As the year comes to an end, I've been thinking about cleaning up my files and organizing my story drafts. One thing that is extremely helpful is to create a way to capture the information about your book series.
What is a series bible?
It's a compilation of details about your book series. TV shows have them too so
they can keep track of facts during the various seasons of the show.
How can you keep your information organized?
A series bible can be written in a notebook, a journal, loose pages, Scrivener,
etc. It can be online in a folder on your laptop, your mobile device or
wherever you organize your information. There is no wrong way to do it.
I've used various tools to help me to
conceptualize my books. Being a visual person, I often use a "mood
board" to include images that set the mood for my stories. Marketers and
designers use mood boards for projects.
You can also use Pinterest boards to pin
images that inspire you (or use them to pin your book covers directly from
Amazon). I have boards for my book series (such as Hathor Legacy and Once Upon
A Princess). Pinterest allows private boards as well, so that's an option if
you want to use one for collecting images for your WIP.
You can always keep adding to it
Your series bible is a work in progress. You
can also use it to help plan out your series. The important thing is it's there
to help you keep track of your information. It can be used in the way that
works for you.
What about organizing information
for a single book?
I've used mind mapping software to keep track of what a character is doing in a
chapter. You can do that for one book or for your entire series.
Often there are free trials, so you don't have to buy any software until you
know you want to make the investment. If you're not into mind maps, there are
also productivity software platforms like Evernote and Trello.
Excel is another
good tool for tracking. Cells can be expanded to include your information.
Colors can be used to indicate different sections and items. Additional sheets
can be added to the Workbook so you can track individual components of your book.
If you don’t have Microsoft, Google has
similar software on Google Drive that you can access using a Google account.
(And of course, there's similar software specifically for Macs.)
What do you keep track of?
You want to track characters, settings, locations, plot points, etc. -
everything you need to refer to in order to build your story (or stories).
Since I use my laptop for writing, I capture my information using Word. I
create a folder where I keep my story drafts and then refer to that when I'm
mentioning a character or location.
For longer series, you may want to use a spreadsheet seeing how
there will be many more items to track.
You could also record notes using audio or use video if you prefer. There's
audio software you can use with your mobile devices and your computer (some
might also be included with your original software).
Looking for video clips or images for inspiration? Check out Unsplash.com and
Pexels.com which are royalty-free image platforms.
I don't think there are any "wrong" ways to organize your
information. The bottom line is that you track everything.
One more thing - be sure to back up your information! I use Dropbox.com that
also connects to Word, so I can save documents on my computer and on Dropbox.
Or you can use an external hard drive if you prefer. Saving your information is
key because a series may go for years, and you don't want to lose any of the
items you've collected.
Start organizing your work so that when you begin new writing projects, you'll have a system in place.
