One way to get on top of all this is to make a novel (or series) bible. This comes from screenwriting, where a show would have a series bible to make sure that all of the different people working on the show were working on the same thing. There’s probably just you working on your book, but having one will give you an easy way to reference some basic facts and figures.
Start by thinking about what we talked about above – what you need to know for the plot, and what your characters will know, and start there. It’s a good idea to leave blank pages in case you need to add more to the entries later.
Some things to include might be:
- A map, or multiple maps (think a map of the village, then one of the country showing where the village is, or the layout of a space station and a map of the planet it orbits)
- Details of the main locations – population size, settlement size, culture of the place
- Technology – not just for scifi! If you’re writing a fantasy think if there are steam trains or horses, what they use to cook (firepit vs stove), weapons (are there guns, crossbows)
- Historical timeline (especially the bits that are relevant to your story)
- Political and/or religious hierarchy at the level of detail that you/your characters need to know
Remember to keep your bible interesting! Don’t just have pages and pages of dry text. Use bullet points, artwork, photos. You could illustrate it like a medieval manuscript, or make it look like a futuristic computer view. You could write it from perspectives of your characters to make it more fun – especially useful if you have characters that are academics or researchers. Just remember that you only want the facts, so don’t write that one character who contstantly lies write your novel bible!
It’s up to you how much detail you include. Mostly you’ll want to include the things that are relevant to your characters and your story, but if can also be helpful to go beyond that to make sure that YOU understand all the details. An example might be that your characters briefly mention a war a few hundred years ago, but you know that the war reshaped the world into the society that your novel exists in. Looking at it that way, you might want to go into a fair bit of detail about the war and how it changed things, even if those things are such an accepted part of society that your characters might not even think about the origins.
In addition to creating a novel bible, I’d also recommend looking at the other posts in the worldbuilding series, especially part three, because they are going to get you to the point of feeling like you know your world and how your characters fit into it.
For some ideas of what actual series bibles look like, take a look at this list where you can see the actual bibles for 40+ shows.
If you want to do some more work on your worldbuilding, my Fantasy Writing Planner or Science Fiction Writing Planner are there for you.
And next time we’ll talk about the level of detail that you need to put into your novel. If you want a reminder, sign up to my newsletter and you’ll also get a free character workbook.