Stash

The Stash is a place to park scenes and characters you're not using right now but don't want to lose: a scene you cut, an alternative version, a character you may bring back. Stashed scenes and characters stay with the story, out of its views and its slideshow, until you drag them back in.

The Stash is for the story's owner and editors. Everything you do with it is saved with the story, and Undo takes it back.

Open the Stash

Click the Stash button (the box icon, Stash) near the right of the story's header. The Stash opens as a panel on the right, beside the view you're in. Click the button again to close it, or click the × at the end of the panel's tabs (Close panel).

The panel has two tabs, one for scenes and one for characters, named with your story's own words. It opens on the characters tab in the Characters view and on the scenes tab everywhere else. While you drag, it switches to the tab for what you're dragging.

An empty tab reads Drag scenes here to save them for later.

Put Scenes and Characters in the Stash

You can stash scenes from the Timeline, Cards and Home views and the Page view's Overview, and characters from the Characters view and the round character pictures in the Home view.

1. Click and hold a scene or a character, and start dragging. Two circles rise in the bottom-right corner: Trash and Stash.

1. Drop it on the Stash circle. If the Stash panel is open, drop it on the panel instead: the circle stays away while the panel is open, and the panel lights up as you drag over it.

The scene or character leaves the story and appears at the top of the Stash. To stash several at once, select them first, then drag any one of them (for scenes, see Move a Scene).

You can also right-click a scene or a character card and choose Move to Stash, or Copy to Stash to stash a copy (see Right-Click a Scene and Right-Click a Character). With several selected, the menu stashes them all.

• Stash a copy: hold Alt (Option on a Mac) when you let go. The original stays in the story. The Trash circle turns off while you copy.
• Start something new in the Stash: drag the header's + Scene or + Character chip onto the Stash circle, or onto the open panel. The new scene or character goes straight into the Stash, and the Edit Window opens on it.

What goes with it:

• A stashed scene takes its content with it, including its story events on your plot threads. They come back with it.
• A stashed copy of a scene gets its own copies of those story events, so the original keeps its own, and bringing the copy back adds its events alongside the original's.
• A stashed character is taken out of every scene it was in.

If you stash the only scene in an act, the act stays, empty, ready for a new scene.

Work with the Stash

• Open one: click a stashed scene or character to open it in the Edit Window. You can edit it there as usual.
• Search: type in the search box at the top of a tab (Search scenes...). Results show from the second letter, with the matching words highlighted in each card. The × in the box clears the search (Clear search). If nothing matches, the tab reads No matching results.
• Duplicate one: right-click it and choose Duplicate, or drag it and hold Alt (Option on a Mac) as you drop it back on the panel. The copy stays in the Stash.
• Delete one: right-click it and choose Delete permanently, or drag it onto the Trash circle. This deletes it from the story; Undo brings it back.

The right-click menu on a stashed item has just those two. Bringing something back is always a drag, since only a drag can say where it goes.

Bring Them Back

Drag a stashed scene or character out of the panel and drop it where it should go. Hold Alt (Option on a Mac) as you drop to bring back a copy and keep the original in the Stash.

• A scene: drop it between two scenes in the Timeline, Cards or the Page view's Overview, just as you'd move a scene. In the Home, Characters and Stats views, a small map of your story's scenes opens as you drag: drop it there. Its story events come back with it, and so does any character it features that's in the Stash.
• A character: drop it on a scene in the Timeline, Cards or the Page view's Overview to bring it back into that scene. In the Characters view, drop it among the other characters. In the Home and Stats views, a small panel of your characters opens as you drag: drop it among them.

Naming Stashed Characters

A character moving into the Stash, or back into the story, can't take a name that's already used where it's going. When it would, Prewrite asks first.

Name This Character

Name this character opens when:

• you stash a character with the same name as one already in the Stash;
• you duplicate a character inside the Stash;
• you choose Rename… when bringing a character back (below).

It suggests a free name, such as "Erica 2". Change it if you like, and click Save. The dialog tells you as you type if a name is taken. When you stash several characters at once, any clashing names are numbered for you instead.

This Character Already Exists

If you bring back a character whose name is already in the story, This character already exists asks what to do:

• Replace: the character in the story takes on the stashed version's details, and the stashed one leaves the Stash (unless you're bringing back a copy). Use this when you've reworked a character in the Stash and want your changes in the story.
• Rename…: give the stashed character its own name, so both are in the story.
• Cancel: nothing changes.

Characters Are Added Automatically

If your story adds characters to scenes automatically, you can't drop a stashed character onto a scene: Characters are added automatically explains why. Click OK. You can still bring the character back in the Characters view. To place characters by hand, change the setting in Advanced Settings › Automation (see Automation).