md2ms is a command-line tool to convert Markdown file(s) to Shunn's Standard Manuscript Format in docx format. It also provides an integration with Obsidian via the ShellCommands and Commander plugins so that you can easily generate manuscripts or view your word count from your Obsidian vault.
This was partially inspired by Tobias Buckell's usage of Obsidian to write, track and analyze his fiction work.
I've been using Obsidian for a Personal Knowledge Management system, and want to use it as a cross-platform writing application, but the difficulty of generating manuscripts from Markdown files was a barrier.
md2ms is a work-in-progress but is currently in a functional state. It is an opinionated tool, based on my personal preferences, but I think it covers at least 80% of use-cases. Given the path to Markdown file(s) in an Obsidian vault, it will generate four manuscripts:
- Classic Manuscript (Courier New) Format w/Personally Identifying Information (PII)
- Classic Manuscript (Courier New) Format w/o Personally Identifying Information (PII)
- Modern Manuscript (Times New Roman) Format w/Personally Identifying Information (PII)
- Modern Manuscript (Times New Roman) Format w/o Personally Identifying Information (PII)
A vast majority of publishers prefer Standard Manuscript Format, so this quickly generates manuscripts ready for submission.
TBD
To enable the integration with Obsidian, you can use the following command:
md2ms obsidian /path/to/obsidian/vault
This will download, install, and activate the two required Obsidian plugins, which will then be configured for use with md2ms. You can run the command multiple times to update the plugins or to reinstall missing shortcuts.
NOTE: For best results, you should close your vault before running this command. The vault needs to be re-opened for the changes to take effect.
In Obsidian, right-click on the folder containing your Markdown files and choose "Export to Standard Manuscript Format".
md2ms compile ~/path/to/vault/Writing/Fiction/Short/Template/Draft \
--pii ~/Documents/Writing/PII.md \
--output-dir ~/path/to/Writing/DraftsMost manuscripts require your personal information, such as legal name, address, email address, etc. You will need to create a PII.md file in the root of your vault or writing folder, with the following metadata:
---
legal_name: John Q. Doe
address1: 123 Main Street
address2: Apt. 1408
city: Anytown
state: IL
country: USA
postal_code: 55555
phone: 1-555-867-5309
email: [email protected]
affiliations:
- SFWA
- HWA
---md2ms is designed to be flexible when it comes to story structure. You could have a single Markdown document containing your entire story, a Markdown document per scene, a folder per chapter, or even a folder to separate acts in a longer work.
Each Markdown file should contain some metadata:
You should also create a metadata Markdown for the story itself, which informs md2ms of pertinent information when compiling the manuscript:
---
author: "Adam Israel"
title: "The Great Canadian Short Story"
short_title: "Canadian"
short_author: "Israel"
content_warnings:
- "violence"
- "death"
- "gore"
- "blood"
include:
- scene1.md
- scene2.md
---Most of this is self-explanatory, but the include block is special. It lists the Markdown files that make up your manuscript. This allows you to keep research, notes, reader feedback, etc. in the same folder as your manuscript.
Consider the following structure:
The Great Canadian Short Story
├── Draft
│ ├── metadata.md
│ ├── scene1.md
│ └── scene2.md
└── Research
└── Outline.md
In this contrived example, we have two scenes and metadata in the Draft folder. This is what md2ms will use when compiling the manuscript.
Here's another example, of a three-act novella:
.
├── Act 1
│ ├── Chapter 1
│ │ ├── scene 1.md
│ │ ├── scene 2.md
│ │ └── scene 3.md
│ ├── Chapter 2
│ │ ├── scene 1.md
│ │ ├── scene 2.md
│ │ └── scene 3.md
│ ├── Chapter 3
│ │ ├── scene 1.md
│ │ ├── scene 2.md
│ │ └── scene 3.md
│ └── metadata.md
├── Act 2
│ ├── Chapter 4
│ │ ├── scene 1.md
│ │ ├── scene 2.md
│ │ └── scene 3.md
│ ├── Chapter 5
│ │ ├── scene 1.md
│ │ ├── scene 2.md
│ │ └── scene 3.md
│ ├── Chapter 6
│ │ ├── scene 1.md
│ │ ├── scene 2.md
│ │ └── scene 3.md
│ └── metadata.md
├── Act 3
│ ├── Chapter 7
│ │ ├── scene 1.md
│ │ ├── scene 2.md
│ │ └── scene 3.md
│ ├── Chapter 8
│ │ ├── scene 1.md
│ │ ├── scene 2.md
│ │ └── scene 3.md
│ ├── Chapter 9
│ │ ├── scene 1.md
│ │ ├── scene 2.md
│ │ └── scene 3.md
│ └── metadata.md
├── metadata.md
└── PII.md
- Remove extra scene breaks (
#) after the title, after a header ("Act 1"), and at the end of a chapter.
Right now there is no configuration file for md2ms. All options are passed via command-line arguments.
There are the supported types of scene breaks that are auto-deteected:
* * *\##- Two or more blank lines