Writing a Story Bible

by Joseph Lallo

Over my various posts about writing and podcast appearances, a theme has been forming. In short: things go more smoothly if you’ve got a good resource to reference when you get stuck. Want a smooth path forward? Have a good outline. Want a smooth book release? Have a launch strategy. Over my career I’ve produced books with and without each of these, but there’s one resource I always forget until it’s too late. So today, let’s discuss one of the most valuable and least common items in an author’s tool kit: The Story Bible.

The Gospel Fiction

So what exactly is a Story Bible? The answer varies from person to person and purpose to purpose, but broadly speaking it’s a compendium of all relevant data for your story. It’s a collection of character biographies, a world history, an atlas, and a plot outline all wrapped into one. Once a story grows too big for you to hold every minor detail which might matter to you or a reader in your memory at the same time, it’s probably a good idea to start producing a Story Bible.

Who is this for, exactly?

That’s actually a highly relevant question, and one that you’ll want to answer before you start formalizing your bible. As with any other aspect of an author’s output, there are three potential audiences for a Story Bible. Your readers, no doubt, would love to see it. Other authors and editors you work with can get a tremendous amount of value out of one. And let’s not forget the most important target for such a project: you!

Each of these target audiences has a different set of needs from such a resource. The good news is, those needs form something of a pyramid. Once you’ve built it up for one set of eyeballs, you can use that as the basis for the next level up. So let’s dig into the most basic form.

The Fan Wiki

We’ll get into whether you want to literally make it a wiki later, but for now, the point is that the base level bible is the one you might want to make available to fans. This particular form of the bible should have two primary focuses: what happened, and who did it happen to? Once they’re hooked on a setting, there’s a certain type of fan who wants to know everything about it. Your bible should strive to be the definitive resource for anything they might wonder about (that’s not meant to be a mystery).

Let’s start with characters.

This is the meat and potatoes for most of your fans, so if you’re going to put any effort at all into satisfying their thirst for knowledge, put it here.

Names

The bare minimum would be a list of characters by name. Include—and I cannot emphasize this enough—a name pronunciation key. This is more of a sci-fi/fantasy consideration, but trust me, if a name is even slightly off the beaten path, fans are going to want to know if they’re saying it right.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, you have a character named Desmeres Lumineblade. If you don’t write [DEZ-muhr-ess/DEZ-meerz] next to it (or however you want it pronounced) you’re probably going to be answering a lot of emails about how to pronounce that name if the character gains a following. Bonus points if you actually record a video pronouncing the names.

Descriptions

Beyond the names, a basic description is a good thing to have. You don’t need to include the outfit—unless it’s fairly consistent and iconic—but height, build, hair color, eye color, distinguishing features will help people imagine the character. If you’re lucky, it might even get you a few more pieces of fan art.

You’ll want a bit of a personality description, and most likely a character history/bio. But this is where it starts to get tricky. The main differentiation between a fan bible and one a little further up the hierarchy is spoiler material. It’s entirely appropriate to include historical details that happened prior to the plot, but you may want to stay vague on information about the character that will be revealed by the stories themselves, or events that happen within the stories. Plenty of fan wikis include this, so you can be as detailed as you like, but this is the place where spoilers are most likely to be unwanted, so be mindful and label appropriately.

Relationships

Wrapping things up, some general interaction/relationship data is a handy resource. Family, friends, enemies, all of these can be defined here. Who do they like best and hate most? Rivalries and crushes. Trust me, fanfic authors will be thankful for the shortcut to some proper steam or angst.

The world is a character, too

Once you’ve got your cast of characters laid out, don’t forget to detail your world. If your setting is our own actual reality in modern times, you can give this a light touch. But a period piece, a speculative future, or a secondary world will all need some basic information to help people understand where things are happening and what makes this world different.

As with the characters, a list of place names and how to pronounce them is a good start. If you can mock up even a basic map to give an idea of distances and relative locations of major destinations, that’s the sort of thing that’ll be exceptionally well received. You can get biographical on the locations if you like, giving their history, descriptions, and defining traits. But while you’re handling the nuts and bolts, don’t forget to include cultural aspects.

We’ve discussed individuals, but what types of people live in your world. Are there unique religions? Unique occupations? Political groups? Are there any world events that are relevant? Wars? Recent or looming disasters? Are there language barriers? Popular sports or in-fiction works of fiction?

Going through the details above will not only allow your fans to build out the setting in their mind with details they might have missed, but it serves as a useful check for your own writing. If you find yourself with very little to add to this section, it might be a good idea to devote some time to world building.

The Style Guide

A style guide isn’t precisely the same thing as a story bible, but the kind of things that show up in a style guide are a good indicator of what you’ll want to start adding once you move to the next step of story bible, the one you’d share with co-authors or editors. This is the version of the bible that’s devoted not just to the body of work, but the nitty-gritty of producing it.

If you’ve done your diligence on the fan-level stuff, this will be a quick and easy addition. Essentially, the only difference here is plot and craft notes. You might want to go into a little more detail about how characters should be written. This would include mannerisms and quirks. You should also include some key aspects of how these characters would make decisions. What are their priorities and what drives them? Do they have a character arc? If so, what is it? And at what point or at what stage of the story do you want it to resolve or evolve?

Dive a little deeper

When it comes to the world, this level of bible will want to be just a tad deeper and a tad more prescriptive than the fan version. You won’t just be describing the regions of the world, but unique aspects of how people from those regions would be depicted.

Naming conventions are a good example. In my Book of Deacon series, characters from the kingdom of Tressor tend to have double vowels in their names, for example. If they have their own language, you’ll want to give some notes on how the region will flavor how the dialogue of native speakers is written. Do they have their own profanities? Their own sports? Their own customs and potential faux pas? Write that stuff down.

If one of your potential targets for this bible is a narrator for a book, you’re going to want to give very detailed pronunciation keys on not just names, but any word you’ve made up for the story. The same goes for any accents if you want them to be part of the performance.

Here’s a handy trick, though, if this part feels daunting. Because this isn’t intended for fiction readers, you can shortcut a lot of description by breaking the fourth wall. Drawing comparisons to real-life locations, actual people, or existing fiction can give an extremely thorough understanding of something in your story without very much effort at all. When handing over a story bible to a film-maker for adaptation, you might even go so far as to provide examples of what sort of an actor might play a role in order to paint the right picture in a producer’s head.

And then there’s you

The last potential audience for a Story Bible is you, and this is the version of the resource that is the most flexible. Naturally if you’ll be doing it for anyone else, you’ll have to include all of the stuff I’ve described anyway. But if you’re only making it for you, you can be much more efficient in the creation. Technically, you only need to include the details you think you might have to look up.

I’d advise you include all of the details you can, just in case, because you never know how much of a given story will fall out of your head. But the level of shorthand in this version of the story bible can be as pervasive as you like. My own notes of this sort have routinely said things to the effect of “Don’t forget to do that cool scene you thought of when listening to the sound track to Sherlock Holmes.”

You’ll also be including your notes on what you need to do next. Naturally that’s not something a co-author or editor would need, as it’s a self-assignment. It might even be something you want to keep secret from co-authors. (There are those among us who don’t want people to know how the sausage is made.)

You know the what, now you need the how

At this point, you’ve got a good idea of what you’ll be including and who you’ll be including it for, but there remains the question of how you’ll get this information and how you’ll present it once you have it. For the sake of spicing things up, let’s flip this on its head and work in the other direction. First, how do you do it for you.

The best answer, in my opinion, is to get this sort of information started before you’ve even begun writing. You don’t need every little detail, but building up your world and characters into a basic framework before plotting your story can provide a very firm foundation to construct your narrative.

Barring the pre-write, it’s a very good idea to pluck out the key character, setting, and plot points and jot them down as they occur to you or as you write them. This is useful in that by the time you’re done writing, you’ll already have the bible. It’s also something that even pantsers can do. Failing all of that, and I go into this more deeply in my blog on revisiting an old project, you’re going to have to re-read and keep notes as you go in order to construct the bible.

However you do it, once you’ve got the notes for yourself, you can formalize them for collaborators or fancy them up for your fans. Simple!

But where?

This is a fairly easy question to answer for the author and collaborator versions of the bible. You really only need a big, fat document—probably a word document for yourself and a PDF for collaborators. Obsidian, Evernote, and the like are also excellent options for keeping data. (I use something called Joplin, which is similar.) There are even those who keep all of this information right in their file if they write in Scrivener. But for the fans, you’ll need something a little more accessible and a little more public.

Earlier I mentioned a fan-wiki, and that’s absolutely a great way to present this info. There are loads of sites that will allow you to set up a wiki and start populating it. The great part about doing it this way is, once you’ve got the minimum viable product, fans might be able to lend a hand. Maybe this will just be by asking questions to help you learn what sort of details to include.

They might even eventually take the reins themselves and start filling out the wiki. If you’re going to go this direction, though, I’d recommend keeping a private document as well. Wishful thinking, willful malice, and assorted trollery can make for an unreliable resource if you don’t moderate well.

There is also a middle ground that can help you. I’ve used something called Zim. (In my case, specifically Zim Portable) to keep detailed Story Bibles. It’s sort of a desktop Wiki, allowing all of the cross-linking and formatting of a wiki, but in a shareable file. Really, the sky is the limit on this stuff. It just depends upon your tastes and needs.

Do it for your own sanity

Regardless of how deeply you dive into the details of your story, and who you’re preparing the details for, it’s absolutely worth giving it shot. There are few things more maddening than realizing there’s a key detail about your characters that you thought up on the spur of the moment six months ago and mentioned exactly once in passing, and now you need to get it right or create a plothole that could swallow your entire arc. A well-kept Story Bible will collapse your searches for such things from hours to seconds, and all while making the jobs of your collaborators easier and nurturing the enthusiasm of your fans.

Have you created a Story Bible for your world? Tell us about it in the comments.

About Joseph

Joseph R. Lallo hails from Bayonne, NJ--the fabled birthplace of George R. R. Martin. He has written dozens of novels and novellas, including the international bestseller The Book of Deacon and the critically acclaimed Free-Wrench series. In addition to writing, he has helped run the Six Figure Authors podcast with Lindsay Buroker and Andrea Pearson. Find Joseph and his books on his website at bookofdeacon.com.

Featured photo by Aaron Burden from Unsplash.

by Angela Ackerman

Fear is a universal emotion, something almost everyone experiences, and yet no two people respond to it in the exact same way. One person might rush toward danger, while another runs from it. A third shuts down, paralyzed, while a fourth attempts to smooth things over. Understanding why is the key to writing authentic fear.

Fear exists to alert us to potential harm. When a threat is perceived, it kicks off a survival response: stress hormones flood the body, heartrate increases, attention and the senses sharpen, and the body prepares to overcome, escape, endure, or deescalate through fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.

While everyone experiences this same biological chain of events, the survival response chosen—and the form it takes—is unique to the individual.

Why? Because fear is filtered through the many layers that make up a person—their personality, priorities, experiences, ways of coping, and more. As a result, no two fear responses will be exactly alike.  

Personalizing your character’s responses to threatening situations not only elevates the scene, it also builds trust with readers. When a character reacts in ways that are true to who they are, readers instinctively invest more deeply in them and the story.

To make a fear response feel authentic, consider these factors:

Perceived Threat

Not everyone finds a situation threatening. Someone secure in their relationship won’t worry about their partner going on a girl’s trip, while a person with trust issues might. Even when danger is real, people don’t experience the same level of concern. So, to write believable fear, focus on how your character feels about the threat rather than the threat itself.

Questions to ask:

• In this situation, what feels dangerous to my character?
• Is this threat physical, emotional, relational, or does it target their identity/reputation?
• What specific fear is involved?

Risk and Urgency

Fear is about survival, so when the risk is great, characters choose the strategy that gives them the best chance of successfully handling a threat.This is why an alpha character used to battling things head on (fight), may freeze, flee, or fawn. When they realize a fight response will end badly, they reject it for one that helps them navigate the situation safely.

Questions to ask:

• Does my character have time to assess the situation, or must they respond immediately?
• What information do they have that they can act on?
• Is my character able to apply logic or are they in a state of panic?
• What happens if they choose the wrong strategy?

Personality and Tendency

A character’s primary traits influence how they think and behave. A decisive, courageous, and bold person will make choices and act differently from one who is cautious, analytical, and pessimistic.

Questions to ask:

• How does my character handle pressure?
• What personality attributes will help them navigate this crisis?
• What flaws will cause them to struggle in this situation?
• Are they more likely to take charge, observe, negotiate, or withdraw?  

Priorities

Some things matter more than others. Whatever a character seeks to protect most is what’s at stake and will steer how they’ll respond when it’s threatened.

Questions to ask:

• What matters most to my character in this situation?
• What are they most afraid of losing?
• What’s important enough to sacrifice for?

Past Experiences

Life can be a painful teacher. Threats that remind a character of something they endured (especially an emotional wound) can cause fear to spike and erode their ability to cope. Desperation to avoid it happening again may affect their judgment and behavior.

Questions to ask:

• Has my character faced a situation like this before?
• What survival strategy worked (or didn’t) back then?
• How will lessons of the past influence their choices and behavior now?
  

Coping Mechanisms

Everyone has go-to methods of dealing with stress, both healthy and unhealthy. One character might seek advice; another might head straight to the bar. Coping mechanisms are a core part of a character’s psychological makeup, so knowing what they are helps you write authentic responses.

Questions to ask:

• How does my character deal with pressure?
• Do they have habits that intensify when stressed?
• What do they do when they feel overwhelmed?

Bringing It All Together

When you consider the perceived threat, what’s at stake, and who your character is, it becomes easier to write a response that feels authentic and believable. But there’s a lot more to how to show, not tell your character’s fear, so bookmark these for future reading:

• How Fear Affects Your Characters in Real Time
• 8+ Ways to Signal Fear to Readers
• 5 Ways to Take Advantage of Your Character’s Fears
• How Fear Shrinks Your Character’s World Over Time
• Fear Survival Response Sheet (Download)

And don’t forget to check out the Fear Thesaurus at One Stop for Writers® – it dives into 80+ deep fears that your character may be struggling with, and how to write about them.

Does your character tend to choose Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn, and if so, why is that? Let me know in the comments!

About Angela:

Angela Ackerman is a story coach, international speaker, and co-author of the bestselling book, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression, and its many sequels. Available in nine languages, her guides are sourced by US universities, recommended by agents and editors, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, and psychologists around the world. To date, this book collection has sold over a million copies.

Angela is also the co-founder of the popular site Writers Helping Writers®, as well as One Stop for Writers®, a portal to game-changing tools and resources that enable writers to craft powerful fiction. Find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Featured photo purchased from Depositphotos

by Richard Tyler Jordan

The people in your life are not your material. Your observations are. A writer’s job is not to photocopy reality but to transform it into a story that feels true.

Readers think writers spend their days secretly copying the people around them into stories. Countless times, I’ve heard, “Am I in your book?” My stock reply: “You’re not interesting enough.”

I’ve worked in Hollywood, publishing, and entertainment. I’ve attended enough charity galas, opening nights, family gatherings, and dinners to fill dozens of novels. Yet only one person I’ve known has appeared directly in my books. (You know who you are—@$^&*!)

Your 5 “Do’s”

Here are five things every writer should take from real life—and a couple they shouldn’t (but maybe—why not).

1. Steal Behavior, Not Biographies

The most believable fictional characters are rarely based on a single person. They’re composites. A character might have your stepson’s narcissistic arrogance, your former boss’s talent for taking credit, or your neighbor’s remarkable ability to transform a fifteen-second anecdote into something requiring a nap.

Readers recognize behavior. When you’re observing people, don’t ask, “How can I put this person into my book?” Ask, “What does this person do that readers will identify with?”

2. Capture the Language of a World

Every profession, social circle, and industry has its own language. Lawyers speak differently than truck drivers. Teachers speak differently than politicians. Entertainment executives have perfected the art of saying “no” while sounding enthusiastic. (“That’s an interesting concept” generally means “Over my dead body!”)

Pay attention to how people talk when they’re nervous, ambitious, or trying to impress someone. Those details make a fictional world feel authentic.

3. Watch What People Want

Beginning writers often focus on appearance. Experienced writers focus on desire.

When you enter a room, ask yourself: Who here wants attention? Who wants approval? Who wants a shag? Human beings become remarkably transparent once you start looking for what they want.

Desire drives the story. A character’s goals will always be more interesting than their eye color.

4. Make Reality Cleaner Than Reality

We all know that real life is messy. Fiction should be distilled. An argument that rambles for forty-five minutes in real life may become a one-paragraph scene in a novel.

Real people repeat themselves, wander off on tangents, forget what they were talking about, and stop to answer text messages. If we reproduced life exactly as it happens, readers would fling our books across the room in frustration.

The writer’s job is to select the moments that reveal character and move the story forward. Reality provides the raw material. Craft shapes it into something fun.

5. Turn Up the Volume

Most people have one quality that defines them in others’ minds. The chronic complainer. The attention-seeker. The know-it-all. Spotlight those traits.

The difficult neighbor becomes more onerous. The narcissistic stepson becomes more insufferable. Before long, you’ve got a character readers will remember—and possibly a suspect in a murder mystery.

You’re not changing who the person is. You’re simply saving readers the years it took you to figure them out.

Now for those Two Don’ts…

Mistake #1: Don’t Become a Court Reporter

One of the biggest traps fiction writers fall into is feeling obligated to preserve exactly what occurred. “But that’s not how it happened,” they’ll say. Fine. But if changing what happened makes the story stronger, change it.

Merge characters. Move events. Invent conversations. Fiction owes its loyalty to narrative, not history.

Mistake #2: Never Write Revenge Fiction

Bullshit. Don’t waste a perfectly good villain!

Every writer has encountered an odious boss. A pompous colleague. A manipulative relative. They practically beg to be enshrined in fiction.

The trick isn’t running from revenge fiction. The trick is disguising it. If you simply copy someone you detest and spend three hundred pages punishing them, readers will see through it. But if you borrow the traits that pissed you off and build an entirely new character around them, you’ve got something useful.

(Read Suite Charity and guess which character was inspired by a vile ex-boss of mine. I'll deny everything, of course.)

Final Thought

In the end, a writer’s job is to pay attention.

A mentor once said to me, “Observe relentlessly. Transform creatively.” And if an abominable relative (there’s my rubbish stepson again—and my equally deplorable stepdaughter too!) occasionally turns up as a murder victim in Chapter Three, well, that’s one of the fringe benefits of being a novelist.

Just remember to change enough details to maintain plausible deniability.

Do you use real situations or people as inspiration for your books? How do you handle it? And has anyone ever guessed that they inspired one of your characters?

About Richard

Richard Tyler Jordan began his career as a wide-eyed young talent in Hollywood, where Walt Disney Studios was apparently charmed by his “rare blend of gullibility and tireless work ethic.” He went on to contribute to more than 500 feature film publicity campaigns before escaping to England to write full-time.

Richard is the author of more than a dozen novels, including A Corpse in the Castle, Shadows at Midnight, Murder and a Missing Manuscript, and Gay Blades. He lives with his Irish husband in a 500-year-old cottage, complete with a resident ghost who is more “meh” than “boo.”

He is currently writing the next Timothy Trousdale Mystery, drawing on a lifetime spent observing high art, high egos, and the decidedly unglamorous worlds behind publishing, film, and theatre.

To learn more, contact Robin Blakely at 660-973-2723 or Robin@CreativeCenterofAmerica.com.