Obsidian.md has completely changed my approach. It's a note-taking app, but the way you can link notes (characters, places, concepts) creates a living wiki of your story. The graph view shows you how all your ideas connect. It uses local files, so you own your data, and there are endless plugins. The mobile app is solid for adding notes. The catch is, it's pure markdown, so no formatting helpers—it's just you and your linked thoughts.
Price is a huge factor. Many are subscription-based, which adds up. Wavemaker is free, Obsidian is free for personal use, and plain text editors are cheap. Consider how much you're willing to invest monthly or yearly for these features before falling in love with a premium option.
Wait, are we talking about apps where the tools are integrated into the writing environment, or standalone wikis? Because World Anvil is a powerhouse for worldbuilding, but it's a browser-based platform, not really a drafting app. You can create incredibly detailed articles for every aspect of your world, with maps and timelines. I use it for reference, then draft in a separate app. The mobile browser experience is okay for reading your own lore.
Remember, you can always start simple and migrate later. I began my current novel in Google Docs with a chaotic appendix. At the 30k-word mark, I moved the organized lore into Obsidian. The act of transferring was itself a useful revision of my world's consistency. Don't let the search for the perfect app block the writing.
As a software developer who writes, I ended up building my own bare-bones web app with a simple database for characters and places. It's not pretty, but it does exactly what I need. It makes me appreciate the work that goes into the polished commercial apps, even if they include features I don't want.
2026-07-24 06:02:24
5
View All Answers
Scan code to download App
Related Books
Reborn in the Werewolf World for Revenge. (Help of My AI
Uche write
10
788
Betrayed, humiliated, and left for dead, Ria is given a second chance at life when she is reborn in a dangerous werewolf world. Armed with memories of her painful past and guided by a powerful AI companion, she vows to take revenge on those who destroyed her.
But as hidden powers awaken, mysterious enemies emerge, and Alpha Klein becomes entangled in her fate, Ria discovers that her rebirth is connected to an ancient secret that could change the entire werewolf kingdom.
Now, with revenge in her heart,she must decide whether to destroy the world that hurt her—or become powerful enough to rule it.
When the apocalypse came, she lost everything. Starving, hunted, and desperate, she trusted the one man she loved… only for him to betray her in the cruelest way possible. He stole her last supplies to please another woman and left her to die in a sea of the undead.
But death wasn’t the end.
She woke up days before the world collapsed.
After cutting ties with her ungrateful ex and his parasitic family, a mysterious voice awakens in her mind, LUS, a Level-Up System designed to help her survive the coming end.
With knowledge of the future and a system guiding her every move, she begins to prepare. She stockpiles resources, builds a base, and learns how to fight back against the horrors that once destroyed her.
And when the apocalypse arrives again… she’s ready. But survival isn’t the only thing waiting for her in this new life.
A silent killer who watches her like prey.
A manipulative genius who wants to unravel her secrets.
A gentle protector who sees the girl she hides.
And a dangerous man who thrives in chaos.
As the world burns and power shifts, they’re all drawn to her, each with their own motives, each with their own darkness. Even her past refuses to stay buried.
Because now, the man who once abandoned her is back, broken, desperate, and begging for a second chance. Too bad she has no time for regrets.
Not when she’s busy rising to power… and building a kingdom in the ruins of the world.
This is a brochure containing a collection of PROMPT IDEAS from our one and only GOOD NOVEL WORKSHOP. Every PROMPT is a thrilling idea that might inspire you and can be the foundation of your next book! If interested, Please send your summary to: workshop@goodnovel.com, and note which prompt is based on. Our editors will get back to you as soon as possible.
Kalina Adnan was thrown into another world when she wore a necklace given to her by her future mother-in-law. In a Nigella kingdom where demons and humans coexist alongside fortune tellers and witches.
Surrounded by handsome demons and a myriad of royal political problems. Help reveal the evil of the black magic clan. Take on the role of a great power targeted by many. The chosen demon bride, the perfect vessel for Aurora's jewels. Will Kalina be able to return to the future or choose to stay in the Nigella Kingdom?
Vera fought for her life in the apocalypse for ten years.
Ten brutal years left her disfigured, hungry, and almost broken, but she still clawed her way through it. She killed zombies, ran from mutated animals, starved, bled, and learned humans were often more dangerous than monsters.
Then her brother, the only family she had left, betrayed her.
Vera thought death had finally come.
Instead, she woke up inside a trashy book she once read to stay sane while the old world fell apart. A book with a twisted plot and too much drama.
And because her luck had always been terrible, Vera did not wake up as the heroine.
No, of course not.
Her second chance was to become the hated second female lead, pregnant, unwanted, and written to die when the plot no longer needed her. Her babies were supposed to die too. Even the three men who got her pregnant were written as future corpses, all to push the story toward spoiled women and one psychotic male lead.
But Vera was not the woman from the book.
She had survived one ruined world. She had not walked through radioactive rain and eaten mutated food just to cry over fantasy characters or beg for love inside a stupid plot.
So Vera adapted.
She accepted her punishment, took her three unborn babies, and left for the garbage center without making a scene. Everyone thought she had been thrown away.
Vera saw a chance to make money, protect her babies, and build something of her own.
Now the woman meant to disappear is building a wasteland empire, breaking the plot, and driving three men insane because she no longer chases anyone.
By every rule in that world, Vera should be dead.
But dying a second time was never an option.
The protagonist of this story is a young adult fan of classic dice role-playing games; suddenly the protagonist awakens in a world of magic and fantasy in the body of the final Boss of a magical castle; Accompanied by his loyal Generals, the protagonist will experience the greatest adventure of his existence using the title of Witch-king as his middle name.
I use them mostly for revision, not initial creation. After the messy first draft, I'll go through and use a free app to catalog every character, location, and unique rule that appeared. This creates a series bible that exposes inconsistencies. 'Oh, I said this character hated dogs in Chapter 3 but is petting one in Chapter 20.' Or 'I established that teleportation is impossible, but here the hero basically does it.' The app helps audit the world I've already built, which is just as valuable as planning it.
Don't sleep on 'Tachiyomi' with the right extensions, honestly. It's not just for manga; several extensions source from light novel aggregate sites that often have dual-language entries, especially for popular series. You can sometimes find a version where tapping a paragraph switches between languages, or they're displayed in parallel columns.
It's a bit of a DIY setup and requires knowing which extensions are currently reliable, as they come and go. But for sheer flexibility and cost (free), it's hard to beat if you're willing to tinker a little to get it configured just right.
I'm loyal to 'Obsidian' for this. It's a note-taking app that works on local markdown files, so it's 100% offline by default. The graph view shows connections between your notes—imagine seeing how all your character notes are linked to plot points. You can install community plugins for writing goals, timelines, and novel templates.
It has a slight learning curve due to its flexibility, but once you build your vault, you have a powerful, private, and portable writing database. The mobile app is solid and syncs via your preferred cloud service if you want.
I'm new to audiobooks and didn't even know bookmarking was a thing! I just pause and hope I remember where I was. This thread is opening my eyes. Maybe I should start using these tools... any of these apps good for a total beginner who gets confused by complicated settings?
I’m a huge fan of using 'Notion' for this. You can build your own dashboard with linked databases for characters, locations, lore, etc. For a map, create a gallery database where each entry is a region or city, and add a map image to the page. You can then link between all these pages. The best part is the flexibility; you can format notes exactly how you want, embed web links, and even create simple Kanban boards for plot arcs. It’s more of a build-your-own-app solution, and the free plan is very generous.