One entry per named character: fixed facts (birth year, family, appearance), how they change, a few lines of their real voice, and what they know that others don't.
Where each place sits relative to the others, travel times between them, and any physical detail the text has already committed to.
Magic systems, technology limits, political structures — record the rule and the chapter where it was established. Rules are contracts with the reader.
One master timeline with dated (or relatively dated) events. Anchor character ages to birth years so they're derived, never asserted.
Every promise the text makes: the mysterious limp, the unopened letter, the whispered name. One line each — planted where, paid off where (or OPEN).
The throughline you're protecting and the register you're writing in. Optional, but it keeps revision honest.
What goes in a story bible
- Characters
- One entry per named character: fixed facts (birth year, family, appearance), how they change, a few lines of their real voice, and what they know that others don't.
- Locations
- Where each place sits relative to the others, travel times between them, and any physical detail the text has already committed to.
- World rules
- Magic systems, technology limits, political structures — record the rule and the chapter where it was established. Rules are contracts with the reader.
- Timeline
- One master timeline with dated (or relatively dated) events. Anchor character ages to birth years so they're derived, never asserted.
- Threads & foreshadowing
- Every promise the text makes: the mysterious limp, the unopened letter, the whispered name. One line each — planted where, paid off where (or OPEN).
- Themes & tone
- The throughline you're protecting and the register you're writing in. Optional, but it keeps revision honest.
A story bible in a folder remembers — but it can’t read your draft back. In Creader the bible is alive: every chapter is checked against it. For the full method, read our story bible template guide.
More free writer's tools
- Character consistency checkerBuild a character around the four things that drift — facts, voice, knowledge, arc.
- Timeline checkerOrder your events, derive every age, and catch chronology conflicts.
- Magic system pressure testerPressure-test a rule across power, cost, limit, access, and escalation.
- Foreshadowing trackerPair every setup with its payoff and surface the threads left dangling.
- Worldbuilding promptsSeventy-plus questions that pressure-test the parts of your world that don't hold.