Organizing Notes for Writing

Basic Memory is a knowledge base that you and your AI share. You write notes in markdown, and they become a connected graph that both of you can read, search, and build on. For writing projects — novels, screenplays, nonfiction — this means your characters, plot arcs, research, and drafts all live in one place where your AI can help you stay organized across hundreds of pages.

This page walks through setting up a writing project, developing characters and plot, tracking research, and using schemas and search to keep everything consistent as the project grows.

Setting Up a Writing Project

Create a dedicated Basic Memory project for your writing:

basic-memory project add my-novel ~/writing/my-novel

Then organize your folders however makes sense. A common structure:

my-novel/
├── characters/
├── worldbuilding/
├── plot/
├── research/
├── chapters/
└── log/

You don't need to get this right upfront. Basic Memory indexes everything by content and meaning, so you can always find notes regardless of where they live. Reorganize as the project takes shape.

Character Development

The fastest way to create character notes is to ask your AI.

You: "Create a character profile for Sarah Chen. She's 28, a software
      engineer at a tech company, estranged from her wealthy father,
      and driven by the death of her brother in a technology accident."

The AI creates a structured note with observations, tags, and relations to other notes in your project:

---
title: Sarah Chen - Protagonist
type: character
tags: [character, protagonist]
---

# Sarah Chen - Protagonist

## Background
- [age] 28 years old #demographics
- [occupation] Software engineer at NeuroLink Corp #background
- [location] Capitol Hill, Seattle #setting
- [motivation] Expose corporate corruption after brother's death #driving-force

## Personality
- [strength] Brilliant analytical mind #personality
- [weakness] Struggles with trust issues #personality
- [quirk] Carries a vintage pocket notebook everywhere #details

## Character Arc
- [starting-point] Loyal corporate employee #arc
- [catalyst] Discovers illegal experiments #arc
- [growth] Learns to trust others #arc
- [resolution] Becomes a whistleblower #arc

## Relations
- works_for [[NeuroLink Corporation]]
- opposes [[Marcus Webb - Antagonist]]
- mentored_by [[Old Tom]]

From here, you build out the character through conversation:

You: "Add a section about Sarah's relationship with her brother.
      He was a test subject for neural implants — she didn't know
      until after he died."

You: "What do we know about Sarah's weaknesses? I want to make sure
      they create real obstacles in the plot."

The AI reads the existing note, adds to it with edit_note, and connects it to related notes in your project. Because notes can't be accidentally overwritten (the AI uses edit_note for updates), your polished character work stays safe.

Character Relationships

Track how characters connect to each other:

You: "Create a note mapping the relationships between Sarah, Marcus,
      and Old Tom. Include the tensions and what each relationship
      does for the story."

The AI creates a note with relations linking back to each character profile, so you can navigate between them.

Plot and Story Structure

Outline your story the same way — tell the AI what you're thinking, and let it create structured notes.

You: "Outline a three-act structure. Act I: Sarah discovers anomalous
      data and a patient dies under suspicious circumstances. Act II:
      She investigates, meets Old Tom, and discovers her brother was
      a test subject. Act III: She goes underground and exposes the
      conspiracy."

The AI creates a plot arc note with observations for each beat and relations linking to characters, settings, and themes.

For chapter-level planning:

You: "Break down Chapter 3. Sarah finds deleted patient files late at
      night, then cross-references them at a coffee shop and realizes
      patients are dying within 72 hours of surgery."

You: "What plot threads are still unresolved as of Chapter 8?"

That second question is where Basic Memory shines — the AI can read across all your plot and chapter notes to find loose threads, because everything is connected.

Research Organization

Keep research alongside your creative notes so the AI can draw on it while helping you write.

You: "Create a research note about current neural interface technology.
      Include what's real today and what I'm extrapolating for the 2035
      story setting."

You: "Based on my neuroscience research, are there any plot points that
      don't hold up scientifically?"

The AI links research notes to the plot points and worldbuilding notes they support. For a deeper look at research workflows, see the Research and Learning guide.

Writing Process

Daily Log

A simple running log helps you (and the AI) track momentum:

You: "Log today's writing session. I wrote 1,250 words on Chapter 3,
      the discovery scene. Found a good metaphor for data analysis.
      Tomorrow I'll tackle the coffee shop scene."

Over time, the AI can answer questions like "How many words did I write this week?" or "What was I working on last Tuesday?" by reading through the log.

Idea Capture

When an idea hits, get it down fast:

You: "Quick idea — scene where a neural implant patient starts speaking
      in corporate advertising slogans while dying. Horror element.
      Park it for later."

The AI drops it into an ideas note. When you're ready to plan a new chapter, ask: "What ideas have I parked that might fit into Act II?"

Using Schemas for Consistency

As your project grows, you'll want consistency across notes of the same type. Schemas define what a character note, chapter outline, or research note should contain.

You: "Look at my character notes and figure out what structure they
      have in common. Then create a schema so new characters are
      consistent."

The AI analyzes your existing notes, identifies patterns, and creates a schema:

AI: Looking at your 8 character notes, here's what I found:
    - "age" appears in all of them
    - "motivation" appears in 7 of 8
    - "arc" section appears in 6 of 8
    - Relations to other characters in all of them

    Want me to create a Character schema with those fields?

Once the schema exists, the AI uses it automatically when you ask for a new character. You can do the same for chapters, research notes, or any other note type:

You: "Create a schema for chapter outlines. Each one should have
      a purpose section, scene breakdown, key details, and a word
      count target."

Schemas are optional and flexible — they describe patterns, not rigid templates. See the Schema System docs for details.

Finding Your Way Around a Big Project

A novel-length project can have hundreds of notes. Basic Memory gives you three ways to find what you need.

Semantic Search

Search by meaning, not just keywords. This is especially powerful for writing, where you might not remember the exact words you used:

You: "Find all scenes where Sarah confronts authority."

You: "What have I written about the theme of isolation?"

You: "Search for anything related to the neural implant side effects."

Semantic search finds relevant notes even when the words don't match exactly. "Confronts authority" finds scenes where Sarah challenges her boss, defies corporate security, or argues with her father — because the meaning overlaps. See Semantic Search for how it works.

Metadata Search

Search by properties like type, tags, or status:

You: "Show me all notes with type character."

You: "Find chapter notes tagged as draft."

You: "What research notes are tagged neuroscience?"

This is useful for getting an overview — how many characters do I have? Which chapters are still in draft? What research have I collected on a topic?

Knowledge Graph Navigation

Follow connections between notes:

You: "Build context around Sarah Chen — show me everything connected
      to her character."

The AI follows relations outward from Sarah's note and pulls in related characters, plot points, settings, and themes. This is how you get a full picture of how one element fits into the whole story.

Best Practices

1. Let the AI create structure. Describe what you want in plain language. The AI writes well-structured notes with observations, tags, and relations.
2. Link everything. Characters to plots, research to scenes, themes to chapters. The more connections, the more useful the knowledge graph becomes.
3. Capture ideas immediately. A quick "park this idea" message takes seconds and prevents lost inspiration.
4. Use schemas once you have a pattern. Don't start with schemas — write naturally first, then add schemas to bring consistency to what you've already created.
5. Search by meaning for creative work. Thematic questions ("What have I written about trust?") work better as semantic searches than keyword searches.
6. Review weekly. Ask the AI "What did I work on this week?" or "Are there any plot threads I haven't touched in a while?" to stay on top of a large project.

Next Steps