I would love to know more about how you use/structure Obsidian for writing. I’ve used the program for about two years for just about everything but have yet to find a suitable way to organize my work. I was curious to know how you go about it.
Hi! This is probably wayyyyy longer than you ever wanted, but I'm a tech nerd who is very happy to be able to babble about this!! I've taken a whole slew of screenshots in the event it helps you or anyone else reading along. I hope it's useful!!
I will preface this by stating that I am very, VERY scatterbrained, so I use a few different methods to try to keep myself organized as I'm writing. I'll start first with the plugins I have installed, since these make the biggest usability difference if you're coming from something like Google Docs or Libre Office. The biggest thing to remember is that Obsidian is not natively designed for longform writing or detailed text formatting, so certain things will just look and function differently than dedicated writing software.
For anyone new to writing fanfics or novels in Obsidian, the first plugin you'll want to install is Longform, which will allow you to write chapter by chapter and eventually compile everything into a single document. You can then use DOCX Exporter to convert it to DocX format as needed. You can use the Docxer plugin, on the other hand, to easily IMPORT your DocX files so they play nicely with Obsidian.
Smart Typography, Editing Toolbar, Scroll to Top, File Info Panel, and Remember Cursor Position are plugins I use to keep myself from going insane.
Etymology Lookup and Kanban are super useful.
ProZen is great if you need a clean workspace to write.
If you need collaborative editing, you can also use Relay, which is free for up to three users!
One of the main features I use to organize myself is the Canvas feature (this is built into Obsidian by default and does not need to be installed). I use canvases for worldbuilding, visual references, character histories, etc. You'll also see through these screenshots how I structure my actual folders on the left hand side.
I do not write anything in sequence. I write scenes and snippets as I am inspired to do so, and then arrange/expand/connect them later. The canvas feature is great for rearranging and dragging things around, as is the Kanban plugin! If you've ever used Trello, Kanban in Obsidian operates much the same way.
With Google Docs, I found the process of organizing my snippets cumbersome and annoying, since it required cutting and pasting into a different location in the document. Obsidian's card-like setup, and being able to simply drag my snippets onto a canvas or kanban board on a whim, made this process SO much easier.
As a graphic designer, I really appreciate the ability to change the themes and colors of my workspace. My Google docs was always brown and tan to reduce eye strain, so I currently use the Ukiyo theme.
If you're working with multiple documents, multiple chapters, or want to have a canvas/kanban/outline and a document open at the same time--you can do that too!
...and when that looks too insane and overwhelming, that's where that ProZen plugin I mentioned earlier comes in:
All this being said, one of my biggest irritation points when I first started out was that I couldn't copy and paste from Obsidian into the AO3 editor without losing my formatting. BUT, if you switch to reading mode (the little book icon located near the upper right of your Obsidian workspace), you can copy from there and your formatting will paste into the AO3 rich text editor!
For anyone on the fence about trying it, Obsidian is free, your writing is local to your device (no creepy AIs sniffing around, but make sure to keep a backup!), it is available on all major operating systems (including Linux ^^), and if the company were to ever go defunct, Markdown files can be opened by virtually any other text editing software.
And lastly, there's the added benefit of it NOT being Google, Meta, or Microsoft-owned!
