Friday, July 2, 2010

My writing tip post on The AI blog.

WRITING TIP
~by C. Michelle Jefferies


Wow what a difficult decision I had to make in regards to what I should write about. There were lists on the little clipboard in my head for days.

I finally settled on a topic that I myself have been working on and researching.

A Series Bible.
Similar to a character bible, a series bible is a place where you store and record all of the things that happen in your book that will be significant in the rest of the series.

Even if you write stand alone books. I have found in my researching and assembling of my bible, it is still important to have a record of what went on in that book so you don’t repeat things in your other stand alone books. For example I have a penchant of making my male MC or love interest blond and green eyed. I write the character descriptions down in the book and it reminds me that for variety I should choose a different look for the next guy.

Regardless of what your bible looks like, whether it is a spiral notebook or a stack of post-its, it’s what’s in it that’s important.

According to all my research, my bible contains different sections. They are as follows.

haracter section:
What characters look like, what their families are like, what quirks they have. All those little details that make the character unique so your not pulling a blank when you begin the second (or later) book(s).

Worlds, setting section:
What color is the sky? What do the towns, cities, etc. look like? What are the little details? Magic rules, governments, styles etc.

Back-story section:
What happens off the pages of the book that are still important?

Unique things section:
If your world has cool stuff you invented, write them here so you can use them in the rest of the series.

Plotline and arc’s for the series section:
This is where you store the plotlines and structure for your books. I include the character arc’s here as well.

Notes for yourself section:
Have an epiphany about your book? Those go here unless they belong somewhere else.

Whatever else you need sections:
Self explanatory?

As I have created my series bible, I am finding I love having everything in one place. I carry my bible with me in whatever bag I am toting around at the time and have easy access to it when I need it.


Happy Writing.

6 comments:

Jewel Allen said...

You are amazing, Michelle. I am as organized as my notes, which means: seat-of-pants. Constantly changing and in flux. How do you stay so focused?

C. Michelle Jefferies said...

To be honest I used to be scattered. But learning story structure (Storyfix.com) changed all that. Now I have a good idea what I want to do and where to go in the story and the story has fallen in place after that.

The series bible really helps me stay focused on one story at a time. Often I will email an idea to my friend and then I simply print the email cut it out and glue it in the series bible. I should take some pics and post them here shouldnt I?

Kathi Oram Peterson said...

Excellent suggest! I use a notebook for each book I write. I've just never put it in sections like this. Can't wait to try this out. :)

Jewel Allen said...

That would be great!

C. Michelle Jefferies said...

Jewel, I'll try to get pics today. Of course the book is Pink too LOL.

Kathi, I just saw your post on your notebook(s) and thought your idea is awesome. Great minds think alike?

Donna K. Weaver said...

I think I'm going to have to do something like this. I keep edging a little closer to this much organization. Which really is nuts because in all other aspects of my life I'm uber organized.