Using Obsidian in Novel Development

Working on a novel doesn’t just mean the writing of it. At least for me, there is all the preliminary: the assemblage of ideas, notes about possible characters, scene glimpses, the main points of the story, and much more.

I’ve learned for myself after writing two science-fiction novels and preparing to start on the third, that I need to do this development work to have a topography for my imagination to explore as I write the thing. Not an outline (horrors!) but an overview that perhaps serves more as a comfort blanket than as a prescription.

(The first two novels are so far unpublished. Darn literary agents.)

This third novel is part of what I’m calling The Three Eras Trilogy. A few centuries ahead, a recently promoted detective with a secret that can kill him must solve several murders occurring around the completion of the Earth’s first space elevator. It has taken several generations to come close to finishing the structure. The human race, especially the tiny lunar colony, depends on what the space elevator can mean for the future.

The Earth has suffered from genetic engineering and artificial intelligence gone rampant and only recently restrained. Humans aren’t as plentiful as they once were.

The detective must solve these rare crimes in a society, and an organization, where the so-called genetically pure exploit and oppress the so-called mixed.

It can be difficult to keep track of all the different aspects of such a story. There’s the background research and notes necessary about genetic engineering, artificial intelligence (which by the way I’ve renamed “pseudo intelligence”), space elevators, being a detective, plot ideas, character possibilities, nature of the villains and a lot more.

In past projects I settled on some helpful software which I’ve chronicled in a post or two.

However, I ran across Obsidian at the same time as I started working on this novel, and it’s turned out to be very useful.

What is Obsidian?

Obsidian is an application available mostly free as a note-taking and knowledge database program. I use it on my desktop PC and everything goes on one of my hard drives. I back it up every day. It uses Markdown files which if the program and availability dies, can still be accessed by any text editor.

It has attracted many who are keen about Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) systems or Zettelkasten analytics, whatever those are. There are plug-ins available which can tailor the functionality in a lot of directions.

I’m more disorganized, and perhaps intuitive, about putting all my notes together. For me, what makes Obsidian useful are the internal linkages and the graphical representation, in the template I use, of those connections.

Obsidian also has a mind-mapping function known as Canvas, which I’ve just started to use. I already can see its creative utility, if you’re at all visually oriented.

I’ve looked up how some writers use the program. I’ve been impressed by how methodical and systematic they are. But that’s not how I work, on the whole. It’s like the difference between novelists called “pantsers” who start writing into the dark by the seat of their pants without an outline, and those who obsessively delineate the entire work before they start writing. I’m somewhere in the broad middle, but definitely lean towards the more anarchic, randomly organized, exploratory end.

How I use it

Here’s how I use it. I have set up a specific “vault” for the novel. It’s divided into three parts, usually, a folder/file listing similar to Windows Explorer on one side, the specific note created or added to in the middle, and on the right, a simple graphical display which shows what other notes are connected to the one I’m working on.

When I create the note, I link it to at least one other factoid or concept. That seems to keep all the information swimming about accessibly in the ocean of information that begins to form. Often one note will end up linking to a dozen or more related notes. At the same time, any note is also available in the rough folder categories I’ve set up on the side.

Webpages, documents, photos – all can be entered into a note.

Of course one can accumulate almost too much stuff, and begin to suffer from data overload. This is a point a recent Verge article makes: “Why note-taking apps don’t make us smarter.”

The author goes on from that to complain about such apps, including Obsidian:

“When I had an interesting conversation with a person, I would add notes to a personal page I had created for them. A few times a week, I would revisit those notes.

“I waited for the insights to come.

“And waited. And waited.”

Unrealistic expectations

Unfortunately, the author seems to suffer from a combination of unrealistic expectations and impatience. Attention spans are getting shorter.

My experience with Obsidian has been the opposite. As the connections develop, new ideas can form from being knocked against by other ones in unexpected ways.

As I gear up to actually start writing this novel, I am going through all my Obsidian notes. I get reminded again of the good idea I wrote down long ago and where its flint sparks fresh ideas. I make new connections I didn’t see before. The mere juxtaposition of two disparate notes can lead to interesting places.

The Verge writer wants to incorporate something like the current versions of AI into note-taking applications. He thinks that might help, if only to summarize and brief him on his own notes(!). I have my doubts, from what I’ve seen of the current generation of AI.

I prefer to sort through my own ideas in Obsidian, and find what kernels of insight and imagination I might have inadvertently dropped along the way, or discover new ones.

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Note: A couple of interesting resources about Obsidian:

1) How I Use Obsidian As A Creative

2) Best Examples of How to Use Obsidian Notes in 2023

Explore posts in the same categories: fiction, Internet, Novel, Science Fiction, Writing

Tags: creativity, knowledge database, note-taking, novel development, obsidian, writing

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