How I'm writing a book in public

I previously announced I'd be writing a book in public, but that didn't happen. I explain what happened and why I'm writing another book instead. The new book is called Doing It in Public, and it's about learning in public, my way... and, appropriately, I'm writing it in public!

// TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro
00:37 Reasons I didn't write the book
02:48 Why I'm writing a new book instead
04:58 Book outline
10:56 Obsidian plugins for writing a book
12:09 Using iA Writer for writing
13:48 Publishing an in-progress book
14:56 Giving me feedback
16:15 Meet me in person at PKM Summit

// LINKS

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// ABOUT ME

// APPS I USE

// GEAR

// WANT TO SUPPORT ME?

[FrederickGautier]

Long time IA Writer user. Still use it after 10 years. Also use obsidian a ton. Glad you’re enjoying it! It’s the best writing tool for my ADHD brain lol.

Great video! Thanks for sharing all of this.

[nicolevdh]

PLUGINS: Longform, Dataview, BRAT, Templater, Vault Changelog
THEME: Typomagical (light)

[KrisRipper]

I forgot all about iA Writer! I think for me it's less about _what_ the secondary tool is, and more about the way my brain approaches it differently. The novelty aspect is so powerful! If I spend a lot of time in Obsidian, even a fresh vault keys into the part of my brain that's "doing Obsidian." Whereas when I'm stuck for a writing session, my brain sees "secondary tool" (especially if I only really use it for writing) as much more conducive to me actually getting that focused writing done. All that to say, another great video! I'm really looking forward to the new project!

[RaymondYee]

I'm very excited to learn about your upcoming book, one you are writing in public. I can clearly resonate with your theme of learning in public, something for which I want to level up myself. Go, Nicole!

[bucketofbarnacles]

I’m baffled what iaWriter gives that you couldn’t get in that separate Obsidian vault, though I respect your choice.

For pure writing I hide pretty much every UI element except the text window, and the typewriter scrolling plugin makes it so ia-like. The cognitive switch in app environment and behavior would be too much for me.

But, hey, the world is different for each of us. Look forward to seeing how the book comes along.

[tassiaintheattic]

OMG, I’ll def get a copy when it’s ready ❣

I found it really interesting when you mentioned iA writer. I used it in the past and loved it because of the simplicity—and I think I somehow mimicked that simplicity in my Obsidian workflow; the sidebars are never visible (I created shortcuts to quickly show them if needed), and although I do use a lot of metadata I hide them, and I only have essential plugins. Context switching isn’t always bad—it can bring new perspectives so I get why iA writer might be helpful! But _for me_ sometimes just changing from dark mode to light mode does the trick. My first-and-only theme (Abyssal) was in many ways inspired (although unconsciously) by my own long-writing needs. I’m not writing a book (yet), but I tend to write a lot of long-format content, and having a clean setup approximated my Obsidian experience to the iA writer one, even though it wasn’t intentional (while maintaining the power of Obsidian’s features when I need them). But my vault is not nearly as advanced or populated as yours! haha

With that said, I love that your new book isn’t about a tool. Tools are important, but they come and go, while good fundamentals stay. I’m sure you’ll deliver much more value in this new direction (and have fun, too!). Looking forward.

I’m also in NL and Utrecht is one of my fav cities, will do my best to join the summit :D

Good luck ✨

[jefflupp]

Thanks for giving such great insight into you actual process, and how you use technology to bring your creative ideas to fruition

[timbushell]

... and of course, enjoy the conference. And with all the other PKMs!!!!

[ErikPlayLearn]

Could you create a whole book just by drag-and-dropping existing notes into an ordered list, do some formatting, publish?

[timbushell]

Excellent... nice to see the process of copying into a 'project' vault to ringfence some work.

[smcla]

I'd love to know your take on Scrivener, should you ever try it out.

[timbushell]

... and of course, Obsidian has its versions of focus modes...

Workspace would have helped I suppose.

[ragadrop]

Ok, que opinas ( si es una idea loca peeeero) que opinas de neoVIM-Obsidian como reemplazo potencial de Obsidian? Es raro y como lo opuesto de lo que tienes. pero es tan personalizable como firefox 2!

[susanpearson-creativefibro]

I thought the title was learning in public. I don’t know if it is just a British response but the title doing it in public immediately makes you think it is about sex. Or perhaps it is a universal response and it is a deliberate play on the words.