Story bible and world-building

The times I have considered making a Story bible for my speculative fiction novel, it has felt like an excuse for procrastination. Though fun, I suspected I wouldn’t write much.

I thought of it as an elaborate background story gone wild, but it made me a lot wiser when I looked up different TV series bibles. A well-written story bible is more like a good host, who welcomes guests by introducing them to people, gives them a tour of the house, and entertains them.

Free printables for story bible and world-building

It inspired me to give it a try for this week’s theme for Nano prep namely world-building. I decided to focus solely on places even though world building are so much more.

First, I would write down a paragraph about the ten most important places in my story. For doing this, I made this printable.

Secondly, I would keep applying the principles from Save the cat Writes a Novel, by writing down the most important place for each beat. Below I share a 3 act structure printable for writing down the places.

The process of the story bible world-building brings a lot of clarity and that always helps my writing. And as always, the act of writing made me discover new things about the world I am creating.

I am using Pinterest to learn more about world building.

[2021 update] – I am not creating a whole story bible for my memoir but writing down the places helped me to fine tune the plot structure. It also helped me to recall more details and bring the showing before telling into focus. Though not a misery memoir some of the key places are the hospital bed, a parking lot, the grave, the church, the lake, the bed, the couch, the sea, Lisboa, and the car.

I enjoy this prepping time and, I feel much more ready for November than in previous years.