diff --git a/plugins/emacs/emacsclient.sh b/plugins/emacs/emacsclient.sh
index 625201a16bbd106b6dcb2e5489e63c480391f58c..d61ebb15b38d76c2652394f9ebb68c7cf10d40ff 100755
--- a/plugins/emacs/emacsclient.sh
+++ b/plugins/emacs/emacsclient.sh
@@ -1,12 +1,27 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-# get list of available X windows.
-x=`emacsclient --alternate-editor '' --eval '(x-display-list)' 2>/dev/null`
+function _emacsfun
+{
+    # get list of available X windows.
+    x=`emacsclient --alternate-editor '' --eval '(x-display-list)' 2>/dev/null`
 
-if [ -z "$x" ] || [ "$x" = "nil" ] ;then
-    # Create one if there is no X window yet.
-    emacsclient --alternate-editor "" --create-frame "$@"
+    if [ -z "$x" ] || [ "$x" = "nil" ] ;then
+        # Create one if there is no X window yet.
+        emacsclient --alternate-editor "" --create-frame "$@"
+    else
+        # prevent creating another X frame if there is at least one present.
+        emacsclient --alternate-editor "" "$@"
+    fi
+}
+
+
+# adopted from https://github.com/davidshepherd7/emacs-read-stdin/blob/master/emacs-read-stdin.sh
+# If the second argument is - then write stdin to a tempfile and open the
+# tempfile. (first argument will be `--no-wait` passed in by the plugin.zsh)
+if [[ $# -ge 2 ]] && [[ "$2" == - ]]; then
+    tempfile="$(mktemp emacs-stdin-$USER.XXXXXXX --tmpdir)"
+    cat - > "$tempfile"
+    _emacsfun --no-wait $tempfile
 else
-    # prevent creating another X frame if there is at least one present.
-    emacsclient --alternate-editor "" "$@"
+    _emacsfun "$@"
 fi