by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
If you’re starting a series, or even if you’re already several books in, I highly recommend a series bible. A series bible, or a document that helps you keep track of trivial details in your stories, is a useful tool to keep from making mistakes.
I don’t think I really realized how important a series bible was until readers started emailing me to let me know about errors that I’d made…usually contradictions. In one book, I’d said that a character had never smoked. In another, I said the character had been a former smoker.
It’s easy to toss out these little details and then promptly forget about them, especially if you have a long-running series. But it’s horrifying when a reader finds the mistakes. And readers these days, in our binging entertainment world, sometimes read books back to back that we wrote over a course of years. If there are errors to find, they’ll find them.
That’s why a series bible is so helpful. Any sort of minutiae that might crop up again can be carefully recorded. Then, before making a statement you’re not completely sure of, you can check it. Are a character’s glasses wire-rimmed or rimless? Exactly how old is a recurring child character? What’s the name of the local cemetery (handy to know in a mystery)? The denomination of the church the protagonist attends?
Naturally, it’s easiest to record the facts in book 1…that’s what I’ve done with my new series. But it’s not too hard to do it for older books in an active series if you’re good at skimming. Just pick out content that is important for you to track or which might come up for a future story.
With my series bible, I list my recurring characters and all of the trivia about them. Then I list details for recurring settings. I have any recurring subplots, tropes, story memes, etc. listed after that.
Whenever I add a fact to the bible, I document where it came from, abbreviating the book title to keep it pithy.
I also track style notes. (Is the newspaper The Bradley Bugle or the Bradley Bugle? Is the dog’s name Noo-noo or Noo-Noo? Is the name of the quilting guild The Cut-ups or the Cut-Ups?)
The Types of Things I track:
Character habits or details: Early riser. Kills houseplants. Subscribes to the newspaper. Peanut allergy. Cries at weddings. Scrapbooks. Reads nonfiction only. Likes jazz. Attends church. Exercises daily. Eats junk food. Smokes. Drives a minivan.
Character description: Wears glasses (and type/color of frame), never wears flats, blue eyes, gray hair, fondness for bowties, age, height.
Character beliefs: Political leanings, spiritual beliefs, attitudes toward family or spouse.
Character backstory.
Setting details. The color of a house, the name of the character’s street, the favorite hangout for the characters, what type of food their favorite restaurant serves, the character’s living room. Population of the town.
Continuing subplots: A character’s health issue, a character’s relationship with another character, a character’s issues with his work or his family. Story tropes: a character’s bad cooking, silly book club meetings, a lazy housekeeper’s “thrown” back, a character’s chronic insomnia.
The most important thing is to use the series bible once you’ve taken the time to put it together. I’m not going to say I don’t make mistakes anymore, but I’m doing a whole lot better, despite being on book 16 of one series and book 12 of another.
For further reading:
How author Lorna Faith uses a series bible.
Author Heidi Hormel on the IWSG explains how to create one using Excel.
Anne Walk on creating a bible using Scrivener
Do you use a series bible to keep your story facts straight? What kinds of things do you track?
The Usefulness of a Story Bible: Share on XPhoto on Visualhunt.com
I couldn’t agree more, Elizabeth! A series bible really does help you keep regular characters organized. I find that it also helps with things like where a place is located, how characters met, and so on. And those are things that it’s easy to forget if you don’t have some sort of reminder.
You’re so right. It’s so easy to forget those sorts of details. I’d use it for location more, but I’ve based my fictional towns on real towns, which helps me remember where things are (otherwise, I’d be putting all of that in my series bible, too!)
I keep track of the main characters, but some of the side characters and other details I don’t. Since I spent a bit of time looking things up in my third Cassa book while writing the fourth, I think I need to create a series Bible.
It can be a real time-saver. I don’t think I’d be able to remember which book to look details up in, at this point.
That’s a great idea. Right now I’m just going back to check things in my manuscript. This way would be much quicker. Thanks.
As you check for things, you can add those on the separate document. :)
I’ve kept character details, timelines, etc. There is a lot to keep up with in a series.
So much to remember!
Hi Elizabeth,
Great post on a series bible.
I have a question, how could you incorporate a map of your fictional town? I use Scrivener and will be using it for a Series Bible. I’ve hand drawn a map and have it on my wall in my office.
Thanks
Rose
I would take a picture of it and include the picture at the top of the “settings and descriptions” part of the series bible document. :)
Thanks – didn’t think of a picture!
It’ll definitely save time!
I’m impressed that you can draw! Any map attempt by me would be a mess. :)
I’ve got a Bloo Moose series bible going – but I see several categories I need to add!!!
Thanks :)
The more categories, the better!
I don’t know how people write two series at the same time, let alone three like you do. Even with a series bible I would get hopelessly lost :) Mine is so indispensable. I’ve found myself referring to it often during the drafting/editing process of the later books in my series.
It helps that I outline a book in series A just after writing a book in series A and before writing a book in series B, if that makes sense. :) Series bibles are so helpful, aren’t they?
Another great idea! Tucking this in my bonnet, too.
Teresa
Hope it helps! :)
I just heard of these in the last month or so. It was one of those moments when I thought- how the heck did I not think of it before now?! In my defense, I did keep notebooks on each story with the details and chapter outlines, but there was never any organization to it. I’ll have to start applying your tips to my info-chaos.
It makes it all so much quicker. I frequently have 3 docs open at all times…the manuscript, the outline, and the series bible.