Writing fiction? You need a story bible

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

An author’s story bible has nothing to do with religion. Think of it as a guidebook or collection of reference notes; all the things you need to remember as you write your novel or series. Such a document is common in TV writing, forming the “canon” information that future writers can draw from to ensure the consistency of a long-running show.

What goes into a story bible?

The short answer: anything you like, anything you need. There are no rules, though you will find many templates online to get you started. Use it to record all the things you should remember from chapter to chapter, or book to book. But don’t think of it as a free form journal. For maximum benefit, organize it by keywords and keep the text brief. Liken it to a dictionary rather than an encyclopedia.

Depending on what software you write with, it could be a separate document, an article in an electronic binder (like Scrivener), or a dedicated note-taking app. Since I use Scrivener, I keep my story bible as a collection of articles in a research section, so that it’s always available whenever my novel is open for editing.

Here are the section headers I use, and some example entries.

Characters

• Every character that appears more than once gets an entry. My principal…