Need help using Obsidian for writing

I know some of you already have a process for this, so can I pick your brains?

I’m looking to write a book – although I’m thinking a blog post or article would be a similar process, just smaller-scale – and I’m not sure how to handle the logistics of getting from the notes I have to a finished draft.

In particular, I not only have straight-up reference notes in my vault; I have a bunch of notes that consist of Facebook posts I already personally wrote, on small pieces of the larger topic that will comprise the book. I don’t think I want to edit these notes, but I’d like to be able to duplicate them or copy/paste them into a larger note or something and be able to rewrite and rearrange and add on from there.

I’m guessing the best approach to this is probably a second vault dedicated to the project. Maybe.

How have you already answered the question, “I have all this content; now what?”

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Seems like having one note per chapter and then copy pasting the relevant content makes the most sense. You can link to other notes for your own convenience, and then when it’s ready to be pulled together into a book you export it without all the links and such.

Another vault doesn’t make much sense to me because you wouldn’t be able to link all the research you have!

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Yes, I know the question very well: How does the process looks like, when all my notes are already in my Zettelkasten? Atomic notes with a hairball of links and other connections. What are the steps to publish a post, an article or a book?

And I’m happy that we now have the new Canvas plugin available. Here are my basic steps to create output: Limit folders. How to use Zettelkasten in Obsidian - #13 by Edmund

I’ve started a book project last year, but with Obsidian Canvas it will be my first book completely based on my Obsidian Zettelkasten.

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Why not just do that?

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I don’t know if this is going to mess me up/cause confusion if I have duplicate content of all this stuff in multiple notes within the vault.

Maybe not. Maybe I’m just overthinking that. But I was hoping someone who’s been there & done that might know what works well and what to watch out for.

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I’ve been there done that, as you said, and that’s more or less what I do. Dump notes into a new file and get editing (rearranging, rewriting, etc). It basically what I show in this vid: Using the Zettelkasten (and Obsidian) to Write an Essay - YouTube)

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I haven’t found occasional duplicate content to be a problem — context should make it clear. It may help to link back to the original. If you copy whole notes, I’d change the names of the copies to avoid confusion.

For the main question, I’d use a folder, not a separate vault. For gathering the existing resources I’d make a list of links. If that felt unwieldy I’d copy everything into a subfolder of the project.

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