Writing Original Works™ (WOW)
Join our 3-week live workshop to learn a reliable process that turns your linked notes into clear, meaningful writing that connects with your readers. Learn how to hone your voice and improve how you write original works you are proud of. Experience a complete solution to your writing process.
JOIN THE WAITLISTDo you ever think…
Here's my story.
I buried a book I wrote because I was shamed
In December 2014, I printed a draft of my book. It was 194 pages and 43,000 words. Now, almost ten years later, I’m staring at it again for the first time and I have tears in my eyes. I poured my heart and soul into it—weaving together meaningful life lessons into a book I called “Amateur’s Quest”.
But because of one person’s opinion, I buried the book.
For the past ten years, I’ve hidden from the shame I felt from the feedback I received. Are you wondering what he said? Well, I took good notes ;)
- You sound like the guy at the psych ward, lol, self-aggrandizement.
- Your title is insulting. Am I the amateur? Are you? Is this young adult?
- It's a terrible title for self-help. It’s like you’re telling me a convoluted joke.
Even if what he said wasn’t completely untrue, it was completely demoralizing. I basically paid a bitter man to kick me in the groin. It was W.B. Yeats who said “Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
I stopped dreaming after that.
I switched careers and moved to LA a year later. I focused on working my way up in TV, first as a lowly production assistant, and last as part of the editing team on the final season of Better Call Saul. I loved rapidly learning and rising within the industry.
Fast-forward to March 2020. I joined the brand new Obsidian forums on Discord. In the early days of the pandemic, everyone was connecting online in new ways. Those were the best days in Discord. We would all geek out on each new Obsidian update and excitedly explore the ramifications with each other.
By May 2020, I did the thing I hadn’t done in years: I shared something vulnerable with strangers. It was the first version of Ideaverse Pro—a starter kit of linked notes.
This time, no one said I should seek mental help.
Instead, everyone was curious. They shared insights and they had questions. So, in between editing a TV pilot, I continued to iterate on my starter kit and share new versions. And more comments arrived. It was a wonderful feedback loop.
Looking back on those days, I can say this with 100% certainty:
Without the Obsidian community, Linking Your Thinking would not exist.
I want to create that space for you. I want to give that feeling to you. Because we need you.
Now, more than ever in this world of regurgitated writings, gross AI text, and false personas; we need you to be able to communicate as the Truest You—the Youest You—as you can possibly be.
Your writing is welcome. Your voice has dignity. Your words have meaning.
Imagine overcoming everything that's blocking you from writing at your best
I want to help you unlock whatever it is that is getting in your way, whether it’s some psychological barrier or some practical problem or some combination of both.
Since 2020, I’ve written so much I can’t even calculate the amount. Here is an incomplete list:
- 2000 significantly original notes, 250 newsletters, 150 YouTube videos
- 500 mini essays in a Choose Your Own Adventure format
- 200 live trainings, 200 educational course lessons
- 10 in-person speeches, 2 short stories, 1 screenplay
- 1 book proposal
- and in a little over two years, a traditionally published book.
But don’t celebrate that! Celebrate the change.
Because for the six years prior, I was too scared to write anything.
Yes, I was bursting with ideas, but I kept them buried until I found the right environment (the Obsidian forums)—and the right process (using linked notes)—to support my words until I fully found my voice.
I created Writing Original Works to help you find your voice.
What if you could get past your sticking points?
We are trusted by thinkers at the following institutions
The WOW Workshop in a nutshell...
Who's it for?
What will I learn?
In this workshop, you will learn:
- How to use linked notes to catalyze your ideas and generate valuable insights
- Proven techniques and workflows to move your writing from fledgling ideas to finished work
- A reliable process using linked notes to write original works
What is the time commitment?
We know your schedule may change week to week, so we provide adaptable recommendations for different levels of engagement.
At a minimum, you should expect to spend about 4 hours a week on the workshop. Your time will be spent in Nick's Super Sessions (on Tuesdays), Workflow Sessions (Wednesdays mostly), the starred lessons in the curriculum, and in posting 250 words weekly.
At a maximum, you could expect to spend about 10+ hours a week on the workshop. Your time will be spent in Nick's Super Sessions (on Tuesdays), Workflow Sessions (Wednesdays mostly), the Expert Sessions (one per week), all the actionable lessons in the modular curriculum, in posting 750 words weekly (optionally giving/receiving light feedback), and engaging with your global peers.
Cost of tuition
Your Writing Original Works Experience
Live Sessions
Nick's Super Sessions are the flagship sessions of the workshop and provide a mixture of actionable frameworks, guided exercises, targeted interactions, and even extended Q&A's after the formal sessions.
Nick's Workflow Sessions complement the Super Sessions by drilling powerful techniques and applying them, live, to your own writing.
The Expert Sessions cover applied uses of writing with linked notes, specifically for novels, research papers, and literary editing.
The Showcase sessions happen near the end of the workshop where students show their
newly created writing process. These inside looks are incredibly rare, inspiring, and invaluable to all who are able to witness them.
Writing Exercises
Each Super Session is loaded with guided exercises designed to educate as they strengthen a writer's clarity and capabilities.
Almost every lesson in the WOW Curriculum has an actionable exercise to encourage immediately applying the ideas within.
Our weekly writing submissions take the form of 250-750 word essays (or excerpts from longform writings).
Writing Education
The WOW Curriculum is spread across six modules. The curriculum provides a holistic education on the writing process.
*See the modules below for more details.
Writing Community
Our Campfire Discussions and Tavern Chat spaces allow you to learn not just alongside but from your peers in one of the most supportive and connective communities out there. These spaces are great for discussing writing workflows, interesting concepts and ideas we're inspired by, and so much more.
The Writer's Log is a great optional space offering a lightweight place to briefly share a bit of (or about) your writing each day and help you maintain a regular writing habit throughout WOW.
Optional Peer Feedback helps you get a fresh perspective (and encouragement!) on your submission each week and allows you to unlock new insights on your own writing process as you offer feedback to others.
Writing Techniques & Workflows
Writing Techniques will get you to make reliable advances in your efforts by applying the Architect & Gardener framework in powerful ways.
Writing Workflows will help you string together trusted steps that will almost guarantee your writing efforts will make a series of satisfying progress.
*See the modules below for more details
Personalized Assessments
The WOW onboarding Assessment helps clarify how you are showing up for the workshop and what you aim to achieve.
The Creator's Codex Quiz provides insights into your natural thinking style and your common sticking points-along with guidance on how to overcome common pitfalls according to your results.
The WOW Curriculum
- How to find and unlock your unique voice.
- How to reclaim, own, and wield your unique worldview.
- Taking the WOW Assessment.
- Explore your thinking signature results.
- Guided exercises in my first super session.
- The LYT Spark List™ circuit of lessons and exercises.
- Filtering best practices to separate the signal from the noise.
- How to dislodge yourself from your chronic sticking points.
- How to turn mental squeeze points into breakthroughs.
- How to easily switch between Architect & Gardener.
- How to use linked notes to stay in Flow.
- Practicing "Collect to Calm" to overcome overwhelm.
- Practicing "Cluster for Clarity" to gain crystal clear perspective.Learn how to "Map the Gap".
- Practicing "Collide to Create" to generate effortless insights.
- Learn how to "Resolve the Tension" in your writing.
- Plus: Shadow Mapping, Pin the Map, and many more...
- How to know what you need to do next.
- How to know when to do move to the next step.
- How to schedule when to do it.
- How to actually do it.
- Gardeners will practice “Freewrite, Rewrite”
- Architects will practice “Prewrite, Freewrite, Rewrite”
- Daily notes users will practice “Daily Spark & Weekly Arc”
- Daily notes users will practice “First Light, Last Light”
- Gardeners will set up their “Garden Master” workflow
- Architects will set up their “Landscape Architect” workflow
- How to make your writing make an impact.
- How to cultivate a strong call to action.
- How to tell stories to compel interest.
- Knowing the storytelling elements you need (and don't need) for your work.
- Practicing the best lessons from wordplay in ancient rhetoric. For example:
- Use chiasmus, once, never twice, to make a memorable impact.
- Use anadiplosis to build momentum to a logical conclusion.
- Many, many, more.
- Turning common phrases into uncommon twists.
- How to package and share your work in your preferred medium.
- How to convert your scattered ideas into clear works.
- How to overcome imposter syndrome, indirectly.
- How to overcome perfectionism, indirectly.
- Finding and developing layered forcing functions to compel our writing.
- Learning how to sense when you need to move to the medium.
- Leveraging "works in progress" and feedback loops.
- Learning when to hide your notes.
- How to "Lower the Bar" and keep momentum going.
- How to write confidently even if not consistently.
- How to recover momentum when it has stalled.
- How to find and develop the "Flywheel Effect".
- Using the Creators Continent to tangibly map your writing process.
- Using a "Session Before The Session" to reignite lost momentum.
- Setting up a "Permissions List" to keep your expectations ground.
- Setting up time management methods that work for you.
Expert guided sessions
Expect at least two 60-minute sessions from each of them
Robert Schick, Ph.D
Millions of academic papers are published each year, and yet a small few are relevant to researchers and writers as they embark on a new manuscript. How do we make sense of what is out there? How do both read them, ingest the information, and make connections across papers and ideas? How do we remember them when we need them? No workflow is perfect, and mine is always a work in progress. As such, I'll talk about my current workflow that comprises Obsidian, the Excalidraw plugin, Zotero, and Overleaf which is a collaborative writing software.
Kimberly Peticolas
Kimberly is a self-proclaimed "forever student" of all things relevant . . . (and some not-so-relevant). She has a BA from University of Southern California, an MA from University of Leicester (England), and post-grad certifications in editing, publishing, and technical writing from University of Chicago, New York University, and California State University Dominguez Hills respectively.
Lionel Davoust
Lionel has a breakthrough method of writing fiction and worldbuilding—which includes the LYT frameworks.Writing fiction is one of the most demanding workflows there is, especially on longer forms, as cold, hard reason battles with what Steven Pressfield calls « The Mystery » – a mix of feeling, inspiration, gut and aesthetic.
Your core team
Dan Lardi
Nick Milo
Keaton Sondreal
Laila Faisal
Workshop schedule
Secure your seat now
You will leave this workshop with a reliable writing process.
The WOW Workshop
1 Workshop
3 Workshops
Monthly Events & Continuous Learning
Knowledge Accelerator
1 Workshop
4 WORKSHOP INTENSIVES
You get everything in the WOW workshop.
INSTANT ACCESS PRODUCTS & COURSES
SPECIAL EVENTS & COMMUNITY
Do it together to do it better
The session before the session worked!!!! I got back into my playwriting project this morning thanks to [this technique], and I am super jazzed…suddenly I was bursting with “sparks becoming remarks” like popcorn in a cast iron pot.
– Playwright and screenwriter, Hallie Palladino
Meet the creator of Linking Your Thinking
I’ve spent the last 15 years using digital notes to create and grow a fitness boxing into an international company, produce two independent feature films, become a TV and film editor, and—perhaps most importantly—to calm my thoughts and make better sense of the world around me.
Hi, I'm Nick Milo.
I’ve spent the last 15 years using digital notes to create and grow a fitness boxing into an international company, produce two independent feature films, become a TV and film editor, and—perhaps most importantly—to calm my thoughts and make better sense of the world around me.
I’ve tested and stretched the limits of Personal Knowledge Management in the “real world”:
- from the fitness industry 🏃♂️ to the film industry 🎬
- from the football field 🏈 to civil engineering 🏗
- from strength training 🏋️♂️ to the boxing ring 🥊
- from public speaking 🎤 to content creation 🎨
What I’ve learned is this: being effective at managing knowledge is a superpower—and linking your thinking supercharges it.
The frameworks I teach unlock our ability to work with ideas in a way that is fast, flexible, and future-proof. I have taught the principles of linked notes to thousands of people with great results. These principles are flexible enough for you to shape them to your unique use cases and personal needs.
I’ve tested and stretched the limits of linked notes in the “real world”:
- from the fitness industry 🏃 to the film industry 🎬
- from the football field 🏈 to civil engineering 🏗
- from strength training 🏋️ to the boxing ring 🥊
- from public speaking 🎤 to content creation 🎨
Being effective at managing knowledge is a superpower—and linking your thinking supercharges it.
A week in the life of a WOW writer
Imagine it's the Monday of Week 2. Last week, you only had five hours to devote to the workshop, but you're excited because this week you have seven.
At 9:00 AM Pacific, you attend the expert session with fantasy novelist Lionel Davoust because you want to write fiction someday, and you've heard he's figured out how to write 1400-word novels using linked notes as the foundation. You attend and it's amazing.
On Tuesday at 9:00 AM, you attend Nick's second Super Session. This 90-minute session weaves in theory with hands-on-the-keyboard writing exercises and targeted breakout rooms. It's kind of intense, but you're developing your unique voice and making breakthroughs on your writing efforts.
On Wednesday at 9:00 AM, you attend Nick's second Workflow Session. In this 60-minute session, you further stress-test the techniques and writing tactics to your actual writing. You not only leave with more originally written work, but with a growing sense of confidence in your writing process.
On Thursday, you have a work meeting at 9:00 AM Pacific, so later you watch the recording of Kimberly Peticolas' expert session on how to kickstart your manuscript with confidence.
That's only 5 hours, so on Friday you spend half an hour in our online "tavern" to read the chats and then the "campfire" to read the deeper discussions. You spend another half hour watching the starred lessons in the Technique and Style modules. You spend the last hour rewriting the 750-word section of a chapter you've been working on in Nick's live sessions, and you post it as your Week 2 submission.
In just seven hours, you are thrilled with your writing progress. Not only did you write words you are proud of, you significantly improved your writing process. It's a reliable, repeatable process that you've never had before. Wow, indeed!
P.S...In Week 3, you are busier. You only have two hours to spend in WOW, so you attend Nick's Super Session and then give yourself permission to watch the other events and lessons later. You feel good about that because you know you have lifetime access to the recordings.
Frequently asked questions
Onboarding starts on Monday, May 13 at 9:00 AM PDT (Los Angeles) / 16:00 UTC
If you need guidance, please feel free to email us at hello@linkingyourthinking.com.
You can also use this proposal template.
We had a few people use Roam in the previous workshop. They found the MOCs in particular to be very empowering.
So that would be something like Obsidian or Roam or Remnote or Athens or anything that allows for link-based notes can work.
Now as far as the workshop, all the examples are shown in Obsidian, and the fancy advanced features are not needed. I'll talk about some cool hotkeys from time to time, but the focus is squarely on how we can work with link-based notes. These are timeless fundamentally no matter the software.
While this workshop isn't course on how to use a specific piece of software, you're surrounding yourself with people you can help, and surprisingly, like to help a lot!
For the expected experience, try to budget around 6-8 hours per week—that includes the live sessions of course.
For the best experience, just attend the live sessions (or watch the recordings as soon as they are available), go through the lessons, make comments, read what others have shared, and be an active part of this amazing gathering of inspiring thinkers!