Getting back to writing with the help of my friends: Free Write and AI

So much has happened in the last month. I’ve been learning a lot of new tools, and using those tools to learn even more stuff.

The problem is, whether I’m on my phone or my computer, it’s so easy to get distracted. Anywhere there’s access to Telegram or the terminal, it’s really tempting to fire off a prompt and let it start doing something “on the side.” Writing usually gets forgotten.

I now have a pretty customizable system on my Linux laptop. With Claude’s help, I’ve built some automations that make my writing workflow much easier.

## Obsidian Sync

The first step was syncing the Freewrite (a distraction free writing tool) to my laptop. I didn’t really enjoy the Postbox sync but I appreciate that they allow syncing directly to the device. Since I wanted to access my notes on multiple devices, I also pushed everything to git. I know, annoying that I still have to have another company host my content, but that’s a fight for another day.

The issue was that the files come in as `.txt`, so I asked Claude to help me create a script that fires on USB connect, imports new and changed files to my device as `.md` files, and then pushes them to git.

That alone was already a great automation. I could then prompt for reviews on my content, and all sorts of things.

## Phase 2: Automatic Editing

Every now and then, when I have a post to write, I’d write it on the Freewrite, email it to myself, copy-paste it into Claude to clean up typos and catch obvious mistakes, then publish. I’d sometimes add photos, but most of the time it’s ready to copy-paste into WordPress.

So I thought about automating that part too. We created a script that looks at newly imported files and finds ones with the `#blogdraft` tag in the title. That file gets passed into Claude along with the prompt I have for my blog editor instructions. Once it’s done, it puts the result in an editor outbox folder.

## Phase 3: Automated Publishing

If the title has the hashtag `#blogpost-yolo` in it, the file goes straight into a publisher inbox folder where a listener emails it directly to my WordPress account.

The flow was getting a little complex so I had to draw an event model and include it in the prompt to avoid any confusion in the requirements. It came out great—basically each piece is a shell script that does one thing. I think that really helped.

My mind is literally blown at how much can be automated now with the help of AI.