Writing Consistency using a "Series Bible" + Scrivener 3

My toxic trait is believing Scrivener is the superior program for writing and publishing books.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know you disagree, but this is my post not yours.

I’ve used Scrivener for 5 years now and fall in love with it the more that I write. Two of my current projects are series that have characters that overlap and develop over time. Scrivener’s binder has created the perfect tool for me to create, track, and update my “Series Bible” as I write more books.

What is a “Series Bible”? It is a collection of notes, files, images, and/or documents that an author creates to help them keep track of their characters, settings, and world building dynamics across a series.

Have you ever read a series where a character’s name, eye color, hair colors, or other detail changes without explanation from one book to the next? This is a common result of an author not having a “Series Bible”. In the midst of writing, they don’t take the time to reread that character’s introduction from the last book, nor do they have an easy place to reference details of that character for the current manuscript.

A “Series Bible” is a great resource to have if you are writing a series or multiple series like we do here at Sunflowers and Romance Publishing. Scrivener has built in templates that make creating, transitioning, and updating your “Series Bible” quick and easy..

Scrivener has 2 built in features in the binder labeled “Characters” and “Places”. In the “Templates” you will find Character Sketches and Setting Sketches. You can use these premade templates to draft out important details about your characters such as name, age, role in the story, internal and external conflicts, goals, and physical descriptions. You can use as much or as little of this template as you like. You can even alter the heading to specify things such as class, powers, or skills to fit the world you are building. A similar setup is available for Setting Sketches. You can add reference images and other notes to help you have  quick access to the characters and settings you create for your series.

Scrivener has an amazing function that allows you to copy the files you collect and create for your “Series Bible” into new projects for the books in your series. This has been a game changing tool to help the authors over at Sunflowers and Romance Publishing to build amazing characters, settings, and worlds that are consistent.

What do you think? Do you use Scrivener as an author? Do you use “Series Bibles” in your writing? Is this something you are interested in trying? Drop your thoughts in the comments.

As always, I’m not selling you anything. Check out Scriveners 30 day free trial available for Mac and Windows and let me know how much you love it.