# Writing Fiction with Obsidian

Obsidian can be used to write long or short form fiction. Its powerful capabilities
give it the ability to compete in many ways with more complex tools such as
Scrivener or Ulysses, with the added advantage that your work is always in plain
markdown files, and thus never trapped inside proprietary software. I
(@mediapathic) am currently experimenting with doing so and it's working great so
far.

If you're writing short fiction and submitting it places, you may also be
interested in [[03 Tracking Submissions in Obsidian]]

Here are some notes on my process:

- The first and most obvious advantage is that it is easy to link together notes to
form a "Story Bible". I have a series of notes tagged with the name of my novel,
and I can easily look things up or add to them while I am writing. They are, of
course, wildly interlinked. I have a folder in my Vault which contains the text of
my novel, and my notes are kept in my main vault. This allows me to keep separation
between notes and text in the filesystem, but be able to link between them at will
as I develop ideas.

- My basic method is this: I write each scene in a single markdown file. I build a
Table of Contents note, a list of these scene files, each as a link. Then, I open
each scene in a new pane and edit or write it. I can then move links around in the
file at will, to rearrange scenes, split them into chapters or acts, or anything
else. When the time comes for publishing, I will convert this file into a format
that can be used for markdown transclusion, and output it.

![[Screen Shot 2020-05-17 at 02.58.59.png]]

- Here is an example Table of Contents Page for what is clearly going to be the
next great classic of western literature: [[WFIO-TOC]]. Note that only the first
link in there goes to an example note. Clicking on the others will create them in
your Vault, which you are welcome to do if you wish to finish this masterpiece for
me.

- That Table of Contents file can also be used as an outline. Mine has some
occasional brief notes below some scenes so I can remember things like "X has to
come before Y." Nothing long form, just structural stuff that is relevant to the
overall shape of the story, because I'm going to have to edit it out before
exporting. If you're just starting out on a project, you can write your outline as
a series of scene titles, one per line, and then make them into links when you are
ready to write each one.

- I had my files numbered when I imported them in Obsidian due to methodologies I

was using with an older system. I don't think it's strictly necessary, but I'm
finding it useful for keeping a rough idea where scenes will go that I've written
but happen somewhere in the unknown future. Also, this ensures that they sort in
the correct order in the file system, and Obsidian's link auto-updating means that
you can change the filenames to rearrange them, and links will not break.

- If you already have a work in progress split into multiple markdown files, it is
relatively simple to convert a file listing into a TOC file, per the method in
[[Scripts for Building TOC files]] (If you are on Mac or Linux. There are
definitely ways of doing this on Windows, but I don't know them. If you are
sufficiently conversant in Powershell, you might be able to figure it out from the
logic I use there). Be aware that the things in that file are pretty nerdy, but
they should be pretty straightforward if you are comfortable with the command line.
- Writing in markdown also gives you the ability to tag a scene file with anything
you'd like. You can track characters, locations, beats, or anything else that is
relevant to the piece at hand, and see them all with a click. If you keep your tags
before the first blank line of the file, most markdown parsers will ignore them, so
you don't even have to remove them when you export.

- With multiple vaults, you can have a vault specifically for a project, and keep
all your notes and text in one place. This also means that you can have a custom
CSS theme for your writing space, if you want to keep it psychologically distinct
from a work space, which is a thing that some writes find invaluable. And even
without needing the psychological difference, setting up a writing-specific theme
can help with things like better line spacing. Or maybe having a cool typewriter
font.