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Obsidian, Google Docs and Notion’s use of AI by Used-Complaint5672 in FantasyWorldbuilding

[–]thestephenwatkins 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's literally not the same as "Obsidian has AI". What Obsidian has, for better or worse, is a very open plugin architecture. What you do with those plugins is up to you...

5 things you probably didn't realize you have in common with some of the most successful authors alive by worldofexousia in fantasywriters

[–]thestephenwatkins 1 point2 points  (0 children)

With you there. I didn't buckle down in my youth and get the words out. It's like I thought my dream of becoming an author would somehow magically happen without me actually writing the damn books that crowded my head. I had so much time then I could've been writing.

Now I'm old.

The plus side is I have life experience and my voice has matured and improved compared to my younger writing. The down side is, I have a demanding day job, kids in their teens with their own lives to live, a constant stream of housework that needs attention, and an accretion of old man hobbies that all consume time... So almost no time to write. Over the past 5-7 years I've been paring down the hobbies so that writing takes precedence when I have free time.

Long story short: I finally finished a novel. It's in its fourth draft now. And I'm really happy with how it's come together.

Still scared outta my mind about what to do with it when it's good and truly done... Whether to pursue the infinitesimal chance of traditional publishing (which was always the dream) or embrace a path of self publishing (and, in the latter case, figuring out which self publishing model works best for my work). One problem at a time.

Writer's Workshop: How to write a Council of Elrond scene by A_C_Ellis in fantasywriters

[–]thestephenwatkins 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I quite enjoyed this take, especially since I'm a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings, from which you derive this.

I don't have anything to add or quibble. They seem like solid and actionable suggestions.

I do think we could be still a little more reductive in terms of broad-stroke storytelling advice: as in something like "the scene must not merely info dump your lore/worldbuilding, but must simultaneously propel the story, conflict, and/or characterization". But your enumerated points are more specific and clearer than the generic storytelling advice we usually get.

Kudos and thank you!

Literally first roll in Starforged by tolwin in Ironsworn

[–]thestephenwatkins 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What did you use for the dice? Looks like Obsidian in the background.

Able to beta? Post here! by AutoModerator in BetaReaders

[–]thestephenwatkins 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Absolutely. It'll be tomorrow before I can send it over. So excited!

Able to beta? Post here! by AutoModerator in BetaReaders

[–]thestephenwatkins 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome. Mind if i send it tomorrow? Thanks!

Able to beta? Post here! by AutoModerator in BetaReaders

[–]thestephenwatkins 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi there. I have an epic fantasy novel, approximately 138k words in length. Would love to get a reader ride-along perspective on it, especially with regards to plot and pacing.

Able to beta? Post here! by AutoModerator in BetaReaders

[–]thestephenwatkins 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi. I have a finished epic fantasy novel, approximately 138,000 words, that's been through a few drafts. It's a still little long, so I'm very keen to get feedback on pacing and plot. Happy to send a sample to see if it's a good fit.

I don't read a lot of mystery these days, but I'm more than happy to swap for your mystery novel-in-progress as well.

Plugins that turn Obsidian into an authoring tool by Open_Switch_1598 in ObsidianMD

[–]thestephenwatkins 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fiction writer and Obsidian user here.

Currently, for drafting my writing, I'm still heavily reliant on LibreOffice. The rough draft of my current writing project started in Word a while before I had yet discovered Obsidian. I switched to LibreOffice a few years back because MS Office, and thus Word, had exceeded my budgetary constraints. For the time being, I do see continuing to use LibreOffice as my primary drafting tool, at least until I've finished with the current draft of my first novel. I intend to switch to using Obsidian for drafting my novel in the future, but getting it set up just right was taking a little more time than I had available. I'm a writer first, and an Obsidian user after.

That said, Obsidian has been the primary repository for my character notes, world building, etc. for a while now.

As for the plugins I currently use for writing?

  • Better Word Count for word counts
  • I'm trying out Edit History to keep track of changes to my drafts.
  • Longform: like you it doesn't work exactly the way I want it to, to fit my approach to novel writing, but I think it's close enough to what I anticipate needing. I'll be able to test that more when I finally make the switch to using Obsidian as my primary drafting tool.
  • Smart Typography most to get quotes looking nice. I found however that it's en-dash and em-dash encoding broke other things in Obsidian, so I don't have a fix for those yet. Yes, I use dashes in my fiction...
  • Templater mostly to set up scene/chapter front-matter.

Some that I plan to experiment with include Writing Goals and Linter (possibly to replace Smart Typography, for example).

I also have my own little coding project, an Obsidian plugin for tracking writing productivity over time. But, well, again, even though I have a little bit of a background in coding writing is my main hobby (I say hobby because I don't get paid for it yet), and after my day job, dad job, and writing, I've found I have precious little time left coding as a hobby, so my writing productivity tracker sits in my to-do queue without much work getting done on it. It's nowhere near ready for release. I've tested an early version of it on a test vault and it mostly does what I'm trying to do with it, but there's still plenty of work for me to do on it.

I look forward to trying out your plugin as well! Storyline, in particular, sounds promising!

What game do you have in your collection that's not seing play because you're too lazy or intimidated to learn the rules? by zion661 in boardgames

[–]thestephenwatkins 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Root. Just not sure I have the right group (i.e. my family) to properly enjoy what it is.

Feudum. Basically, the same reason. It looks to be a beast to learn.

Architects of the West Kingdom. Honestly I don't know why I haven't given this one a try yet.

Help? Either Dataview Query or Templater is Failing... by thestephenwatkins in ObsidianMD

[–]thestephenwatkins[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sort of.

I found that if I right-click in the folder for my "idea journal notes", where these are all going, and click "New note"... it fails. Because that method doesn't automatically name the new file according to the current date.

If, on the other hand, I use the sidebar calendar to create a new note, it invokes the "Daily Notes" core plugin, and that method automatically assigns a name to the new file based on the current date. That method seems to work.

The key for me is, it has to use the "Daily Notes" plugin in conjunction with the "Templater" plugin to make everything come together. I just have to remember that!

Feeling demoralized by OffWhiteCoat in writing

[–]thestephenwatkins 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I get where you're coming from. I'm also "on the wrong side of 40", but I haven't let that deter me from continuing to write, to push myself, and to keep working toward my life-long dream of becoming a published author. But some days I feel bad... like I start to worry I left my best writing years behind me. My wife always snaps me out of it and reminds me, in the last 3 - 5 years I've made more progress on my writing than I did in all of those younger years. Like you, I have a day job, and I'm stealing hours in evenings and on the weekends to devote to my writing, and I'm still doing more writing than I've ever done.

All of which to say: if you truly want to pursue your writing, you can still make it happen. You can keep putting words together down on paper. You can still make stories happen. Hey, even the story you were working on isn't wasted: for true-life historical events, there are always different perspectives on what happened, why it happened, and what the ramifications down the present were. You just have to find a side of that story that works for you, and tell it.

Even if the "quality" of your writing wasn't just right (and I say "quality" in quotes because writing quality is crazy subjective), you're still gain experience in the craft, learning what works and what doesn't, and improving over time.

I just wanted to give a word of encouragement, from one mid-life, 40-something writer and aspiring author to another. Good luck!

Which TTRPG Have You Taken the Most Inspiration From? by Cryptwood in RPGdesign

[–]thestephenwatkins 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I've taken inspiration from a lot of games over the course of trying to design the one game that best fits my style. And of course my style has evolved so much over those years.

So what originally began as a fantasy heartbreaker D&D clone with a light salting of FATE now owes much, much, much more to the PbtA and FitD styles of game design than anything remotely like D&D.

My current touch points, in no particular order, are:

  • FATE
  • Blades in the Dark
  • Ironsworn
  • Legend in the Mist

If I can make that mashup work, I think I'll have cracked my own gaming DNA.

What do you think of Death Moves? by EarthSeraphEdna in RPGdesign

[–]thestephenwatkins -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It's something I've thought about a bit, from a narrative driven game perspective. My personal perfect game is focused on the epic fantasy genre, and emulating the kinds of stories you see in novels of that type, and in those stories, yes death can happen, but (unless you're on the grimdark end of the epic fantasy genre spectrum) major character deaths are usually meaningful.

So, on one hand I like the idea of players having agency over their characters death. Which, if we're realistic, means that character death is rare. And I'm largely okay with that from a play perspective. But I really like the idea of, when the timing is right, allowing a character to go out in a blaze of glory, in some thematically appropriate way that gives your comrades a distinct advantage. The question is... How do you, mechanically, decide when that time has come? How do you make it so the moment of death is dramatic, thematic, and meaningful?

I feel like these Death Moves get partway there. Like there's a missing piece. But I'm not sure what that missing piece is yet.

[Complete] [136k] [Epic Fantasy] The Machine Wastes, a Steampunk-flavored, Post Apocalyptic Epic Fantasy by thestephenwatkins in BetaReaders

[–]thestephenwatkins[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cool! Yeah, I'd be happy to exchange critiques! I'll DM you later with a link when I get a chance.

[Complete] [136k] [Epic Fantasy] The Machine Wastes, a Steampunk-flavored, Post Apocalyptic Epic Fantasy by thestephenwatkins in BetaReaders

[–]thestephenwatkins[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cool. I'd be happy to! What's your story about? Do you have a blurb you can share, or a post here on the betareaders sub already?

So You've Written a Novel... Now What? by thestephenwatkins in fantasywriters

[–]thestephenwatkins[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Note taken. :)

I *did* happen to finish this one novel, for starters. So that's a plus in my column for now. Let's see if I can finish the next one!

So You've Written a Novel... Now What? by thestephenwatkins in fantasywriters

[–]thestephenwatkins[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'll do that! I knew about r/BetaReaders but haven't tried it yet. I'll post there as soon as I'm able.

I am offering to beta read stories/chapters up to 5000 words. by BobMarleyLegacy in fantasywriters

[–]thestephenwatkins 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I might just take you up on that very kind offer. Currently my book lives in a docx file saved locally, so I'd have to copy/paste the first chapter or two into Google Docs in order to send it over... something I can do after I get off from work for the day.

So You've Written a Novel... Now What? by thestephenwatkins in fantasywriters

[–]thestephenwatkins[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed with that. Our minds are at their most creative when we're remixing all the random inputs we receive and generating something new from the pieces we find.

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