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Series Bible Basics | Writing and World Building Advice
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- čas přidán 14. 08. 2024
- Is there anything worse than trying to write a sequel to your book series and realizing you don't remember the color of a side character's eyes because you didn't make character sheets, let alone a series bible? No, there's nothing worse. Except writing blurbs. That's definitely worse.
Today I'm talking about the basics of world bibles, which are an essential tool for any writers working on a book series. As early as writing your first book you should be writing a series bible.
Make sure to subscribe because in the future I'll be covering various methods of how to make a series bible.
NOTE: The writing critique Patreon tier no longer exists. Though there are plenty of new fun tiers in its place, critiques were too time consuming and we just didn't have the resources to maintain them.
Trello Video: • The Best FREE App for ...
World Anvil for Writers: • @WorldAnvil Demo For W...
Google docs video: • You Should Be Using Go...
Britanny's video on her binder based series bible: • Creating a Series Bibl...
Hello Future Me's video on Campfire: • On Writing: Mentor Cha...
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“For the love of a Ceiling Cat.” I am so dead 🤣🤣♥️♥️♥️
I started with a physical version with the world and characters (it was +100 pages long...), I didn't know it was a "series bible", I just knew I have terrible memory and I needed to compile all the info in one place... but it hurted me every time I made a change and had to print the new pages! So when I got Scrivener, I loved it because I can have it all in one place and no more hurting trees :) But damn it, World Anvil looks AMAZING!!!!!!!! THEY HAVE MAP TRACKING AND TIMELINES AAAHHHHH can't wait for a video about it (if you do it)!
One of my personal favorite tools for making a series bible is World Anvil. It's also great for TTRPGs.
I only just discovered through a tweet by Tim and I'm in love with it. Still learning the ropes but I can't wait to do a demo of it next week.
Ademal from the WA Team here. So happy to see the love!
I would use world anvil but my school (my computer owns my computer) blocked it 😭
Yay, you're back! I had no idea a series Bible was a thing, *jots this down in my notes, then forgets about it*
It's a real issue I have. I literally cannot go back through my notes without distracting myself. Maybe a series Bible is exactly what I need to track everything down without dying midway lmao
Wish me luck. Also good luck in your writing. And welcome back, missed you.
Edit: I'm in the middle of this video, and I'm already frustrated because that's a lot of information and im gonna cry because man that is a lot of work akakskskak
Edit: I just rmbred I liked writing lists and stuff, Megan I'm dumb pls excuse my rambling
Aww thank you. I'm touched someone noticed I was gone
I've so far gone very low tech with my series bible:
*pretty binder
*lined filler paper
*pencil because things change
I can definitely see the appeal of having a nice physical version. Honestly, the main thing holding me back from embracing that method is my HORRIBLE handwriting. But I've seen author series bibles with colored pens and pencils and pretty writing and I am quite jealous lol
This was so helpful for someone who is just beginning to take writing seriously
I've always wondered when I should create a series Bible. Thank you Megan!
Not as late as me. That's the answer lol
I personally use a private discord server to keep track of references, descriptions, and ttrpg tools. It’s really easy to edit and search up smaller details!
If that works well for you but you're looking for something a little more versitile, you may actually mesh well with notion. You can make searchable, filterable databases and quickly add cards to it where each card is a customizable page that you can fill with info. I've not tried it for worldbuilding, but love it for scripting research, brainstorming, notes, ans documentation.
@@CloudKitten Oh my god, Notion is so organized and wonderful! Thank you for showing it to me! This is so much better than what I was doing!!
I have found as I compile my series bible that adding a given piece of information whenever it comes up in the outline or draft is most useful to avoid overdoing it with the prep material. Just add what you need when you need it. I like to make text links in my outlines and drafts to open up the relevant documents and refer to them in split screen while I write.
That's a great idea! Over-worldbuilding is definitely a weakness of mine so I should probably implement something like this
I use a spreadsheet with an Author tab ( listing my processes), a Series tab with details on the series as a whole. I then have a tab for each book for notes, timelines& how each chapter or the story correlates with the other books if it does, then a tab next to each book called 'settings& characters'. All my info in one doc.
I then have an envelope binder with paper copies and my maps and drawings/diagrams. For my desk, I log key points for quick reference while writing and listed book 1 chapters. Next to the chapter I keep track of the date I wrote it and word count.
Sounds complicated but it's not and totally works for me. Very similar to this video. Well done 👏 ❤
Bruh, it's not often I find gem channels, thank you for these videos, and thank you Reddit.
We learned about these when I was in school for animation and interestingly enough I have been putting mine together too after writing my second book and going into the third. Don't feel too bad Megan for starting yours late too, at least you have it now! :-)
Yay I'm not the only one! We can suffer together. That's cool they taught that, was it in regards to keeping track of stuff personally or in the context of making something to pitch a series?
@@CloudKitten it was actually for both purposes. Continuity, a quick reference for animators to use, and ultimately a pitch tool.
I use One Note. The tabs keep everything organize and the formatting I can use pictures, audio, or even copy a pdf onto a page.
Series Bibles or Series Encyclopedias are essential... At a certain point, the details escape you're ability to remember and that causes lots of inconsistency. I noticed early on, that it would be untenable to go through the story or collection thereof and remember where things are.
I am mostly pantser but I also write down things that can be important on the future as my memory is terrible. That is why I am creating character list now at the beginning of my series which list important things such as age, species, hair/eye color, heigh, occupation, if they have a mate and anything else important while I am trying to keep the each character info as equally lengh as possible.
That's a good idea, especially for complex fantasy and scifi books which it seems like you might be writing. What genre are you writing?
@@CloudKitten
Fantasy and scifi hybrid with dystopian world and all the other genres I can think of will be like little bit of sugar mixed with it.
I just finished my first draft of my book 😍😍😍😍
CONGRATS!! THAT'S FANTASTIC!!
I've gotten far with my world building, but one aspect doesn't fit and without it my world falls apart... Should I abandon it?
Can you write around it? Sounds like it's the foundation rather than a pillar. How relevant is it?
Personally, I'd say work to solve the problem. That might mean putting it on the back burner and taking a break to work on something else but take some time each week to try to brainstorm a solution. In my experience, you'll go on feeling like there's no possible solution right up until the second a solution hits you (often out of the blue). I had that happen with Red River in the first outline version I did. I don't think I really believe in ever truly abandoning a project, I think at worse you should put it on a shelf because components of it could be useful to another future story. My next series I'm super excited about is a mish-mash of three separate book ideas that I recycled into one.
@@marachansi It's very relevant, sort of one of the main reasons the setting and characters have evolved the way they have. I hit a wall on 'why' it is the way it is...
@@Ni-boo is it like, magic or something, and can it be explained away with little to no information? I find that most things don't need explanation but that its there and it's a part of it, unless it's related to plot? Or? (I'm sorry lmao I'm horrible at this but I'm trying)
@@CloudKitten I'm rather attached to this world and feel it has a lot of potential. Your message gives me hope, I really felt like I had to scrap the whole thing because of one aspect... Would it be useful for me to work on building the world that it is set in, like destinations, locations and terrain?
I use World Anvil for Worldbuilding but I also have a Worldbuilding template for Scrivener so I back everything up in there.
Ceiling cat XD
Also, the animation in this video were amazing! You're editing game is on point!
Also what molecule is your necklace?
Thank you!! I set out to do a quick video and then it got away from me but I'm loving being able to add variation. I'm happy to hear you like it and it isn't distracting ❤
It's dopamine ❤ Josh got it for me.
@@CloudKitten I actually think it's better to gain viewers (like it's a supposed to help keep people's attention). I've been wanting to be more fancy with my edits, but I suck at tech XD
Also, that's really cute and nerdy at the same time, which it the best!
You shelf is so awesome 👏🏽
thank you! finding books can be a pain but it's worth it for the background
Dang, I did that with my three series and didn’t even know I was doing it. 😳
I'm waiting for the video where all the shelves in the background are bare and Megan's like; "We're moving tomorrow. Everything's packed up. Sorry I echo."
The movers pick everything up on the 10th... we don't leave until the 28th... I'm going to die lol I'm trying to film everything I need in the next few days though to avoid videos without my beautiful background but every day that seems less possible *cries*
@@CloudKitten On the other hand, perfect opportunity for a video about writer's block. Perfect background for that, lol!
I'm almost done with the second book in my series and I can attest to the fact that you need a series bible or your life will spiral out of control
The ceiling cat 😂😂
*sigh* "sealing cat"
Im not sure if a ceiling cat is holy Megan lol
I'm happy you caught onto that lol I was worried people would miss that part of the joke.
This should be called world building bible, a series bible is a very different thing...
I mean that really comes down to what you put in yours
@@CloudKitten well, a series bible is more what you talked about in the beginning; a document used in the pitching of a tv show. But I get it