Drafts and Obsidian: More thinking about Writerly Workflows and Processes

Last week when I decided to go all in on the Obsidian iOS and iPadOS app I wondered, where would this leave me with apps like Drafts? I have been a Drafts power user for many years and, up until now, it has been the place “where text starts.” My decision to use Obsidian has me re-thinking that at least for me, Drafts will be the place where most text starts. Allow me to explain.

What I’ve decided on is that if I know for a fact that what I am about to write is focused on my Morning Pages habit or my blog, that text will start in Obsidian for all of the reasons I documented last week. If I know that what I’m writing is Drafts dependent; meaning I can only do what I’m about to do through the power of Drafts (like writing a text message that I am not yet ready to send but want to send, via a Drafts action, as soon as I hear from the person I’m sending it to) then Drafts is the place where that text will start. If I am unsure of what will become of the text before I begin then Drafts is the place for “it” to start. If I feel that what I’ve started in Drafts needs to “finish” in Obsidian the power of Drafts allows me to send that Draft to Obsidian through a Drafts action. I can also, in both theory and practice, do the same thing with Ulysses (an app that I am currently trying to decide my future with) however, I do not currently see a use case where that would be necessary relegating Ulysses inactive for now.