Manuscript / SAGALITH editorial
How to build a story bible for a novel or series
Your story bible is the reference you trust when the draft gets complicated. Start small, record decisions clearly and keep it close to the manuscript.
Begin with the next chapter's constraints
Write five facts the next chapter must not contradict. They might include a character's age, the cost of a spell, a city's ruler, the distance to a port or what the protagonist knows. These are your first bible entries.
You do not need a complete history before you start. A bible is maintained alongside the writing, not finished as a separate book. Add details when the story establishes them or when they are necessary to make the next decision.
Give each kind of fact an obvious home
Put motives and biography in character entries, geography in locations, historical decisions in events and constraints in world-rule entries. Keep speculative branches in Notes. A reader of your own reference should be able to tell what is established and what is still an option.
In SAGALITH, books and chapters live within a world alongside the reference entries. A series can share the same lore while keeping each book's manuscript organized separately.
- Cast and relationships.
- Places and organizations.
- Magic or technology rules: cost, limit and exception.
- Events and chronology.
- Open questions and discarded alternatives.
Review continuity, then record the decision
After drafting, check the scene against the specific entries it uses. Do not try to review the entire setting every time. If the chapter changes a fact deliberately, update the bible; if it changes it accidentally, revise the chapter.
Consistency tools and editorial AI can prompt useful questions, but they can miss issues. AI context can be partial, so review the original entries when a suggestion depends on an important fact. A tool's confidence does not make a detail canon.
Separate your working bible from the public version
Your working bible can hold spoilers, unresolved ideas and private notes. Readers or players usually need a selected subset of that information. Publish chosen entries rather than making the entire workspace public.
Keep a world backup as well as manuscript exports. They serve different purposes: one preserves the reference structure, while the other gives you readable writing to revise or share. SAGALITH offers export on every plan, including free.