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Fresh Vault Onboarding

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Eric Rhys Taylor edited this page May 4, 2026 · 11 revisions

Use this path when you are starting a new project or an empty vault.

Common Obsidian Setup Paths

Radial Timeline works well with a few common vault setups. Pick one and stick with it:

  • Single book vault. Cleanest and simplest for a new project.
  • Single vault with a dedicated Manuscript folder. Keeps research notes separate.
  • Multi-book vault with one folder per book. Best when you are planning a series.

This page covers the fresh vault flow. If you already have scenes, jump to Existing Vault Onboarding.

Note properties: Radial Timeline stores scene, beat, and backdrop details as note properties in Obsidian. You do not need to think about the YAML format unless you want to edit it directly.

1. Install and set up your first book

  1. Install Radial Timeline from Community Plugins.
  2. Open Settings -> Community Plugins -> Radial Timeline.
  3. Open Settings -> Core -> Books.
  4. Add a book profile and link its Source folder to your manuscript folder.

2. Generate your scaffold with Book Designer

  1. Open the command palette and run Radial Timeline: Book designer.
  2. Choose Act count, subplot count, and optional beats.
  3. Click Create to generate your scene notes and optional beat notes.

3. Choose a beats system (or skip for now)

  • Pick Save the Cat, Hero's Journey, or Custom in Settings -> Core -> Story beats system.
  • For Custom: name your system, add beats, assign to acts, and drag to reorder.
  • If you skipped beats in Book Designer, use Create to generate beat notes later. Use Merge to realign files after reordering or renaming.

4. Orient to the key modes

  • Progress (1). Writing status and progress stage.
  • Narrative (2). Manuscript order and subplot structure.
  • Chronologue (3). Story-world time.
  • Gossamer (4). Beat-level scoring across Momentum, Tension, Activity, and Interiority.

5. Minimum daily workflow

  • Write scenes and keep Synopsis up to date.
  • Update Status as you move from Todo to Working to Complete.
  • Use Search to find scenes across metadata fields.

6. Optional next steps

  • Run AI Pulse Triplet Analysis for scene pulse feedback.
  • Use Inquiry for corpus-level analysis.
  • Use Manuscript export when you are ready to share.

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