Turning Obsidian into the Ultimate Writing App

Obsidian is more than just a note-taking app. It's actually a really powerful creative writing tool - if you know how to use it.

In this video, I walk you through how to add several features from powerful writing apps like Ulysses into Obsidian, including: word counts from text selections, reading time estimation, quickly adding footnotes, eliminating distractions with Focus Mode, fading inactive text to the background, tracking progress towards writing goals, and more.

0:00 - Intro
0:44 - Essential Settings
3:19 - Core Plugins
5:00 - Better Word Count
5:26 - Reading Time
5:54 - Obsidian Footnotes
6:41 - ProZen
7:26 - Writing Goals
8:08 - Typewriter Scroll
8:56 - Conclusion

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO:

WANT TO MAKE MORE OF YOUR NOTES & IDEAS?

WANT TO SHORTCUT THE OBSIDIAN LEARNING CURVE?

[SoreBrain]

I'm usually in my programmers Obsidian bubble, very interesting to see a writers perspective.

[maurolimaok]

Finally a REALLY useful list of pluggins for Obsidian.
Thanks.

[regardingdew]

Amazing walk-through — clear and illuminating! I didn't think I could be anymore enthusiastic about Obsidian, but here we are... Thank you!

[RyanMcQuen]

Author of 'Focus Mode' here, are you still experiencing bugs with it? I still use it every day and have not noticed any issues. There has not been a need to update it since no one has filed a bug report recently.

[michaelsoolee]

Nice set up! Great video. Thanks for mentioning my plugin, Stille in the video, Mike!

[kaisershun]

Thanks, it feels like I've been searching for this video for a long time.

[mieletea]

This video was straight to the point and helpful. Thank you so much!

[soennchen]

This is a very helpful video - thanks a lot! :-) I am using scrivener on a Mac so far, but with my tendency to go more linux by the time, it's great to see what Obsidian can do. I am using it for journaling and daily planning and also as a PKM tool and for writing daily emails - but I never got my head around it how to use it for more complex writing! So thanks a lot! :-) I love how you show all the details in the video and explain them!

[CherylHulseapple]

I had no idea Obsidian could do all this. I'm so glad I decided to download it.

[Aaine]

That Focus plug in is lifechanging! Thanks!

[GaelyneGasson]

Just wanted to add my thanks for your video. New ones for me were Writing Goals and Stille. I use Obsidian in conjunction with 750 Words (the online app) for my daily journal writing. Then I paste it into my obsidian Daily Note as well as the 750 Words app for the day.

[Xedualc]

I use Obsidian for writing and it was a great and useful video. Thanks. I'll definitively drop Focus Mode for ProZen and give a try to Writing Goals (I already use Word Sprint which is nice too).
I'd like to mention Longform which is pretty handy for large projects, although maybe a tad intimidating at first.

[svensteffens]

thank you for this really helpful advice. I was testing out Ulysses, and this advice got me to convert my Obsidian experience into a great writing app.

[deenanaidoo]

Thank you for the precise and simple-to-understand walkthrough on setting up Obsidian. Finally, a tutorial that provides the details for writing without the over-technical aspects. I have one request that I believe you can assist me with. Please make a simple and concise workflow, with demonstrations, from literature notes to permanent notes, to convert these notes into an assignment that can be transferred into an MS Word document for my university. Thank you once again.

[jolespin]

Incredible! I'm working on my first novel right now and trying to port my workflow from Scrivener to Obsidian. This is extremely helpful.

[mLL]

Great video, loving the type writer. Defiantly needed this.

[als]

Obsidian is primarily a writing app. Great job explaining it. I like your workflow.

[maurolimaok]

Man... thnks for the channel.
This stuff will be important to me.
I have, always had, very poor study habits and results. At 56yo, I'm still strugling with it.
This new tools and ways can help a lot.

[fuzzy-]

I actually wrote my creative writing in vs code with many extensions for a year and half.
Now im using Obsidian because its very simple, efficient and customizable like vs code with its community plugins

[canatesbeats]

I really thank you. Your suggestions were great. I've been using obsidian for a long time, but I hadn't discovered these.