> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.quarkle.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How AI Keeps Your Characters and Story Consistent

> How Quarkle's Story Atlas tracks characters, world details, and plot as you write, and how to use memory, notes, and freezing to keep a novel's canon straight.

The [Story Atlas](/ai/story-atlas) is what makes the rest of Quarkle smarter: Chat draws on it broadly, the Highlight Bar reads your book notes and current chapter summary, the Review Room pulls character profiles. Reports are the exception: they read your prose directly. This guide is the practical layer on top of the reference pages: how to use the Atlas well once you know it exists.

## Overview

<Frame caption="The Story Atlas: System files, per-chapter summaries and notes, and auto-discovered characters and world.">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/quarkle/HrAp7UTT41GKfNkT/images/app/atlas-files.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=HrAp7UTT41GKfNkT&q=85&s=de4dd6d1c615703a2c614ef65783f531" alt="The Story Atlas file tree with System notes and auto-discovered Character and World notes" width="1568" height="721" data-path="images/app/atlas-files.jpg" />
</Frame>

Three things are worth mastering: knowing which note to write to, curating what Quarkle builds for you, and locking down what's final.

## Know which note to write to

Quarkle gives you three places to put standing information, each scoped differently.

<Frame caption="The Memory note: standing instructions Quarkle carries into every chat.">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/quarkle/5WUUaYl-dgOEAFoM/images/app/memory-note.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=5WUUaYl-dgOEAFoM&q=85&s=7bf650bccc1b3635cdc407c038d214af" alt="The Memory note with a few author preferences" width="1066" height="474" data-path="images/app/memory-note.png" />
</Frame>

* **Memory** (Your preferences) is about *you*: how you want Quarkle to write and behave. Not the story itself.
* **Book Notes** is book-wide direction: setting, arc, themes, anything true of the whole manuscript.
* **Chapter Notes** is ephemeral, scoped to one chapter: beats to hit, a character's mindset here, a tone override.

<Frame caption="A Chapter Note: working instructions for one chapter, cleared once they land in the prose.">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/quarkle/HrAp7UTT41GKfNkT/images/app/atlas-chapter-notes.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=HrAp7UTT41GKfNkT&q=85&s=8c6e54e03e1a9e6c3c45c5999dfdc410" alt="A Chapter Notes entry with working instructions for a character's mindset and tone in a chapter" width="1568" height="721" data-path="images/app/atlas-chapter-notes.jpg" />
</Frame>

All three get written as you chat, the same way, and you can edit any of them directly. Full breakdown with a decision rule: [Memory, Book Notes, and Chapter Notes](/ai/memory#memory-book-notes-and-chapter-notes).

## Let Quarkle build your world, then curate it

You don't have to set characters or world entries up. Quarkle finds them as you write and builds profiles from what's on the page.

<Frame caption="A character profile Quarkle wrote from the manuscript: role, family, personality, arc, and relationships.">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/quarkle/5WUUaYl-dgOEAFoM/images/app/atlas-character-note.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=5WUUaYl-dgOEAFoM&q=85&s=a95835ad28c81c9a1f651ef35f4814b0" alt="An AI-written character profile note for Mara" width="1512" height="794" data-path="images/app/atlas-character-note.jpg" />
</Frame>

Your job is to curate, not author from scratch. Open a note Quarkle wrote and correct anything it got wrong, add detail it couldn't infer (a backstory beat you haven't put on the page yet), or reorganize it to match how you think about the character.

<Frame caption="Editing a note. Change anything Quarkle wrote, or add your own details.">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/quarkle/5WUUaYl-dgOEAFoM/images/app/atlas-edit.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=5WUUaYl-dgOEAFoM&q=85&s=a5efc48356016341bd86d992d20b65ef" alt="A character note in edit mode with a formatting toolbar" width="1066" height="958" data-path="images/app/atlas-edit.png" />
</Frame>

<Tip>
  Read a new character or world note the first time Quarkle writes it, not weeks later. Catching a wrong inference early means it doesn't quietly propagate into a dozen future comments and rewrites that assume it's true.
</Tip>

## Freeze finished notes

Once you've nailed down a character's voice or a rule of your world, freeze the note. Quarkle will read it forever but never write to it again.

<Frame caption="A frozen note: Quarkle can read it, but the padlock means it will never edit it.">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/quarkle/blE42Ngj-BZ-nJ_-/images/app/atlas-freeze.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=blE42Ngj-BZ-nJ_-&q=85&s=fafbe600bb8fe3d4dc8087989d2203f5" alt="A character note showing a Frozen state with a closed padlock icon and confirmation toast" width="1568" height="721" data-path="images/app/atlas-freeze.jpg" />
</Frame>

Click the padlock icon on any note to freeze it. It's the single highest-leverage habit for keeping a long manuscript's canon stable: freeze a fact once it's right, and every future chapter builds on it instead of a moving target.

## Track every change

Every note, System file or custom, keeps a full history. The **Activity** tab shows a timeline of every change across the whole Atlas.

<Frame caption="Activity: every change to your Atlas, newest first, with the author and the size of each change.">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/quarkle/LnPhsqiVrlYxZunt/images/app/atlas-activity.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=LnPhsqiVrlYxZunt&q=85&s=eaf0d36b48eef954bcdd7241a4708630" alt="The Atlas Activity revision timeline" width="2436" height="2338" data-path="images/app/atlas-activity.png" />
</Frame>

Open any entry for a word-level diff of exactly what changed.

<Frame caption="A revision opened to its word-level diff.">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/quarkle/LnPhsqiVrlYxZunt/images/app/atlas-revision-diff.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=LnPhsqiVrlYxZunt&q=85&s=29eaa0550cfee80d75339a9091059d01" alt="A word-level diff of a note revision, with deleted and added counts" width="2436" height="2586" data-path="images/app/atlas-revision-diff.png" />
</Frame>

<Tip>
  If a note ever drifts somewhere you don't want, you're never stuck. Open its history, find the version before the drift, and restore it, the same non-destructive restore used everywhere else in Quarkle. See [Undoing a Bad Edit](/guides/undoing-a-bad-edit).
</Tip>

## Organize your own notes

Beyond what Quarkle builds automatically, add your own notes and folders for anything that doesn't fit a character or world entry: a running list of open plot threads, research you're drawing on, a glossary of names and terminology. These live in the Atlas alongside everything else, with the same editing, freezing, and history.

<Card title="Next: Importing a Manuscript" icon="arrow-right" horizontal href="/guides/importing-a-manuscript">
  Bring in an existing draft and get the Atlas caught up on it.
</Card>
