Yes—I had already finished my dissertation when I discovered Obsidian, but I’ve used it to write or revise conference papers, popular talks/articles, journal article drafts, etc.
My workflow goes roughly like this, but keep in mind that I’ve done most of my writing pre-Obsidian so I haven’t really follow this entirely workflow for a single project. It’s very preliminary but may give you some ideas.
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I have to read something. I make a reference note for tha thing using Zotero + the Citations plugin on obsidian.
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I read the thing. I take note as I go.
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If a note I take on the reading seems important enough that I want to spend more than a sentence or two on it, I create its own note and link it to the reference note. I develop that note, link it to other notes in my vault on similar topics, etc.
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If I find I have a cluster of notes around a similar theme, I create an index note on all of them. This could be specific to a work/author (“Human Nature in the Xunzi”), to an era (“Human Nature in Chinese Philosophy”) or more general (“Is human nature good?”).
4a. Alternatively, if I anticipate gathering a lot of notes about a subject, I might make the index note first, in anticipating of having related notes. -
Every time I write a note about a certain topic, I include a link to that topic’s index note. Every time I have a note about a certain author or work, I link to the reference note for that author/work.
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Say I want to write a paper about author A on topic N. I look at my index/reference notes for A and N, and check the backlinks section. This shows me all the notes that reference A or N. This gives me an idea of what to write about.
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Now I have an idea for a paper, maybe even a thesis for the paper. I create a new project note for this new project, “A’s view of N.” I start adding links to all of the notes I think are relevant to the project, moving them around, writing commentary on how the notes connect, etc.
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Eventually, I get an idea for a thesis and how I can structure the paper to prove that thesis. I use headings to create an outline, and then link notes relevant to each section in the outline under that section.
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Now I can look at those notes, pull out ideas or passages that are relevant, and start writing the paper.
I know some people do a very hardcore ZK-style of writing where they actually turn their notes into the first draft of a paper. I haven’t done that yet; in fact I find it very useful to rewrite the same idea many times, at different lengths, for different audiences, etc. So my notes aren’t the first draft of the paper. The purpose the notes serve is to organize all my preexisting knowledge and ideas, passages of a book I’m studying, etc., so that I don’t lose any insight I had in the past, and so I might notice patterns and connections I wouldn’t have had it all been in my head.