Story bible
Methods & processThe reference document centralizing a work's entire universe: characters, places, timeline, world rules.
Example
Volume 3, chapter 7: how many years between the Wall's fall and the hero's birth? The bible answers in ten seconds.
The story bible (a term inherited from television) is a long-haul work's reference document: character and place sheets, event timeline, world rules (magic, technology, institutions), planned arcs, decisions made. It's the project's external memory — indispensable once the universe exceeds what one head can hold: series, sagas, ensemble novels, imaginary worlds.
Its function is double: guaranteeing consistency (the distance between two cities doesn't change between volumes) and enabling collaboration or resumption after interruption. The bible isn't the worldbuilding itself but its land registry: it invents nothing, it records — and everything in it stays out of the manuscript, available without ever cluttering the story.
In the workshop
Extypis's 8 narrative element types (Characters, Places, Events, Themes, Conflicts, Objects, Arcs, Symbols) structure a complete bible, linked to the text.
Put this term to work
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