Creating Effective Story Bibles
This week, we’re going to pull out the red letters for bibles… No, not that kind — Story Bibles! Some writers love them, some find themselves stifled by them. Some don’t like having to use them but find them necessary regardless. This week, we talk about series bibles (or story bibles, as I’ve also heard them called). What goes into an effective and efficient story bible?
John L. Taylor: I use one even for single short stories, here goes mine. What goes in needs to be three things
A. Character Bios that define their behavior and background to be consistent.
B. the guide to overall tone of each piece and what tropes/themes are hard no’s and which are auto includes.
C. The overall arc of the series (if a planned number of stories) and what plot points resolve where and what milestones each character’s arc reaches.
Aaron Rosenberg: Premise, setting, characters, theme, tone–anything that needs to be consistent throughout the stories. The more closely tied together they are, the more detail the bible requires. Often, for a series, this includes a timeline of existing events, and that and the character bios are updated as things get added and changed.
Andy Fix: Character basics (personality, physical description, any special abilities/gear character uses regularly, list of supporting characters and relationships to main character, anything that might make the setting stand out.
Gordon Dymowski: A good bible has character descriptions (including relationships and possible backstory), setting, and some examples of what to avoid in writing that particular character.
Bobby Nash: You need to get to know the characters in the bible. This will show the definitive version(s) of the character(s). Changes to that can happen, but this lets all involved start at the same place. Locations, terminology, special skills, equipment, etc. are also shared here. Where they live, work, eat, relationships, etc.
Sean Taylor: Something that a lot of folks don’t think about that I really appreciate as a writer is a sort of web that connects the characters’ relationships. Who is in love with who? Who doesn’t get along and why. That helps me with the deeper, character-driven parts of the story I’m writing.
Read more:
https://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com/2021/09/creating-effective-story-bibles.html
