Why I love Obsidian for writing novels and fiction worldbuilding

Summary

In this video, the speaker introduces Obsidian, a versatile and free tool for writers to organize and brainstorm their novels. They share their personal setup for world-building, character development, and scene planning, highlighting features like mood boards, note-taking, and linking documents akin to a wiki. The script also touches on the use of community plugins and the integration of AI for a brainstorming companion, showcasing how Obsidian can enhance creativity and productivity in novel writing.

Takeaways

• 📚 The speaker discovered and recommends 'Obsidian' as a powerful tool for novel writing and world-building.
• 💡 Obsidian offers a free and flexible alternative to paid tools, which is beneficial for writers with limited budgets.
• 🌐 It functions like a personal Wiki, allowing users to create interlinked documents and notes.
• 🎨 The tool supports the creation of mood boards and canvases for visual inspiration and organization.
• 📝 Users can easily convert notes into documents when they become too lengthy or need more detailed development.
• 🔍 Obsidian provides a 'scenes' feature, which acts like a kanban board for organizing novel chapters and scenes.
• 🖼️ The tool allows for the incorporation of images, AI-generated art, and even music or video links into the workspace.
• 📐 It enables writers to create visual connections between elements, such as characters, locations, and plot points.
• 📚 The speaker emphasizes the simplicity and ease of use of Obsidian, which requires minimal setup and can be personalized.
• 🔄 Obsidian supports community plugins to extend functionality, such as file explorer, iconizer, image converter, and typewriter mode.
• 🤖 The tool integrates with AI like Chat GPT for a co-writing experience, providing ideas and solving creative blocks.

Q & A

What tools were initially used by the speaker and their friends for world-building and brainstorming?

The speaker and their friends initially used tools like Google Docs, Word documents, and text files for world-building and brainstorming.

What tool did the speaker discover and start using for their novels?

The speaker discovered and started using Obsidian for their novels.

What features of Obsidian does the speaker highlight as beneficial for their writing process?

The speaker highlights features like creating mood boards, Kanban boards, linking notes, organizing pictures, and integrating different types of media as beneficial in Obsidian.

Why did the speaker prefer a free tool over paid tools for their writing process?

The speaker preferred a free tool because they had periods when they weren't writing consistently, making it impractical to pay for tools they were not using regularly.

What does the speaker use mood boards for in Obsidian?

The speaker uses mood boards in Obsidian to gather and organize visual inspirations, such as pictures from Google, AI-generated art, and Pinterest boards, to inspire their writing.

How does the speaker use the Kanban board feature in Obsidian?

The speaker uses the Kanban board feature to organize their novel into different columns for acts or sections, allowing them to drag and drop cards representing scenes or elements and maintain a structured overview of their work.

What are some examples of items the speaker adds to their canvases in Obsidian?

The speaker adds items like character notes, creature descriptions, location details, and elements of their magic system to their canvases in Obsidian.

How does the speaker integrate external media into their Obsidian notes?

The speaker integrates external media by embedding pictures, YouTube videos, Pinterest boards, and other types of content directly into their Obsidian notes and canvases.

What feature does the speaker use to keep their cursor centered while writing in Obsidian?

The speaker uses the typewriter mode feature in Obsidian, which keeps the cursor centered on the screen while writing.

How does the speaker utilize ChatGPT within Obsidian?

The speaker utilizes ChatGPT within Obsidian as a brainstorming buddy and co-writer, asking it for ideas, suggestions, and solutions to specific writing-related queries.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Discovering Obsidian for Novel Organization

The speaker introduces a new tool called Obsidian, which they've been using for organizing their novels. They share their experience with traditional tools like Google Docs and Word documents but find Obsidian more adaptable and less distracting. Obsidian allows for creating mood boards, organizing ideas, and documents with ease. The speaker has been using it for two novels and encourages others to share their experiences with the tool.

05:01

🎨 Utilizing Obsidian for Creative World Building

The speaker elaborates on how they use Obsidian for world building in their novels. They describe creating mood boards with AI-generated art and other media for inspiration. Obsidian's flexibility lets them organize characters, creatures, and locations with visual cues and links to Pinterest boards or music. The tool also supports creating documents from notes, which can then be further developed into detailed character profiles or other elements of the story.

10:01

📝 Organizing Writing with Obsidian's Canvas and Kanban Board

The speaker demonstrates how they organize their writing process using Obsidian. They use a canvas for visual inspiration and a kanban board for structuring scenes in their novel. The kanban board allows for adding columns and cards, which can be easily rearranged and linked to detailed documents. This method provides a simple yet effective way to plan and track the development of the story.

15:02

🔗 Linking Ideas and Enhancing Writing with Obsidian

The speaker discusses the interlinking feature of Obsidian, which enables them to connect ideas and elements within their writing. They can create links to characters, locations, and other documents, turning their notes into a comprehensive wiki. The speaker also mentions the use of community plugins to enhance Obsidian's functionality, such as file explorer, iconizer, and image converter.

🤖 Integrating AI for Brainstorming and Writing Assistance

The speaker highlights the integration of AI, specifically chat GPT, with Obsidian to act as a brainstorming buddy and co-writer. They can ask for ideas, get suggestions for improving chapters, and even generate funny scenarios inspired by the text or other authors. This feature allows the speaker to enhance their writing process without the need to consult external sources, streamlining their creativity and productivity.

Keywords

💡Obsidian

Obsidian is a powerful knowledge management tool that the speaker uses for organizing and writing novels. It is a markdown-based note-taking app that allows for interlinking notes and ideas, creating a web of knowledge. In the video, the speaker discusses using Obsidian for mood boards, character development, and world-building, highlighting its flexibility and the ability to customize the workspace to fit their writing process.

💡World Building

World building refers to the process of constructing an imaginary world for a novel, including its geography, history, cultures, and magic systems. The speaker uses Obsidian to create a 'canvas' for world building, where they can visually organize and link different elements of their fictional universe, such as characters, locations, and magical elements.

💡Mood Board

A mood board is a collection of images, text, and other materials that help to convey a certain atmosphere or style. In the context of the video, the speaker mentions creating a mood board in Obsidian to inspire their novel writing, using AI-generated art and other visual elements to set the tone for their story.

💡Character Development

Character development is the process of creating and evolving characters in a story. The speaker discusses using Obsidian to create detailed notes on each character, starting with a simple note and then converting it into a more comprehensive document as the character's profile grows. This allows for a flexible and dynamic approach to character creation.

💡Canvas

In the context of the video, a canvas in Obsidian is a virtual space where the speaker organizes different elements of their novel, such as characters, creatures, and locations. The speaker uses canvases to create a visual representation of their world and story, allowing for easy rearrangement and expansion of ideas.

💡Kanban Board

A Kanban board is a project management tool that helps visualize work, limit work-in-progress, and increase deliverables. The speaker mentions using a Kanban board within Obsidian to organize scenes for their novel, allowing them to easily add, move, and delete scenes as they plan and write their story.

💡Interlinking

Interlinking in Obsidian refers to the ability to create connections between different notes, creating a network of related information. The speaker highlights this feature as a way to organize their writing, allowing them to link characters, locations, and plot points together, which aids in maintaining consistency and providing a deeper understanding of the story's elements.

💡Community Plugins

Community plugins are additional features created by the user community of a software that can extend its functionality. The speaker mentions using community plugins in Obsidian to enhance their writing experience, such as adding a file explorer for easier organization and a typewriter mode for a focused writing environment.

💡Co-Pilot

In the video, the term 'Co-Pilot' is used to describe the integration of an AI tool, like Chat GPT, with Obsidian to assist in the writing process. The speaker uses it as a brainstorming buddy, providing ideas for improving chapters or generating creative content based on prompts, without replacing the writer's original ideas.

💡Typewriter Mode

Typewriter mode is a feature in Obsidian that keeps the cursor centered on the screen as you write, providing a distraction-free writing environment. The speaker mentions using this mode to maintain focus while writing their novel, illustrating how Obsidian can be customized to suit individual writing preferences.

💡Brainstorming

Brainstorming is the process of generating a multitude of ideas in a short amount of time. The speaker uses the AI integration in Obsidian for brainstorming, asking for ideas related to their novel's content, such as food based on Christmas sauce or funny events for a chapter, demonstrating how the tool can facilitate creative thinking.

Highlights

Introduction of a new tool for world-building and brainstorming called Obsidian.

Obsidian allows for more control and freedom compared to Google Docs or Word documents.

The speaker has been using Obsidian for two novels and finds it highly beneficial.

Obsidian can be used for mood boards, organizing pictures, and ideas quickly.

The tool functions like a Wiki, offering more freedom than traditional online tools.

Obsidian is free and does not require payment during periods of inactivity.

The speaker demonstrates how to create mood boards and organize characters in Obsidian.

Obsidian supports the creation of documents from notes and vice versa.

The tool enables visual organization with canvases and the ability to link elements.

Obsidian can be used to create a scene board for novel structure and organization.

The speaker shares personal methods for staying organized with Obsidian during novel writing.

Obsidian has a feature for interlinking text, creating a Wiki-like experience.

Community plugins are available to enhance Obsidian's functionality.

The tool includes a typewriter mode to keep the cursor centered on the document.

Obsidian can be connected to Chat GPT for a co-writing and brainstorming experience.

The speaker encourages others to share their Obsidian setups and writing processes.

Obsidian's simplicity and flexibility make it an attractive tool for writers.

The speaker provides tips for getting started with Obsidian and customizing it to one's needs.

Transcripts

hi there a little something different as

we kick off the new year I was having a

great conversation during a morning

writing session with a couple of friends

and we started talking about different

tools that we use for how to World build

and brainstorm and stay organized and I

learned that a couple of our friends are

using um things like Google Docs or Word

documents or text files all the kinds of

stuff that I used and I discovered this

amazing tool called obsidian that I've

been testing for two of my novels and

I've been loving the process so I shared

it with them and it just you could see

sort of the lights going off in their

eyes and that just made me think okay

let me share a brief 15minute kind of

walkthrough of how I've set up obsidian

to work for me in writing novels just

switched off all the stuff that I don't

need to see so it can give you maybe

some inspiration for how to get

organized um and how to have an

incredible New Year with writing your

novels so let me know what you think and

if you use obsidian drop a comment and

let me know uh what you end up doing

with it or let us know what tools you're

using that you really enjoy and then

maybe share why hey friends so so I want

to share with you a really delightful uh

tool that I've been using to organize my

novels um so when it comes to my novel

writing I've not been able to be as

consistent as I wanted to be so paying

for a tool has not proved practical um

there's just been dead months where I'm

paying for something that I'm not using

and if you're like me you don't have a

lot of income for that sort of thing so

I needed something free I also wanted

something that would allow me to do kind

of whatever I wanted to do um as opposed

to a lot of really amazing tools online

where you're kind of forced into

somebody else's process or there's too

many Design Elements and for my brain I

just get distracted by the colors and by

everything so I wanted something that I

could set up that I could have more

control over that I could just get in

and start creating stuff really quickly

I also wanted something that could act

like a Wiki so there are things you can

do with Google Docs and so on but I

really wanted something that would allow

me uh more freedom I wanted mood boards

I wanted can band boards I want to be

able to just simply write the novel um

organize pictures organize ideas and do

it really easily and really quickly so

here's the tool that I have found I give

you a quick walk through um I can't show

you all of the steps of how to use

obsidian you'll need to go on YouTube

and do your own research and and stuff

for that um but here's an overview and

how I'm using it so for example I've got

this one novel that for children that

I'm messing around with called so far

days of marry and bright and I've

created a mood board right which is

lovely I can do things like take

pictures from Google or in my case I've

generated AI art to inspire myself and I

can just drop them in here before I get

a sense of what they are how I'm going

to use them but I also really like about

this I can take my Pinterest board and I

can drop that in there if I find a piece

of music or a YouTube video I can drop

that in here all of my ideas and

research and elements all of that can

just go straight in cure you can then

also theyve got this little thing down

the bottom you can add a note where you

can type anything into it you can

actually even s a little color uh for

this if you like it make them any size

and you it's just like having little

sticky notes you can just drop them

right in there you can f them anywhere

you like um you can also create uh if

you add a note from your Vault so um if

you are just starting out you may not

have them but if you do have larger

documents for example let me pull up

something I've written uh here is a a

character that I've created so I can

take that document and drop it in here

let's let's say for example we Zoom to

this selection so pull that right in and

then if I want to I can go ahead and

open it in a new tab and now go ahead

and continue typing and working on this

document so as a a place for mood boards

it is really fantastic because you can

just click and drag and move things

anywhere and kind of resize them so

that's just kind of I created the canvas

um which is called World building

uh and then I made another canvas called

characters and this pulls in all of the

characters as you can imagine characters

are working on I put a little picture

for each one each one of these is a

document and they started out by being a

note so I would just say okay I need a

character note start describing the

character right in here you know

describe the character and then at a

certain point decide okay this is

getting too long so I'm just going to

right click and I'm going to convert it

into a file and then it becomes a

document so let's go ahead and do that

and let's call this you know test 1 2 3

and there it is automatically gets added

right there so I can sit right here in

this m board let's say I'm making a

magic system and I can create cards for

each of the different elements right

here put in a picture um and when it

starts getting too long or if I decide I

want everything to be its own little

files I can just right click and do that

convert it into a document for this one

I'm just going to delete

that um 81 of these again you can just

right click on them open in a new tab if

you want to get into the details that

that you're writing or you can just

quite simply scroll right down in here

to get access to that information um so

I did that for characters and I added a

little little icon for a character I

created a canvas for creatures um not as

organized I'm just dropping stuff in

here here's one form they evolve into

this form maybe

um if actually I can show you another

one here let's say creatures this one

here is more organized there's a lot

more in here there's like bad things

down here and there's good things up

here and so pair pictures with these

things at some point I'm going to get

more organized take the picture turn

this into a uh convert it into a file

and then drop that image right in there

to start pairing things up and I'm still

kind of figuring it out you can also

take little arrows and you can indicate

okay this is going to go let's say

that's going to connect to that there

and it's a way to show a little bit of

organizing so I'm just going to close

that one there um here for example you

can see how I've done that with location

so I've got a bunch of visual cues to

inspire myself for where I'm writing the

novel so for example characters start

here and then they're going to go there

and then there and there and then here's

you can then outline for example the

whole journey of where it's all going to

go and um you know just keep inspiring

yourself if you don't have a picture or

something and just link it to a Blog

adding descriptions

um fantastic little tool as a canvas or

a mood board you can do kinds of do

basically anything you want here's the

other thing that I like a lot it's

called um I've called it scenes it's a

can B board I added a little bit I

tweaked the code a little bit to be a

little bit larger for myself but it

actually shows up uh narrower and um

more shows up on the screen but it's a

can band board which means you can add

as many columns as you like they call

them like a list so let's do one here

call test there it is it adds a new

thing to the side going to go okay let's

say this is going to be I don't know

maybe we want to do a Callum here called

Magic

system and then let's add a card um I

don't know Firebolts something and then

you can press either enter or shift

enter and now that's created as a card

you can also right click and make a

note from that card and there it is

testing we have now created let's close

that see how that automatically now

links off to that card let's go ahead

and close that close the new tab go back

to where we were with scenes so I

structured this I just needed a threea

structure um so I created three columns

and that's a big simple way for me to

get organized with my novel so um act

one here's the setup here's everything

that I can think of for the setup and

then here's everything for the journey

and of course because each one of these

little scenes is a card you can drag and

drop and organize and uh and delete

things you can add cards at any point

you can right click and let's make a

card before let's make a card after so I

love the Simplicity of this right um You

can add of course as many columns as you

want break it into a 5ax structure and

and so on uh so that is for organizing

and so here's my way of structuring it

I've created canvases because they're

more visually easy for me to kind of um

take bits of information like uh

ingredients in a recipe and just have

fun with them and then I'll create a

folder here called chapters where I'll

do chapter one and then just start

typing and it's nice because it has a

spell check that's in there and for me

that's all I need in fact Excuse me

while I'm writing I'll often just have

let's say like a location I'll have this

open as a tab here on the side and then

I'm just going to zoom to the thing that

I want to see to inspire me while I'm

writing and I might have this of course

fill the screen so I can see that here

now I can see this while I'm writing or

uh you you can adjust the uh you know

the width of these uh so you can make

that a little larger and smaller so it

for me it's fantastic you can actually

even um where is it there's a way like

you can pop this out so that it's in its

own uh sitting in its own window put on

a different screen something like that

so those are all the chapters that I'm

writing then what I did to keep myself

organized I created something called

notes and then here's where all of the

bits of information that pull up inside

the canvas they're all available

uh right down here so here's this

character here's this character and this

one and so same thing for all the

creatures that are created I just list

them and just keep coming up with ideas

just list them all here and then I get

sort of an add a glance view of them by

using my my canvas same thing with

particular items or if I have like

locations so on um and then just any

other just sort of random ideas just all

goes in my notes folder so that's the

kind of thing I don't need to pay

attention to too much I don't have to

really worry about organizing it that's

just where everything goes

um and that's that's really it I for me

I'm loving the Simplicity of this at

some point I haven't yet figured it out

it is possible to be able to share this

online and that's one of the things that

I loved about obsidian as not only kind

of a I mean as a powerful tool that can

do all kinds of things but I'm using it

for writing and for organizing my world

building you can also so share it as a

Wiki Online and so that's something that

I want to share look at how uh simple

this process is so let's go aad and

close some of that let's go on titled

we're going to call this you know let's

call this test again so as we're typing

here I've set this so that it keeps my

cursor in the middle of the screen uh

you can have it so it's back up at the

top but let's say we're let's say we're

typing about our story all right doing

some World building

old building and let's say the

characters come to a magical city called

and then I'm going to do I'm going to

put two brackets oops not the curly

braces two brackets and I'm going to

call it um grease right see how it has

turned it uh blue that is automatically

creating a link for something like a

Wiki and there they meet uh let's go

with chyron who's a character

and let's see that there they meet

chyron who hands them the sword of

Destiny because why

not period so what's lovely about this

what's happened here is you can then

click on these so if you like press

control I'm on a PC you press see you go

to hover over it's great click to create

although to create that now I've got a

whole new document to host all of my not

about whatever I'm saying with this

magical place when I'm done I can close

that and then I can come back it says

you can see it's not Auto added

everything as individual documents down

the end so you can just go through on a

creation spree all sorts of stuff and

then when that's all done just drag and

drop these so for example pop up in my

notes drag and drop these into um the

right folder so if this is a location

I'm just going to drag and drop I don't

need to get any more organized than that

maybe I might come back here to

locations and let's say you know what I

need to now add my new document because

I forgot to do that so there we go

grease it is now added right here and

when I zoom in a bit closer it'll then

start showing me what I've actually put

there so that feature right there of

being able to while I'm typing to

Interlink things while you're writing

your novel uh for example every time you

mention a character or every time you

mention something if you wanted to you

could Interlink there are some people

you'll see them online on YouTube who do

crazy cool things with all the ton of

interlinking that you can do um as a way

to use it as a Wiki and to get organized

and stay organized so um if you want to

have mess around and have fun with this

I'm just going to leave the extra notes

here um these are little ways that I am

staying organized with my um process you

can see I've got um outlines like for

example this one book one here has

specific to just this book and it's just

like

notes and here's just more notes and I

need to get it all organized and I need

to put it into can band boards to get

organized here's book one I'm just

messing around like oh look I can do

Canan boards I can move things around

and so um this is a much bigger project

and so I'm easing my way into it but

this is how for this particular novel

this is how I'm staying organized and

you know scenes and so if you see it a

feature on another writing software um I

think I found a way to replicate all of

that that feature uh from those other

writing softwares and you just do it for

free so uh those who are a little more

advanced to get some of this I've um you

can browse and turn on community plugins

so watch a 10-minute you know

walkthrough how to get set up with

obsidian there are some really good ones

out there um so just go ahead and Google

those um and then there are Community

plugins so I have turned on a bunch of

them like there's file explorer that

gives you the option to reorganize and

drag and drop things over here the left

and iconize allows you to add icons to

make things a little more visually you

know fun you can even add colors to to

these icons which is nice image

converter every time I drop in an image

it'll automatically compress it convert

it to make it a bit smaller can band

that's to be able to have those columns

where you can drag and drop scenes and

stuff um typewriter mode that puts your

cursor like right in the center of the

thing um and always keeps your eyes kind

of in the middle of the document so you

don't have to keep scrolling then smart

connections that's just that's using uh

smart connections and co-pilot this is

the one of the last things that I really

like a lot about obsidian so for example

let's say I'm typing I'm working on

chapter one and I really need ideas I

need help so what I've done is you I've

hooked up chat GPT to this and there's a

a free plan and then there's also a

um I think I've also put in my credit

card so it like pay a couple of cents

every month if I

use it um so for example let's say I'm

writing my chat to get to the end chat

TPT can act like a brainstorming buddy

and a co-writer so for example I can

tell it I can have just a random

conversation with it right here like

give me three you know three ideas for

uh let's say food based on Christmas

sauce right and I'm not exactly sure

what that is okay here we go it's now

just going to invent them and and list

amount and these can be crazy and then

be like you know wow that was you know

that was great um mix mix and match them

to make them more unique or something

right or here for example was a question

that stopped me from writing a novel

years ago what are the flowers that grow

in northern

Europe during the fall right I realized

I was writing this one scene and I

didn't know that answer I didn't know

how to find it out now look at this oh

my goodness I now know

exactly what these flowers are and so I

can just drop them right into my you

know right into my uh uh my writing now

but here's the other thing that can be

really really cool you can also change

it to active node and here's where we

can I can ask it questions about chapter

one so for example give me three ideas

to improve my chapter let's just see

what it says it'll then read everything

that I've got in my chapter and then

it's going to uh chew on it think about

it come back and give me ideas so here

we go um for example develop the

character's passion for Christmas it's

like okay I kind of did that add more

sensory details that's always a really

good idea and then it gives a couple of

you know things to think about and then

introduce conflict or challenge so these

are pretty basic things so let me try

for example inspired by the text of you

know I don't know this chapter give me

five short funny things that could also

happen to make the chapter longer and it

was actually just messing around with

stuff like that that I started getting

ideas for my characters for example

she's a little mouse and I was messing

around with Christmas carols like what

are fun ideas that could happen in the

story based on Christmas carols and

that's when I discovered she has a

jingle bell Jinx meaning for some reason

when she was born she can't sing or

laugh without sounding like Jingle Bells

El um so for example here's an idea I

never thought about her heading out into

the cold slipping on a patch of ice I

mean that's kind of that's not a bad

idea or while she's busy baking how

about a mouse named Whiskers place a

prank on her rearranging the ingredient

jars you know what that's actually not a

terrible idea that's kind of funny um

and then it'll just give sort of fun

ideas or I can also put in here inspired

by I don't know JK Rowling or inspired

by Michael kryon or Robert Le Stevenson

gave me ideas something like that so in

terms of a um brainstorming

buddy rather than bugging your friends

or your family uh you can now spend a

ton more time right here um in your

writing you know what's lovely about

this is it does not replace your writing

um it is a co-pilot somebody help you

with your writing so you can then just

hide that afterwards so if this is

helpful I would love to know drop a

comment below and

um um I'd love to see how you end up

organizing it if you end up playing

around with it I literally downloaded it

watched a couple of YouTube videos and

then um just started messing around with

it myself it's actually really quite

easy and simple to get into I ended up

switching off every because there's all

kinds of extra Tools in here and stuff

like that so I ended up switching up

everything I didn't think I was going to

need or use so you might see some a

little more when you get in there

um let's see what else and hey I'd love

to take you know take a screenshot I'd

love to see what you end up doing with

your um with your obsidian how you set

it up and if you have questions on this

because we're all trying to figure out

our world Building Together go ahead and

drop them in the comments I'd love to

hear from you love to see what you get

up to and

um as you play around with the Tool uh

let's stay in touch and let's Inspire

each other so have fun and Happy World

building