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Series planning
What Belongs in a Series Bible?
Build a lean series bible around sourced canon, changing character states, chronology, world rules, relationship histories, and unresolved obligations.
Short answer
A series bible belongs to future decisions. Include facts that later books must honor, changing states that determine what is true at a given moment, and unresolved obligations that the series may revisit. Give consequential entries a book-and-chapter source. Leave out trivia that has no plausible effect on character, plot, setting, or reader expectation.
A canon index
Start with a compact list of established truths: major historical events, institutions, family structures, geography, calendar, technology, magic, law, religion, and social constraints. Each entry should state the rule, its limits, known exceptions, source, and status.
Separate objective canon from in-world belief. “Everyone in Halden says the forest is cursed” is not the same as proof that a curse exists. Preserve the distinction because a later book may depend on it.
Character identity and state
Store stable identity information such as full name, aliases, pronouns, family ties, origin, and defining history. Then keep time-sensitive fields as histories:
- age by date or book;
- location and role;
- injuries and capabilities;
- knowledge and secrets;
- loyalties and legal status;
- possessions and resources;
- goals, fears, and active obligations.
Profiles describe who a person is. State histories describe what is true now.
Relationship histories
Do not store only labels such as friend, rival, or sibling. Record important turns, their causes, and their costs. A useful entry might read: “Public alliance begins after the trial; private trust remains broken because Ina concealed the witness.”
Include power, knowledge, intimacy, debt, and public versus private status when they matter. Cite the scenes that changed the relationship. This gives later reunions and conflicts the correct emotional starting point.
Cross-book chronology
Maintain a timeline that combines backstory, on-page events, gaps between volumes, travel, births, deaths, seasons, political transitions, and recovery. You do not need an exact date for everything. Use relative anchors where the text remains deliberately loose.
Track event order separately from narrative order. A revelation in book three may concern an event before book one. Both positions matter.
Places, routes, and access
For recurring locations, record names and aliases, region, distances or travel ranges, entrances, ownership, access rules, sensory identity, and changes over time. A city damaged in one volume should not quietly reset in the next.
Maps help, but text-based constraints are equally important: the mountain pass closes in winter, only sworn officials enter the archive, or the river is navigable in one direction during flood season.
Systems and exceptions
Record how magic, technology, institutions, economics, or law function when they shape choices. Include costs, limits, who understands the system, and every on-page exception.
Do not make the bible more definite than the books. If the mechanism remains mysterious, record observable outcomes and competing explanations.
Objects and terminology
Track objects that carry power, evidence, inheritance, access, or emotional meaning. Record ownership changes and current location. Maintain spelling, capitalization, ranks, invented vocabulary, measurements, calendars, and naming conventions in a style sheet.
This is also the place for a pronunciation note or translation rule if collaborators need it.
Open threads and decisions
Keep a list of promises, mysteries, debts, threats, prophecies, missing people, and planned returns. Give each a current status and last meaningful development. Separate reader-facing promises from private possibilities.
Add a decision log: what changed, why, when, and which books are affected. A brief rationale prevents the team from reopening settled choices without context.
What to leave out
Avoid complete scene summaries if a scene index already exists. Do not copy every description, minor meal, or unnamed passer-by. Do not place abandoned plans beside canon without clear labels. Do not write speculative biography simply to fill blank fields.
If an entry has never helped answer a question or prevent a mistake, consider removing or archiving it.
A lean structure
A practical bible can have ten sections: canon, characters, relationships, chronology, places, systems, objects, terminology, open threads, and decisions. Link entries rather than duplicating them. Review the most consequential and frequently changed sections after each book.
For maintenance across drafts and releases, read How to Keep a Series Bible Alive. The Pride and Prejudice relationship map offers a compact example of why relationship changes need more than static labels.
Audit the bible once per book
At the end of a volume, archive obsolete plans, merge accidental duplicates, verify new high-impact facts, and capture each returning character’s final state. Review open threads and label which belong to the next book, the wider series, or intentional uncertainty.
Then test retrieval. Ask where a rule was established, what a character knew at a specific moment, and why a relationship changed. If the bible answers with context and a source, it is ready to support the next draft. If the answer requires browsing decorative notes, simplify the structure before adding more.
Broader guide: How to Keep a Series Bible Alive Without Becoming a Librarian