I think Obsidian is great! The organization and markdown really gel with me and there’s tons of plugins to add functionality. I put my vault on cloud storage and even keep my game folder in there so I can write my game straight from Obsidian anywhere, not just do the planning there.
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I must be doing something wrong, then, because I haven’t found it gives me anything useful I can’t do in my notes files. Or Bear, I guess, I use Bear when I want wordcounts. Although that one is Apple-only.
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Obsidian’s not for everyone but coming from an editing+journalism background, the formatting is invaluable to me. Markdown+HTML compatibility, multi-level collapsible headings with the option to turn them into tables of contents, multi-level ordered and unordered lists and checklists, footnotes, tables, databases, code blocks, images, internal and external links and embeds, branching charts, and in-app file management are all powerful tools.
With plugins I can also write reorderable notes that combine into one, break sections into separate notes, see my word count and reading time, keep word goals and timers, set up word/character replacement on typing, access advanced find and replace operations, and enter modes that do things like dim everything but dialogue or force me to write nonstop or write without the ability to edit. Plus other things I’m not using for my game but still use, and a lot of these work regardless of device too. It can be as advanced a piece of kit as you need it to but leaves plenty of room to just hide and disable whatever you don’t use.
This isn’t an ad though lol obviously many feel overwhelmed and have no want or need of those features and that’s fine, I’m just someone who does and wanted to share for anyone who would get use out of them if they knew they existed. Always highly recommend browsing documentation!
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I mean, I can do most of what’d be useful to me from that list (I don’t trust any HTML that comes out of an app I haven’t set up myself, for example - I don’t want to have to spend thrice the time that it would take me to write it by hand with trying to clean up the programmed output) in Apple’s Notes and Bear (wordcounts, markup, collapsible categories, multi-level lists, image embeds, links), and I like the UI of those better.
This is not to say Obsidian isn’t good for others; I simply can’t get over how that UI irks me for some reason, and the functions it offers over the apps I already have at hand aren’t important enough to me that I’d want to try to get over that.
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I do write the HTML by hand 
I just like that it has a decent live preview natively with the bonus that HTML tags also work in regular notes without having to make the whole thing an HTML file. Glad Apple Notes and Bear work for you! Wasn’t trying to convince you otherwise, just explain what I enjoy about Obsidian
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I like Obsidian, too! Although I have definitely only scratched the surface of its capabilities I generally use it exclusively for note-taking and keeping track of research. The ability to link notes with tags is especially neat.
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Feel like I’ve learned a valuable lesson about micro-level IF planning the hard way this week.
Was shocked at how productive I was, but a lot of that productivity was channelled into something that probably wasn’t all that value-additive to my project (a semi-complex set of branches and variables to model various ways the protagonist could borrow money for an outfit, borrow an outfit from somebody else, or try to work out an alternative ahead of a social event).
It’s all good stuff, with a lot of mechanical variety to calculate how ‘presentable’ the final outfit was depending on how well the borrowed clothes matched the protagonist’s chosen height, whether they’d been able to adjust it with some impromptu tailoring, etc, but with the benefit of hindsight I definitely don’t think it was worth time that could have been spent making massive progress on the rest of the chapter.
At least it was a fun opportunity to give player physical attributes some mechanical reactivity!
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wait, you can do that? Hmm makes things a lot simpler in a sense.
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I mean that isn’t a bad thing, personally I write a rough outline of what I want to write and then write as I go from there.
Like for act 1 of my story. I knew that I wanted it to start with the pc waking up and meeting the parents, but everything else just came naturally.
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Still slowly working on my project.
Working a full time job, a part time job, upcoming wedding and 7 credits in school 
trying to fit Ronin in there somewhere but its a WIP for a reason haha.
Goals: write something!!!
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I use it extensively. If you have any questions, please let me know. 
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Used the word “sphingian” in my narration, today. Gonna make that biochem class I barely made it through work for me, this time.
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I will let you know if anything comes up, So far it’s been super good and useful with the tabs and tags.
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Whoa! Well done. Are you discussing brains, or is it in some other context?
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Just started writing since christmas. Longest block I’ve had thus far.
I understand it now.
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Hey everyone! Hope you’re all having a great week.
Is it just me, or does anyone else have the habit of bouncing up and down complex files when dealing with content creation/mechanics?
I’ve realized a few parts of why I do it. (Granted I also leave a comment of — Unfinished. — everywhere I bounce from so I can go back to it:)
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- Helps my ADHD because bouncing around creates little hits of dopamine which keeps my work ethic flying.
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- Self-imposes getting a 2nd set of eyes ‘myself’ by doing a good bit of work on a section, then moving somewhere else for a few hours or til the next day, then coming back and suddenly realizing ‘oh-shit I forgot about this being needed’ or ‘OH! There is a so much more efficient/optimized way of implementing x/y/z.’
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- Makes my development style feel like building blocks which reinforces my minds need for modular code.
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- Also has made my commenting skills meticulous. I comment in detail on damn near everything nowadays so I know exactly what I am returning to and why.
I’ve found that it’s not the norm after talking to a bunch of people, but it works phenomenally for me and is something I’ve only really begun doing in the last six months. It hasn’t interrupted my design flows, implementation of branches, or anything else and hasn’t stagnated creativity, so I love it.
Was just curious if anyone else does the same thing!
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Hey! How’s it going? Hope your tooth stuff has subsided?
Interesting. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that you’re dealing with so much complexity? I’ve noticed that I have a very linear methodology myself - finish passage A, finish each branch that goes from A until they converge at B, rinse and repeat. So no bouncing at all…
Except when I’m working on a particularly convoluted set of branches with actual mechanics to track. Then I suddenly start jumping around a lot more. I wonder if it’s because the ideation process is more demanding for more mechanical passages, so bouncing around helps maintain energy levels?
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I don’t like complex files, they’re hard to scroll. I prefer multiple smaller ones if at all possible.
I am, however, constantly jumping around different parts of stories.
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We’re healing! Tooth’s out and no dry socket but was a really rough extraction so my jaw still hurts a good bit despite it being day 5 post extract. Thank you, though!
I wondered if it was that. Lesser complexity sections definitely have led to more linearity in operation. However, as I’m quickly learning more day in and day out, there isn’t a damn thing in Estheria that isn’t complex right now.
The work on the Monster Hunter contract and building out those systems alone has had me bouncing six ways to sunday. Whether it’s spending a half hour working on direct narrative/writing for trap-laying before shifting up to add in the knowledge and scouting code, before then jumping down to add the section and writing for checking your inventory, before then going back up to take the previously established scouting narrative and slot it into if blocks and rand checks to make it feel more dynamic as not every playthrough will lead to your character encountering all the hidden details in the environment. (I generated a 60% discovery success chance on each environmental detail for the demo. This’ll be based on your monster hunting skills/stats in the actual game.)
So yeah… It’s had my mind in 20 directions but it’s led to keeping me very busy and engaged.
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I get that!
I’m doing my best to create multiple files, but there will be so much actual content that even if I have 4 files worth of contracts (the contracts database I am building ironically), each file has 6-12 contracts in it and thousands of lines. My still very unfinished contract for the demo has 452 lines when including comment lines alone right now, and that’s not counting the subroutine files it’ll jump out to for the RealmMaster.
Just… too much to condense into tiny files haha.
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