Story bible: [Working title]
Log a fact the moment it reaches the page, with its chapter. A bible filled in afterwards misses the small things readers notice: a scar on the wrong hand, a Tuesday that should be a Thursday, a name spelled two ways. When a draft changes a fact, change it here and note the chapters to fix.
The book
Genre | |
Target length | |
Logline | |
Tone | |
POV and tense | |
Theme | |
Story calendar |
Characters
Note the chapter where each fact is fixed, e.g. (ch. 4).
Name | Role | Age | Look | Key facts |
Places
Place | Look and feel | Key facts | First seen |
Timeline
Backstory first, then the story's days, with their weekdays.
When | What happens | Who | Chapter |
Rules of the world
What the plot depends on, invented or real.
What's possible here:
What it costs:
What it can never do:
Who holds power:
Facts the plot relies on:
Recurring motifs
Motif | Appears in | What it carries |
Style sheet
Dictionary | |
Numbers | |
Serial comma | |
Italics | |
Dialect and slang |
See an example style sheet
Dictionary: Collins English Dictionary, first spelling listed
Numbers: spell out zero to one hundred; numerals for timetable times (the 11:40 ferry)
Serial comma: no
Italics: boat names (Marigold); thoughts in roman, without quotation marks
Dialect and slang: Suffolk speech shown by word choice, not by spelling
Names and spellings: Ruth Ashdown, the Ashdowns' (plural possessive); Harwick, never Harwich
Compounds: harbourmaster, one word; sea wall, two words; low-tide mud, but at low tide
Titles: the Harbourmaster before a name, the harbourmaster alone
Invented and borrowed words: mawkin, a scarecrow, italic on first use only, said by the older villagers
Names and spellings
Term | Exact form | Note |
Invented and borrowed words
Word | Meaning | Usage |
Continuity
Setup | Planted | Payoff | Paid off |
Fix in revision
What changed mid-draft, and the chapters to fix.