I’m sure this useful tool is known by different names but I know it as a world bible: everything a writer needs to remember about her world. For fantasy writers writing in a made up world, a world bible is essential. Which King ruled which kingdom when? Who slayed the Great Ogre of Ben’alwen? … Where is Ben’alwen? … What does the name mean? etc.
A world bible records everything about the world, anything you mention that pertains to it. A world bible also records character details, eye and hair color, personal history, family history, goal and motivations.
Every writer has his or her own technique to building a world bible. Here are a few tips that I found helpful (particularly when working on a series).
1) Use a spreadsheet program. One workbook with a series of worksheets lets you create a sheet for your cast list, a sheet for each significant character’s bio, and sheets for different types of world information (in my current project I have sheets for things like history, politics, the rules to magic, population divisions, languages, etc).
2) Reference your information. Whatever method you record your information in, in whatever manner your choose to record it, reference it as best you can. In the event that you need to go back and look at the context in which you relay the information, reference the book (if you’re working on a multi-book series), and if possible the chapter. Chapters and page numbers change from draft to draft, but so does your prose, which means that the “find” feature won’t necessarily work when searching for a specific detail. And the idea of referencing (and using “find”) is so you won’t have to reread your manuscript when looking for a tiny detail (like what year your heroine broke her foot while playing soccer).
3) Actively keep your world bible while you write. You don’t have to stop for every detail, because things do change during the editing period. However it’s helpful to record things such as general descriptions for every character, even minor characters. Having these details readily available means when you get halfway into your book and your scene just isn’t working and you realize that if the barmaid from the beginning of the book showed up the conflict between the hero and heroine would jump back to life, you can click to her information page and know, without any searching, that she had purple hair and silver eyes and is the sister of the town’s Magistrate.
As with everything in writing, there is no right or wrong way to do anything. Different things work for different people. These are just a few techniques that work for me. Do you keep a world bible for your stories and what techniques do you use?
