How to Use a Character Bible While Drafting Your Manuscript

A character bible is essential when starting to draft a novel because inevitably, as I get into the thick of my manuscript, I’ll find myself trying to remember the name of a minor character from earlier in my draft.

The first time I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I went back and read my first draft after taking a break and discovered I had given the protagonist’s mother four different first names. Each time the mother reappeared in the story, I used what I thought I was her name only to rename her each time. I then had to use the find-and-replace feature in my word processing program to correct the last three names.

A character bible is a great, easy-to-use tool that saves me lots of time and grief as I complete the first draft. When I reach a place where I need to verify a character’s name, I don’t waste time searching for the previous instance of the character; I can confirm the name in my character bible in thirty seconds or less.

When creating a character bible, you can either use a physical notebook or a virtual electronic document. It doesn’t matter which format you choose as long as it is the most natural and easiest format for you to use. In other words, if you’re the type to write out to-do lists, a notebook format will most likely feel most natural for you to use. Conversely, if using an electronic reminders app on your smartphone is easiest for you to keep track of information, you’ll probably prefer a wordprocessing or spreadsheet program easiest to use.

Create an entry for each character in your manuscript. This new entry could be a new page in a spiral-bound notebook, a new paragraph in a wordprocessing program, or a row in a spreadsheet program. Jot down the character’s name and a few details about the character, such as physical attributes, occupation, interests, and perhaps even a stock photo of someone who resembles the character in your mind.

A character bible can also be expanded to keep track of locations in your story. You might have your hero meet a girl briefly in a record shop in an up-and-coming arts district only to have the protagonist return to the record shop at a low point after he has lost the girl and pines for her. What was the name of the record shop? What kind of records did it sell? How was it decorated? What did the employees look like? Just look it up in your character bible. Generally, I like to create a new entry for each location, as I mentioned above for each new character.

Why stop at characters and locations, though? I also like to create a list of each scene with a list of the characters and locations. Scenes can be grouped into chapters at the time or later. This process helps me to quickly keep track of which characters and scenes and go back to them later. It’s also helpful when I want a quick overview of what has happened so far when putting together a synopsis.

If you use a separate piece of paper for each character, location, and scene, they can quickly be reorganized in a physical binder. Likewise, you can use software such as Scrivener to create and manage a virtual binder.

Whenever I finish a writing session, I log new characters and locations into my character bible, so I’ll be sure to quickly find them when I need to do so in the future.

Although it takes a few minutes to set up at the beginning of a new writing project, a character bible will save you frustration and time if you update it after each writing session.