Hey everyone! Here we are again with another post which is the last one in the Inspiration Series! It’s so exciting! Stay tuned to the end of the blog post to hear the announcement about the schedule for the next part of the year as well as the topic of the next series! Without further ado….
Inspiration: Writer’s Bible
There are a lot of different kinds of journals and writing trackers all over the internet. If you are not a writer there are all sorts of journals and trackers for just about anything anyone can enjoy. However, a writer’s bible is the largest and most put together form of a writing journal and you can’t simply buy a writer’s bible from the nearest market. A writer’s bible is unique to the writer and to the writer’s story and world.
Before I begin really explaining what a writer’s bible is, there are a few things that I need to clarify. The first is that there are several different names for a writer’s bible. It can also be called a story bible, a series bible, a book bible, or any other variations of those names. I’ve most commonly heard it referred to as a story or series bible but I call it a writers bible because that is how it was first introduced to me and so the name makes sense to me. The other thing that I should make clear before I begin this post is that there is not one right way to make a writer’s bible. Likes I said earlier, a writer’s bible is unique to the person and story. There are certainly things or aspects that could help you write a story but a writer’s bible itself does not need to be written a specific “correct” way.
This post is not simply going to be a how to make a writer’s bible effectively but a how to use a writers bible to gain inspiration for continuing a story you have already begun or gain new inspiration for a new story. I’m going to explain some of the different ways to make a writer’s bible depending on your writing needs and at the end explain some useful ways that a writer’s bible can be used for inspiration. But as with a lot of my other posts, these are just examples and you might use or need to use other ways to be inspired.
A Bullet Journal Style Writer’s Bible
A bullet journal style writer’s bible is a very specific kind of writer’s bible that I personally am not a fan of but I have seen many bullet journal writer’s bible. For any of you who do not know what a bullet journal is, it’s a specific type of planner where you can individualize the planner to fit you and you can change the variations of the journal types and pages by month, week, or day, depending on your fancy.
Bullet journal style writer’s bibles are unique in the way that they are usually precisely organized from the very beginning. They are usually done in a single notebook with no one to remove or attach more pages in the case that you might need a few more pages. These types of writer’s bibles are the best for the writer who already knows everything about their story and world and just hasn’t written it yet. It’s less of a creative forum and more of a tracking system for remembering details and facts about a story.
The reason I am not a big fan of bullet journal style writer’s bibles is because most writers in general do not have a 100% clear idea of their world, storyline, and/or characters when they first begin writing a story. A lot of writers will be writing and decide that something doesn’t work quite right in their story and feel the need to add something more to make the story easy to understand or make the world building match the story more. But there are a rare few writers who do plan their story out all the way before writing it and in those cases a bullet journal style writer’s bible is perfect for them.
A Scrapbook Style Writer’s Bible
A scrapbooking style writer’s bible is the second most common type that I usually see. I don’t mind this style, but it does look a little messier than a bullet journal style writer’s bible. A scrapbooking style is the best if your inspiration for writing comes from the visual rather than the abstract. I follow several creators on Instagram who spend most of the time they are not writing, creating different pages of scrapbooking for their writer’s bible.
Scrapbooking writer’s bible look unique in the way that they can be organized however you want. Most of the creators I have seen who make scrapbooking writer’s bibles tend to organize by color or by design rather than by a certain topic like other kinds of writer’s bibles do. One of my favorite creators always does hers by style. She finds a style of clothing, art, or other things related to her story and then she pasts them together on a page with some shorthand notes. Those notes and the pictures and art and color swatches on the pages are what she usually uses to remember details about something for a story or inspire something for a later part of the story.
As I said earlier, scrapbook style writer’s bibles are the best for those who learn visually. As far as visual memory goes there are usually two kinds of pages. The first is the kind that help you remember different details usually by using key images that remind the author of certain topics to things. For example, if the scene centered around the death of a specific red-haired character that was important to the main character you could have a page with some symbol that remind you of death, something red that reminds you of the character, and maybe some symbol or character that reminds you of the main character. The second kind of page is for more description. I know some who use their pages for scene or clothing descriptions by pasting whole pages of the same kind of clothing designs or images of the same type of scenery and labeling them what they are in the story to help create a better sense of those visual details.
A Binder Style Writer’s Bible
A binder style writer’s bible is my favorite style of writer’s bible only because I do not have enough space for the fourth type of writer’s bible. A binder style writer’s bible is perfect if you are the type of writer who always feels the need to continually change characters, worlds, and stories to make the best book that you can. It’s nice because the pages are easily removable and reorganizable. If you are worried about your pages getting ruined it is also easy to make pages or notes that will sit inside of a sheet protector to make the pages even better than originally anticipated.
Binder style writer’s bibles are also very flexible in the way that the pages can be designed in any way that you wish and into any sort of category of organization that you wish. For example, maybe you begin by having the binder broken up into sections like characters, plot, setting, and storyline. As you begin working on the book maybe you realize you have too many characters to fit them into their own single section. Maybe you have a section that is simply a list of character names with having the characters organized by book they first appear in. Or maybe you’re more into clothing design so you have a whole section that is just clothing designs for characters organized by character. Or maybe you have too many different places that the story takes place and so you need to split setting into different kingdoms, planets, cities, or countries.
Binder style can not only be organized however you want but can be designed however you want. Maybe you want some pages that are made scrapbook style with the pages done up by style, color, or magazine clippings. Maybe you have a more minimalist or bullet journal style. Or maybe you have a mix of both styles with something more unique. Either way you can take these styles and put them together to make a binder style notebook that has all sorts of different kinds of pages, designed however you like, and organized in whichever way you wish.
A Wall Style Writer’s Bible
A wall style writer’s bible is similar to a binder style but in a more open visual way than a binder. A wall style writer’s bible can be as organized or as disorganized as you would like it to be. These are the most effective when you are the type of writer to randomly add a note for yourself about a story while writing or while world building. Generally, you can begin to organize these random notes into some sort of coherent plan.
The hardest part about a wall style writer’s bible is that it requires some place (generally a very large place) for you to begin to tape the story together, quite literally. Some people I know just get several cork boards and hang them all together in one huge conglomerate. I have a few friends who just use several whiteboards that hang together. Most people that I know of generally just use a huge blank wall. I’ve seen some pictures of people using the wall next to their stairs, because they use the angled style of the wall to show the progression from the first book (at the bottom of the stairs) to the last book (at the top).
The second hardest part about a wall style writer’s bible is choosing how to organize it. Much like a binder style writer’s bible it is easy to move things around and rearrange the pages, notes, ideas, or sketches on a wall style writer’s bible, but it is harder to organize into understandable categories. Most people that I know when making a wall style writer’s bible tend to do it for book series or standalone books set in the same world and they will organize the wall by book rather than any other form or style.
How To Be Inspired
Now that I’ve really explained the most common different types of writer’s bibles I want to talk a little bit about how writer’s bibles in general and these styles in particular can inspire you as a writer to continue writing or begin writing.
To start with, the basic point of a writer’s bible is to get down details about a world, setting, storyline, and/or characters. To do this writer’s need to be just as creative as when they are finally writing the book. Many details and information need to be included that would otherwise be left out. Writer’s bibles can be edited as new details or information are needed in the story. And as such, most writer’s bibles are never really complete. This is what gives space for inspiration.
Many of my fellow writers have told me, and even I have experienced, that gaining inspiration from a writer’s bible generally comes from the incomplete or contradictory parts of a writer’s bible that need to be fixed or edited out. For example, if I am writing a fantasy novel and I mentioned something about a second kingdom that I did not mention in the book but it’s part of the world building this can be inspiring. I could use this in multiple ways. Either I could use it to inspire new and exciting scenes and plot twists and characters in my story by involving this, thus far, unrelated kingdom that was mentioned a few times. Or it could inspire a second or side series about different characters living in that kingdom.
Lots of authors are inspired by the religions or folklore that they incorporate into their stories and that they have invented. Many writers and authors have written side stories with folklore, religious stories, or other small stories from their books. A few examples I can think of off of the top of my head are The Tales of Beetle the Bard by J.K. Rowling or The Language of Thorns and The Lives of the Saints by Leigh Bardugo.
There are many different parts of a writer’s bible that can help to inspire a writer throughout their writing process. I hope that this post was helpful for those who are seeking for inspiration. It was the last post in the inspiration series and also, I think, the longest so far. I had a lot of fun writing this post and if anyone has any questions about writer’s bibles please let me know. I would be more than willing to discuss them with anyone who asks.
I’m also going to be announcing the upcoming schedule for the next portion of the blog and the topic for the next series of blog posts. I’m going to be taking a short break for the rest of July before coming back in August with a few stand-alone posts. All four Saturdays in August will be stand alone posts and then in September I will be starting a new series. The topic is…..
THEMES OF WRITING
I’m so excited to continue on for the next portion of the series with you guys and I hope you are all just as excited as I am. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, become a blog page member, share, and follow us on social media at the links at the bottom of the page. I hope you have a great time till I write again and remember,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next month!
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