I’m in love with the story I’m working on. But there’s more to love..
I’ve fallen in love with how I’ve been organizing and creating this series. This is nothing new under the sun, but it’s the first time I’ve tackled and conquered my piles of unruly piles of novel notes.
I’ve been working on the world building and structure of this story series for two years and in doing so, I came to realize that I had way too much information that could be lost in the cracks, so I decided a Series Bible would be the smart move, to house it all.
I’ve tried in the past with varying degrees of success, but this time, I nailed it.
If you are new to Series Bibles, I can tell you- this could be your game changer. It was for me.
What is a Series Bible?
A Series Bible, or SB, is usually a binder or notebook where you organize all your information and notes for your series. Sometimes people call them series binders or series notebooks, but the term ‘bible’ is used in this case–not as a religious thing–but in the spirit of: you live by (actually, you write by) what is in your series bible. ALL of your notes are in there.
The point of the series bible is to make referencing important information easy, so you don’t have things like a blue-eyed heroine at the start of your story, who suddenly has green eyes at the end.
If you draw a map of a room, a town, a city, a kingdom…those are the parameters you will continue to work from, so that furniture, stores, or peninsulas don’t mysteriously relocate throughout the story.
Creating a useful SB took some experimenting.
The road that led to my SB began with compiling notes in a bound bullet journal, which didn’t work out, because I couldn’t rip out pages and move things around.
So, I moved the info to a computer file. That worked for a while, and I will say it’s aces for portability, but my brain loves the smell of paper, the sight of colored sticky notes, the exercise of using a fountain pen to write in long-hand. I would find magazine look-alike photos of my characters, or doodle a map and while I could’ve scanned those things into my computerized SB, I craved that luscious feeling of creating a book I could hold. It’s hard to beat that personal, hands-on, magical creation of a big, fat book bursting with printed plots, doodles, and scribbled notes.
I started compiling into a tangible, master SB over six months ago and I’ve never been happier.
Some specifics of my SB:
My SB is made from a Happy Planner Memory Keeper (Big size). I started with a Classic sized, and quickly switched to the BIG, which accommodates standard, 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper. I also upgraded from the medium plastic discs to hot-pink, metal, extender discs, so I could fit more pages and they would turn with more ease (but don’t go too large. I tried 2.5 inch plastic disks and the pages wouldn’t turn). With the disc system, I can paper-punch (I have a heavy-duty Arc punch from Staples) any paper I want and add it into my SB. I use 32 lb paper (it’s not super cheap, but it’s not terribly priced either, and it’s worth it for the durability) to add extra pages, either hand-written or printed from my computer. The discs also allow me to remove or add sections similarly to a binder, but the disc system also allows me to fold the pages back like a spiral notebook, so I can balance it on my knee to write.
My sections are divided into plots, world building, characters, maps, timelines, etc. Whatever I need to create my series. The month-at-a-glance sheets are my section dividers. I write details that are central to the story in the boxes. For example, all of the main characters for the series are written in the Character section month-at-a-glance spread of boxes.
Secret of Using an SB: Infusing Magic
If you are thinking of creating an SB, one of the best pieces of advice I can give you is to infuse it with some magic…which is, in my case…perfume and watercolors. Making the SB inviting, colorful, and interesting makes it very easy for me to spend a lot of time within the pages.
Decorating my SB also became an important part of my creative story process. While adding a pop of watercolor to my pages, I relaxed and thought about my story, and I got all sorts of ideas that became valuable notes and plot points that deepened the series.
I also found that things like colored pens (great way to separate different grouping of characters, such as good or bad; different communities, etc), Easter Egg stickers (to remind/point out where I’m planting certain Easter Eggs in my plot sheets) and Washi tape on the edges of character bios helped to organize parts of the story.
Spending so much time within the pages of my SB also meant that I reviewed the info more often. I’ve become so familiar with my information, the story is vivid and natural in my mind, so I’m hoping it will translate well for the reader too.
Creating an SB is making my story telling a thousand times easier in expected and unexpected ways. It was strangely synergistic. Organizing the material in my SB helped organize the series and the individual story events in my head. Creating the SB didn’t only make it easier for me to find details quickly, it gave me a place to grow them in my head.
Have you ever used a series bible? I’d love to hear about it if you did!