I've run into a few snags along the way with this WIP, but I kept trying to press forward. Over building a book before you write it can be problematic. You're tempted to keep everything you're built, even if the book veers off into uncharted territory, and it can be a really great way to procrastinate actually writing the book.
So this time around, my intent was to go very lean with the worldbuilding, only stuff I absolutely need to know to make my story work. But as I am getting to plot events, I keep running into walls. I am having a huge issue figuring out where the planet would be technologically speaking. Prior to a massive series of wars, the planet was slightly more technologically advanced than we are on Earth.
After a couple hundred years of ongoing war and plague that culminated in an event tantamount to an apocalypse, civilization is scraping by. I just can't figure out if they would still have electricity and indoor plumbing, and whether or not they would have lots of fuel leftover, or none at all.
People that I have talked to seem to think contradictory things as well. Some people think all the fuel would be rare, since there is hardly anyone around to produce and refine it. Other people think there would be tons of it laying around, since there are far fewer people using the fuel.
After trying to tackle this, and other setting-related plot problems, I broke out the big guns. I made my series bible. I took a binder, and put some tabbed dividers into it. I set up tabs for characters and plot in the front, and tabs for the culture in the back.
Sometimes I just work better when I have something I can see and touch. Now that I have made my series bible, I will go through the sections of culture I need to develop. I figure if I know more about the past, more about the cultures before they crumbled away, I can make better decisions about what technology they still have and what new innovations the people have made after the apocalypse.
What is a series bible, you might be wondering at this point. Basically, it's a binder or a notebook, or a file, where you keep all your notes on a book series. My WIP is the first book in a series, so I figured I would just make it now, instead of having to comb through my WIP for the right information. A well kept series bible will save you time when you're trying to remember the name of your character's third aunt you mentioned in passing in the third book. It's a way to organize all the information you need to make your books run.
Some authors swear by them, and some don't bother. I plan to use my series bible as a reference for the culture as well, so I think I will get a lot of use out of mine.
I printed up an index, and made notes about my filing system (cribbed from Holly Lisle's Create a Culture Book) so I would always know where to file the information as I was creating it. Keeping a consistent filing system allows me to add stuff to this for the rest of my life, and I will always know where to find a bit of information.
Series Bible: Name of Your Series
Filing Code:
Mark in upper right hand corner:
Number or Letter: Category
Lower case letter: information type
Page number
Example: A POV character's bio would be filed as 1/a/1
A major, but non-POV, character’s bio would be filed as 1/b/1
INDEX
I. Book Information:
1. Characters
a. Point of View Character
b. Secondary Characters
c. Minor Characters
2. Plot
a. Theme
b. Genre
c. Calendar
d. Life Events
e. Ongoing Conflicts
f. Reoccurring Places
g. Inventions/Special Powers
h. Rules of Law
II. Worldbuilding Information:
A. Home Life
a. Basic Information
b. Arts and Artifacts
c. Cultural Library (books, scrolls, oral history)
d. Music and Dance
e. Housing and Architecture
f. Science and Magic
g. Other
B. Community
a. Basic Information
b. Arts and Artifacts
c. Cultural Library (books, scrolls, oral history)
d. Music and Dance
e. Housing and Architecture
f. Science and Magic
g. Other
C. Religion
a. Basic Information
b. Arts and Artifacts
c. Cultural Library (books, scrolls, oral history)
d. Music and Dance
e. Housing and Architecture
f. Science and Magic
g. Other
D. Government
a. Basic Information
b. Arts and Artifacts
c. Cultural Library (books, scrolls, oral history)
d. Music and Dance
e. Housing and Architecture
f. Science and Magic
g. Other
E. Language
Basic Information
Phonology
Word Pool
Grammar
Names
Some of you might be thinking I am crazy to go to all that trouble at the moment. In reality, it was no trouble at all to print this out, and I will simply file the information away as I develop it. You don't have to fill each section out either. For my WIP, I am not planning on doing too much with the Religion and Home Life sections, but focusing my efforts on the Community and Government sections, since that's what my book deals with.
You could also modify this series bible, and use it for a stand alone book. Folders like this when it comes time to edit and revise and you're not sure where to put all your hand written notes on editing.
The idea isn't that you now have all these sections you have to fill out, but simply a cohesive filing system. For example, under the Plot section, there's a divider for Reoccurring Places. I don't know what those places are yet, I haven't written the book! But during revision, I might notice they hang out at the Drunken Cowboy Saloon an awful lot, so I might create a page with some quick details about the lay out of the place, the names of the wait staff, and anything I might do the saloon.
If my main character accidentally sets fire to the saloon during the course of the first book, I think it would come up if they frequent the saloon in the next book. A statement from the bartender in the vein of "Please don't set half the saloon on fire this time, okay?" can add extra realism to the readers who have been reading along with the series.
With so many tiny details to keep track of while writing a book, keeping a book or series bible can be a life saver.
Have any of you ever kept a series bible? How did that work out for you? Where they any sections that you had, that I don't?
Wow, that sounds like a really awesome book you're writing. I'm having the same problems with my sci fi story about a colony ship destined for a paradise planet. I try to go on as much science as I know, but I'm running into the same problems.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
You too Aubrie! Let me know how things work out!
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things I want to say in response to this post, but I have to run and catch the subway, so I'll leave you with this. If you don't have someone actively refining fuel or a means of using alternative fuel (like solar or wind), there would be very little left. Gasoline isn't the same as crude oil. It has to be refined. If left for an extended period of time, it will separate and be unusable by a standard combustion engine. The holding tanks would have to include agitators (big arms that turn and stir the pot) to keep it from separating and that in turn would burn fuel.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! Thanks Joe! I have just started to research gasoline and oil production, but it's a long trek and I am trying to not get sucked into research. This certainly helps point me in the right direction! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWow! That's so incredibly thorough. My series bibles, so to speak, are kept in gigantic, color-coded and tabbed Excel spreadsheets. More important than locations (which my relatively photographic memory can easily slide back into), I need it to keep character details straight. Full names, ages, family details, physical details. Those are things I can never remember unless I keep them stored somewhere comprehensive. (I also keep a running list of slang/curses, because I can never remember all the good ones I've thought up.)
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of marking sections that are empty for now but that you know you'll be using later -- that's also a good reminder about what to include that you may forget to, things that as you say could be more important later than they are now! Ah, series.
Ever since I got a Mac, I've started using Scrivener's Research folder for things that I'd throw into a new Excel document or into a tab in the established one. I loooove Scrivener. Totally addicted.