How to Make a Story Bible

A lot of planning, ideas & research goes into writing a novel, even more so if you’re constructing a series. It can be a challenge to keep track of everything you’ve worked out for your characters & plot, especially if you’ve been writing your novel for a while or have lots of moving parts. A story bible makes this a lot easier.

A story bible is a place where you can keep all the information you’ve collated for your story – character descriptions, world building information & plot outlines etc. In this blog post I’ll be breaking down what I put into each story bible I make. This obviously differs from person to person (& genre) so if I mention things you don’t need or I miss out more niche notes that you feel are necessary – simply include them in your own story bible. The benefit of story bibles is that you make it work for you, it’s designed specifically for that story.

I tend to break my story bibles into sections to make it easier to find the information I need. You can find more inspiration for notes you may not have considered in this post about making writing easier.

Plotting

• Novel Outline
• Breakdown of Obstacles Throughout Novel
• Hero’s Journey (or a different plot structure that fits your novel such as The Quest)

Tracking

• Word Count Sheet
• Glossary
• Names List & Meanings

Characters

I give each main character a separate section & one section for secondary characters.

• Character Profile
• Personality Chart (Myers Briggs Test)
• Characterisation (quotes of physical descriptions & speech samples)
• Backstory Timeline (for each main character)
• Consistency Timeline (more info here)

Setting

• World Description
• Place Descriptions & Pics
• Maps
• Building Layouts
• Religions
• Rules
• Governing Body
• Magic/Fantasy Elements
• Basic World Building

Feedback

• Beta Reader Questionnaire
• Beta Reader Agreements (more info here)

Marketing

• Genre Guide
• Target Audience
• Blurb
• Synopsis
• Cover Ideas
• Notes on Cost of Marketing Aspects (cover art, social media, courses to do etc.)

Research

• List of Websites, Books & People Used
• Printed Articles
• Notes

What do you include in your story bibles? Or what are you planning to include? I’d love to know if I’ve missed anything!