Building
a Book ‘Bible’
Ancient Awakening started as a
romance and a stand-alone book. It quickly changed, became complicated and
detailed. The different characters blurred after several chapters and I
realized I needed a better way to keep track of eye color, hair style, physical
description and other pesky details. I’ve used character sheets, interview
sheets, lists and found they didn’t meet my needs.
Then another author mentioned using
a ‘bible’ and the light bulb flashed over my head. What could be easier than a
method I could do on the fly?
After creating a new document I
quickly skimmed what I had already written. To make it easy to find, I used
bold for the character name. It was easy to copy/paste sections of description
any time I mentioned him/her.
Let me amend that. I copy the
information when I go back to do a simple edit. I never stop the writing
process for editing. It breaks the flow and I don’t recommend using anything
that does that.
I also found it helpful to have a
timeline of events. Mine is at the front of the ‘bible,’ but you can put it
anywhere.
Once I decided Ancient Awakening
was the first of a series set in Rhodes End, I added the town as a character.
I’m also drawing a map using my characters actions. You’d be surprised to know
how hard it is to recall if you turn right or left out of the driveway to get
to the cemetery.
Since I’ve finished Ancient Blood and been working on three, Ancient Curse, the information is invaluable. I have opened ‘bible’ two and three,
copied the appropriate character descriptions as needed, and keep on writing.
I’ve found it helpful to add
research details. So many times I’ve wasted time hunting for that important
detail because I couldn’t recall the spelling, the year, whatever.
The ‘bible’ is meant to be a
flexible tool. I recommend it.
Let me know if you think this will work for use. Leave a comment with your email address for a chance to win an ebook copy of Ancient Awakening.
