think it's the default theme in this video. You might see if its not as I scroll through the settings. :)
This is really cool! Can I ask you what AI art generator you use?
Sure! I use Midjourney for my art.
I use obsidian every day as a software engineer and for documentation purposes. This is a very versatile tool 🤍
Very cool to know. Ive seen how others use it for journalling, which is realt smart.
is there a way to save to cloud/backup?
Yeah, I've got Google Drive, and I save my vaults in there. Obsidian has its own Cloud service that you can pay for, but I haven't used it.
can you please name all the plugins in the video ?
Sure! If you jump to about 14:23 you'll see me walk through them all.
Weird question: could I use this to organize a mod I want to make for Fallout 3? Things like flowcharts, mixed text and image notes, organizing dialogue choices etc.
And can I sync between the mobile app and my desktop? This would be huge for me as a student.
Sounds like it is doable :) if you pay for the Obsidian Sync plan, you can get it across devices, I think.