Claude for Writers: Keep Your Characters, Plot Notes, and Research Between Sessions

Why writers hit Claude's limits hardest

Most Claude users lose a bit of context between sessions. Writers lose everything.

A novel has characters with histories, contradictions, speech patterns. It has a world with rules. It has a plot with threads that won't resolve for 200 more pages. It has research — the kind where you spent three hours reading about 1920s Glasgow and you don't want to re-explain that to Claude every session.

Custom instructions help a little. You write a paragraph about your protagonist and paste it in. Then your cast expands to twelve characters and the custom instructions box is full. Then you start a second project. Then you're managing custom instructions like a second manuscript and it's not fun anymore.

What you actually need is an external store — somewhere Claude can look things up rather than having to hold everything in a single context window.

What Stash does for writers

Stash is an MCP connector you add to Claude. When you connect it, Claude gains two tools: search() and context(). You save records to Stash the same way you'd tell Claude anything. Claude retrieves them when it needs them — across any session, forever.

In practice, that looks like this: you tell Claude your character's background once, it saves to Stash, and in every future session Claude can search for it. You never re-brief. You just write.

What to keep in Stash

Character sheets

Name, age, physical description, history, voice, contradictions. The things that make a character real and consistent. With twelve characters across a trilogy, this alone justifies a Stash account.

Save this to my character notes:
Sarah Chen — mid-30s, architect. Grew up in Edinburgh, now London.
Voice: clipped, precise, slight Scots lilt when stressed.
Contradiction: meticulous planner who hates being planned for.
Arc: learns to accept help. Key wound: mother left when she was 9.
Tags: protagonist, book-1, book-2

Plot threads and foreshadowing

The detail you planted in chapter 3 that pays off in chapter 28. The clue that only makes sense in retrospect. These are easy to drop if they only exist in your head.

Save to plot-threads:
The blue scarf Sarah gives Marcus in chapter 3.
It belonged to her mother. Marcus doesn't know this.
Payoff: chapter 28 — Marcus finds it in her old box.
Status: planted, not yet resolved.

World rules

If your story has internal logic — whether that's a magic system, a geopolitical setup, or a corporate org chart — write it to Stash. Claude will stay consistent with the rules you've defined rather than making something up that contradicts chapter 12.

Research notes

The three hours you spent reading about 1920s Glasgow, the interview you did with a forensic accountant, the architectural details of that kind of building. Save the useful bits to Stash so Claude can draw on them when you need local colour or fact-checking.

Voice and style guides

Your sentence length preference. Words you never use. The rhythm you're going for. If Claude is helping you write or edit, it needs this. Save it once, never repeat it.

Previous feedback

Beta reader notes. Editor comments. Things that need to change in the next draft. Keep them in Stash so they inform Claude's responses rather than you having to re-paste them into every session.

A session without Stash vs. a session with it

Without Stash:

You open Claude. You paste a 500-word character summary. You paste the plot outline. You paste the research notes that matter today. You're 800 tokens in before you've written a word. The context window is already a third full. And in tomorrow's session, you do it again.

With Stash:

You open Claude. You type: "Let's work on chapter 14. Remind yourself about Marcus and what happened in chapter 10." Claude calls search(), retrieves what it needs, and responds as if it was mid-conversation. You start writing.

Setting up a writing project in Stash

Stash uses collections — lightweight namespaces for different groups of records. A typical writing setup might look like:

• characters — one record per character
• plot — threads, foreshadowing, open questions
• world — rules, places, history
• research — external facts worth keeping
• feedback — reader/editor notes, things to address
• style — voice guide, words to avoid, rhythm notes

You don't have to set these up in advance. Tell Claude to save something "to my characters collection" and it creates the collection on the fly.

How to add Stash to Claude (30 seconds)

1. Go to stashlite.com → sign in with Google → copy your connector URL.
2. In Claude: Settings → Connectors (or Integrations) → Add custom → paste the URL → sign in with Google.
3. Done. Claude now has search() and context() available in every session.

The free tier for writers

2,500 records and 50 queries per month on the free tier. For a single project, that's plenty — a detailed character sheet is about 200 words, so you can store 50 of them and still have room. Queries at 50/month means roughly 12 writing sessions, each with 4 Claude lookups. Fine for casual use.

If you're writing daily or managing multiple projects, the Pro tier (£8/month) removes those limits. That's less than two cups of coffee and covers unlimited projects, unlimited characters, and daily sessions without counting queries. Pricing may change; cancel anytime.

What Stash is not

Stash doesn't write for you, edit your prose, or give story feedback — that's Claude's job. Stash is the memory layer that lets Claude do those things with full context about your project, rather than with a blank slate every session.

It's also not a word processor or a Scrivener replacement. Your manuscript lives wherever it lives. Stash holds the reference material Claude needs to be useful when you're working on it.