Story bible template for serial fiction (free, copyable)

What a story bible is

A story bible is one document that holds the facts of your story. It lists who your characters are, what they can do, where things are, what has happened and which spellings you chose. You read it before you write a chapter and update it after you publish one.

You may see other names for the same thing: a series bible, a world bible, or a character bible when it covers only the cast. In serial fiction they all mean a working record that the author checks against. (Television writers use “series bible” for a pitch document. That is a different job and this guide does not cover it.)

Why serials need one

A standalone novel is written and edited before anyone reads it. You can fix chapter 3 after you write chapter 30. A serial does not work that way. Chapter 3 is already public by the time you write chapter 30, and a webnovel can run to several hundred chapters over years.

Readers of serials track details closely. They notice when a disciple is Foundation Establishment in chapter 40 and Qi Condensation again in chapter 90, when a sect elder gets a new title, or when a name is romanized two ways. Few authors remember hundreds of small facts. A bible lets you look them up in seconds instead of searching old chapters.

Two rules that make it work

Record the source chapter for every fact

Write the chapter number next to each fact: “Foundation Establishment (since ch. 40)”. When a reader says you contradicted yourself, you can open the chapter that established the fact. When a fact changes, you keep the old value with its chapter range, so you know what was true at any point in the story.

Keep current facts apart from future plans

Put what the story has already shown in one place and your plans in another. In the template below, sections 1 to 8 hold current facts only, and section 9 holds plans. This matters most when you give the bible to an AI tool or a co-author. A planned betrayal in the character entry can leak into chapter 12 as foreshadowing the plot has not earned.

The template

The template has nine sections. Fill in only what your story needs, and add entries as chapters introduce them.

For a character bible template, use section 2 on its own. Keep the “Knows” and “Does not know yet” lines, because they stop a character from acting on information they have not received.

Copy or download it

The button copies the template as Markdown, which pastes cleanly into Notion, Obsidian, Google Docs, Scrivener or a plain text file.

# Story bible: [Title]

> Sections 1-8 hold CURRENT facts only. Put plans in section 9.
> Write the chapter number next to every fact: (ch. 12).

## 1. Series overview
- Premise (two sentences):
- Genre and subgenre:
- Tone:
- POV and tense:
- Update schedule:
- Target length (chapters / words):
- Ending (private note):

## 2. Characters
### [Name]
- Aliases and titles:
- Role:
- First appearance: ch.
- Status: alive / dead / missing (since ch.)
- Appearance:
- Current rank or realm: (since ch.)
- Past ranks: [rank] (ch. X to ch. Y)
- Relationships: [person] - [relationship] (since ch.)
- Knows: [fact] (learned ch.)
- Does not know yet:
- Voice and habits:

## 3. Places
### [Place]
- Where it is, relative to other places:
- Who controls it:
- Key features:
- First appearance: ch.

## 4. Power system and world rules
### [System name]
1. [Level 1] - what changes:
2. [Level 2] - what changes:
- Limits and costs:
- Rules the story has already shown (ch.):

## 5. Factions and sects
### [Faction]
- Leader:
- Goal:
- Allies and enemies:
- Members of note:
- First appearance: ch.

## 6. Timeline
| Chapter | In-story date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| | | |

## 7. Glossary
| Term | Meaning | Spelling decided | First used |
|---|---|---|---|
| | | | ch. |

## 8. Style sheet
- Spelling (UK / US):
- Romanization (pinyin / Hepburn / Revised Romanization):
- Name order (family name first or last):
- Honorifics and how they are written:
- Numbers (words or digits):
- Titles and ranks (capitalized or not):
- Sound effects and thoughts (italics or not):

## 9. Plans (not yet in any chapter)
### Plot threads
| Thread | Status | Planted | Payoff planned |
|---|---|---|---|
| | open / closed | ch. | ch. |

### Upcoming
- Next arc:
- Planned reveals:

A filled-in example

Here is a short bible for an invented serial, Ash Lantern Sect. In chapter 40 the hero breaks through to a new realm. The character entry shows the current realm and keeps the old one with its chapter range, so no one writes chapter 41 using the earlier rank.

Series overview

Characters

Power system

Places and factions

Timeline, glossary and style

Plans (kept apart)

Keep it updated

A bible helps only if it matches what you published. Spend five minutes after each chapter, while the details are fresh.

1. Add every new named character, place, faction and term, with the chapter number.
2. Change any rank, status or relationship that moved. Move the old value to the past entry with its chapter range.
3. Update “Knows” for each character who learned something.
4. Add one row to the timeline.
5. Mark any plot thread you planted or paid off, and move anything from Plans into the current sections once a chapter has shown it.
6. Check your style sheet for any spelling you chose on the fly.

If you write ahead of your publishing schedule, update the bible as you write and note which chapters are still unpublished.

Using it with AI writing tools

An AI model knows only what is in front of it. It does not remember your earlier chapters, so it will invent a rank, a name or a relationship unless you supply the real one. Paste the sections a scene needs: the characters in it, their current realms, what they know, and the style sheet.

Give it current facts, not future plans. A model told that a character will betray the hero in chapter 80 may start hinting at it in chapter 12. Leave section 9 out unless you are asking for help planning.

Webnovels AI keeps these records beside your chapters and uses them when it plans and drafts. When a chapter changes a fact, such as a new realm, it proposes the update and asks you to approve it before the record changes. You can also keep the bible in a plain file and paste what you need into any other tool.

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