What is a story bible? It is an exhaustive book about the world you are creating for your novel or series of novels. It is not an easy feat to keep track of all the details about your world in your head. It is important to have the details of all the things that are going to be referring to in your story in a separate notebook; something that you can go to when you need to remember something.

What is in a Story Bible?

1. Character Sheets: I think everyone has done one of these in high school. It contains the name, age, physical traits, personality traits and some of the history that makes up each character.
2. Timelines: This will include everything that happens in your world. You will want to write all the things that happen before your novel begins; all the things that are referred to as a past event by someone in your novel. You may also want to have a separate timeline for some of your main characters, especially the ones who have complicated histories. This may also help in determining when certain characters interact with each other.
3. Maps: You may need to visualize where cities are in comparison to each other. You may also need to know how to get a character through a certain building. Drawing out these maps may be helpful in building your world. You may even publish one of them at the beginning of your novel later in the process.
4. Pictures/drawings: These are great for references. Go through magazines and tear out images that inspire places and people you want to describe in your story. You may even want to draw out something that is in your head so the idea doesn’t mutate half way through the story.
5. Outlines: You may be working on one novel, but as you write, come up with ideas for the sequel or other stories about the same world. Instead of trying to write more than one novel at a time, you should outline the ideas and hold onto them until you have completed your current project.

See More Writing Tips.

If you have other ideas on how to find story ideas, write a comment. I would love to hear how you are inspired.

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