Most story bible templates ask for your protagonist's blood type and favorite season before you've written a scene. This one asks only for what your manuscript will need to check later: who people are, where places sit, what happened when, what the rules are, where the objects are, and which threads are still open.

The full template is below. Copy it into Google Docs, Word, Notion or a plain text file. After it, we explain each section and the one habit that keeps a story bible current.

What is a story bible?

A story bible is the record of facts your story has already established. It exists so that chapter twenty-two cannot contradict chapter four.

It is not a planning document. Outlines, theme notes and "what should happen next" ideas belong elsewhere. If you mix them in, a guess can end up treated as fact. The test for every entry is simple. Has the manuscript established this? If yes, it goes in the bible. If it's still an idea, it doesn't.

The template

Story bible format: plain Markdown. Paste it as is, or delete the lines that start with >, which are instructions.

# STORY BIBLE: [Book or series title]
Last updated: [date] · Draft: [chapter you've written up to]

> Rule: only facts the manuscript has already established. Ideas go in your outline.

## 1. CHARACTERS
> One entry per named character who appears in more than one scene.

### [Full name]
- Also called: [nicknames, titles, spellings other characters use]
- Fixed facts: [age or birth year, family, appearance, history before page one]
- Status: [alive / dead (ch. __) / missing]
- State changes:
  - ch. __: [injury, secret learned, relationship change]
  - ch. __:
- Knows: [what they know that others don't] (learned ch. __)
- Voice: [2 or 3 lines of their dialogue, copied from the draft]

## 2. PLACES
### [Place name]
- Where: [relative to other places]
- Travel time: [to ___ : ___ by foot/horse/car]
- Fixed details: [the inn has two floors; the river runs west]
- First on page: ch. __

## 3. TIMELINE
> One row per event the draft has put on the page. Use a year when you have one.

| Date (year, or relative) | Event | Who was there | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1847 | [event] | [names] | ch. __ |
| three weeks after the fire | [event] | [names] | ch. __ |

Ages to check: [character] born [year], so in [year] is [age].

## 4. RULES
> Magic, technology, law, money, anything the world must obey.

### [Rule]
- The rule: [what is true]
- Cost or limit: [what it takes, what it can't do]
- Established: ch. __
- Exceptions shown on page: [none / ch. __]

## 5. OBJECTS
### [Object]
- Where it is now: [place / person], as of ch. __
- Condition: [intact, broken, half burned]
- Who has handled it: [names, chapters]

## 6. OPEN THREADS
| Thread | Planted | Paid off | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| [the unopened door] | ch. __ | ch. __ | OPEN / CLOSED / SEQUEL |

The six-section template

1. Characters

One entry per named character who appears in more than one scene. Per entry:

Fixed facts: birth year, family, appearance, pre-story history
State changes by chapter: injuries, secrets learned, relationships shifted, one line each
Voice anchor: 3 to 5 lines of their actual dialogue from your draft
Knowledge ledger: what they know that others don't, and when they learned it

This is the highest-traffic section and the one that pays for the whole document. For the full reasoning, see our guide to character consistency.

If you only want a character bible template, copy the Characters block on its own. It works without the other five sections.

2. Locations

Geography generates quiet contradictions: a village that is "a hard day's ride" from the capital in book one and "visible from the city walls" in book two. Per location: where it is relative to other places, travel times between them, and any physical details the text has committed to (the inn has two floors; the river runs west).

3. Timeline

The timeline is where long fiction breaks most often. Keep one master list of events with dates. Use a year where you can ("1847") and a relative date where you can't ("three weeks after the fire"). Check every flashback, every "two winters ago" and every age against it. If you write a series, the timeline keeps book three from breaking book one. See planning a series timeline.

4. Rules of the world

Magic systems, technology limits, political structures, supernatural costs. Record the rule and the chapter where it was established. Rule entries are contracts with the reader: a cost paid in chapter five cannot be waived in chapter thirty without an on-page reason.

If you're starting from a blank world, structured prompts can speed up this section. We keep a free library of worldbuilding prompts organized by category.

Writing fantasy or SF? This section is your lore bible or worldbuilding bible. You don't need a separate template for it.

5. Objects and artifacts

Anything physical that recurs: the letter, the sword, the photograph. Where it is right now, who has touched it, and what condition it's in. Misplaced objects are the plot holes readers screenshot.

6. Threads and foreshadowing

Every promise the text has made: the mysterious limp, the unopened door, the name the dying man whispered. One line per thread: planted where, paid off where (or "OPEN"). At revision time, this section is a checklist of debts. A thread still marked OPEN on the last page is either a sequel hook or a mistake, and you should know which.

What to leave out

Resist: character questionnaires (favorite color, zodiac sign), essays about themes, research dumps, and anything about chapters not yet written. Bloat is not harmless. Every unnecessary field raises the cost of maintenance, and maintenance is what kills story bibles. The hundred-field template fails not because it's wrong but because nobody updates field 73.

How to make a story bible in 20 minutes

Copy the template.
Fill in Characters for everyone who appears in more than one scene. Fixed facts only.
Add a Timeline row for each event your draft has already put on the page, with its date.
Leave the other sections empty until the draft needs them.
After each writing session, add what the scene changed.

For a series. Use one series bible for the whole series and add a "Book" column to Timeline and Threads. Character state changes then read "Book 2, ch. 14" instead of "ch. 14".

In Google Docs. Paste the template, then use Format > Paragraph styles so each section is a Heading 2. The document outline in the left panel then lets you jump between sections.

The maintenance habit that decides everything

A story bible is only as good as its synchronization with the manuscript. The rule: update the bible in the same session as the scene that changed it. Finished a chapter where Mara learns the letter was forged? Her knowledge ledger gets a line before you close the laptop. Two minutes now, or two days of archaeology during revision.

A story bible in Word, Notion, Scrivener or a wiki has one weakness. It can't read your manuscript back. You keep it up to date, but nothing checks your prose against it.

Creader keeps the story bible next to the draft. It reads your chapters and suggests characters and places for the bible. Nothing goes in until you confirm it. Guardian then checks your prose against what you confirmed:

As you type, local checks flag a misspelled or variant character name, a character who acts after you marked them dead, and a trait that contradicts the bible. These use no tokens.
Press Run for the deeper checks on continuity, prose, scene, suspense and plot.

You decide what to fix and what to dismiss. Creader only drafts text when you ask it to. See how it works, or how this compares to a worldbuilding wiki like World Anvil.

Start smaller than feels right

Start with Characters and Timeline only. Add Places when geography starts to matter, Rules when your world needs them, and Threads at the end of act one. A two-section bible that's current is more useful than a six-section bible that's three chapters out of date.

The bible is for you during revisions, when you need to know when she found out. Write down the answer now.