As freelance writers, we can accumulate a lot of documents and data. Project drafts. Research. Interview notes. Client backgrounders and style guides. Project briefs. Pitch trackers. Topic ideas. It can get messy fast.
I’d like to introduce you to the basics of Obsidian for freelance writers, a free and local tool that can help you manage it all from one place.
What is Obsidian?
Obsidian is traditionally seen as a note-taking app. But for freelance writers, it can help you with much more than notes.
Obsidian can be used for:
- writing drafts;
- storing source notes;
- maintaining idea lists;
- keeping client background;
- task tracking;
- and so much more.
That doesn’t even consider the added functionality you’ll get with plugins (and we’ll touch on that shortly).
Obsidian is highly customizable. You can use it as a very basic app for organizing and inter-linking notes. Or you can use it to manage your entire freelance writing business.
Three key features of Obsidian
Perhaps three of Obsidian’s best features are that it’s:
- free;
- local;
- portable.
This means you download the free software to your local hard drive, and all files and notes stored within what’s known as your Obsidian Vault stay on that hard drive.
No cloud services. No privacy issues.
Notes are saved in markdown format, so even if something were to happen in the future and Obsidian was no longer maintained, you can use any other program that reads markdown files and still keep access to your notes. You’re not locked into a proprietary system.
A note on markdown:
If you’re not familiar with markdown, you can learn more about its use in Obsidian by reviewing its basic formatting syntax guide.
Your Obsidian Vault
What do I mean when I say you’ll have an “Obsidian vault?”
In the simplest terms, your vault is just a folder saved somewhere on your hard drive.
That’s it.
Nothing fancy. Nothing complicated. It’s a folder where Obsidian can access your collection of notes and other files.
Some people like to keep everything, or nearly everything, in their top-level vault folder, using links and/or tags for organization.
I’m more partial to folder structures combined with links and tags. I like everything to be organized.
You’ll see people say folders are a problem because something might fit well in more than one. But so what? You can still link to them from an index file, or any note, in any other folder you please. You do not have to duplicate anything as I’ve seen some suggest.
In the end, you know how you like to organize things. And Obsidian gives you options.
An Example Obsidian Folder Structure
I first started using Obsidian fairly recently, in 2024, when I went back to school for my MBA.
That’s when I made my big switch from using a combination of Todoist and handwritten notes to using Obsidian and e-ink tablets (and I don’t see myself going back).
So, in my folder structure in my main vault, I have an Education folder at the top-level. In the MBA folder within that, I set up sub-folders for each course.
In those folders, I stored all notes, saved videos of course lectures, study guides, and other instructor resources for each class. So my folder structure looked something like this:
- Main Vault
- Education
- MBA
- Course A
- Course B
- Course C
- MBA
- Education
There are topics that overlap between certain courses. Some notes from Course A might also be relevant to Course B. In those cases, I would simply link from my notes in the Course B folder to the longer notes I’d already taken in the Course A folder.
This avoids overlap, and it connects similar topics to each other, so I can always easily find related notes.
But again, you can use a folder structure, or you can opt not to. Totally up to you.
A note on syncing:
Obsidian is primarily meant to be a private, local app and vault. That means you generally can only access things on your primary machine.
But there are sync options if you want them. Obsidian offers a premium sync plugin for example. I personally pay for that both to support the developers of otherwise free software, but also because I find the app works flawlessly and I like that peace of mind.
There are free workaround options as well, like using cloud storage to host your vault. We’ll look into those options more as we dive deeper into Obsidian in future posts.
Linking in Obsidian
I’ve touched on linking already, but its worth its own mention as it’s one of the most useful features in Obsidian.
Like I shared in my previous example, you can link between notes. Let me give you another example of how you might use linking as a freelancer.
Let’s say you keep a list of running article ideas (maybe blog post ideas for a retainer blogging client) in one Obsidian note.
Let’s also say you write your blog post drafts directly in Obsidian.
If you remove a title from your blog post idea list when you draft that post, there’s no clear reminder that you’ve already covered that topic. But if you link that title in your idea list to your draft in Obsidian, you can quickly access it for a reminder of what you’ve already covered in the past.
Similarly, when you draft an article or other project in Obsidian, you can add links to your sources that are also saved in Obsidian.
That goes beyond notes. You can add a .pdf to your vault for example, and you can view it right in Obsidian. You can also add .docx and other file types to your vault, and if they can’t be viewed directly in Obsidian, clicking them will open them in their associated program (like Word or PowerPoint).
So everything you need to reference while working on a draft can be linked to right from that note you’re working in.
Links, tags, and note properties combine to help you build an interconnected professional knowledge base.
Obsidian for Freelance Writers: Benefits & Use Cases
Because this post is meant as an introduction to Obsidian, we won’t do a deep dive into setting up vaults, plugins, or more advanced use cases. Additional posts will follow to guide you through that.
For now though, I want you to understand what you can do with Obsidian and why it can be such a powerful tool for freelance writers.
Obsidian for Writing
Obsidian is a great simple (and free) app you can use for writing drafts of content or copy. And while learning how to write using markdown can actually speed up the writing process, you don’t have to do that thanks to plugins. The Editing Toolbar plugin, for example, will give you a more familiar WYSIWYG toolbar (similar to Word or WordPress).
You can use properties to track the state of the project (draft, editing, etc.). You can access source material right in the same Obsidian interface (similar to how you might keep research material in Scrivener for longer manuscripts). Multiple panes can be used to edit a copy of an earlier draft. From outlining to editing, Obsidian works well for any stage of the writing process.
Notes & Research Organization in Obsidian
At its heart, Obsidian is a notetaking app. Each file you create is called a note (though you can add other document types).
These might include interview notes, background on interview subjects, client style guidelines, or research notes for projects you’re working on.
You can interlink your notes, or you can connect those notes to ideas rather than other notes using the tags system. But Obsidian doesn’t only excel at note storage and organization. It also makes it easier to find the notes and research you need when you need them. The Search core plugin gives you pretty advanced search capabilities throughout your entire vault, keeping all notes and research easily accessible.
Maintain a Professional Knowledge Base
As a freelance writer, you accumulate a lot of information over time. And that information is valuable.
It might include:
- research material you could use in the future;
- information on interview sources you might want to reach out to again;
- client background (like when they tend to run certain campaigns or other repeat projects);
- running lists of client contact information;
- information on prospects you’d like to pitch (or tracking pitches you’ve sent);
- templates you refer to often;
- style guidelines you often follow (from client guidelines to things like AP style);
- notes from courses you take or books you read for professional development;
- news stories that might inspire future pitches or articles.
A personal (or in this case professional) knowledge base requires three things:
- Capturing information
- Organizing information
- Retrieving information
Obsidian handles all three beautifully.
I personally love how much of this information is kept in one place (especially when I import my handwritten notes from the e-ink tablets I now pair with the app).
With a professional knowledge base, you’ll never run out of ideas. You’ll have source information ready to go the moment you need it. And when you organize things from the start, it’s very difficult to lose any of it in Obsidian.
I know learning any new piece of software can sometimes feel overwhelming. And that’s why we’ll end this introduction here. There will be follow-up posts (the next will guide you through the vault setup process and show you how to use a few of my most recommended plugins to help you set up a more familiar writing environment).
For now though, consider downloading Obsidian (again, it’s completely free) and setting up a simple test vault (just a basic folder structure on your hard drive).
Play around with markdown if it’s new to you. Practice linking between files. Add a .pdf, .docx, or even a video file to your folder structure to see how they behave with Obsidian.
Just get a feel for the barebones app.
Then I’ll be back to guide you through setting up a freelance writing vault. I’m currently building out a sample one that will be available for download with that tutorial so you won’t have to do that from scratch (though you absolutely can if you prefer a different setup).
I hope you give Obsidian a chance because there is so much more it can do for you, from creating trackers and dashboards to advanced templates and even databases, all in one app. I can’t wait to share more.
