(vol 2) Chapter 09: “Starting A Story Bible”

2015 WORD COUNT = 12548 words

I’m now three weeks into my episodic fantasy series, FRACTURED DAWN, and I’m starting to get into the groove. Things are starting to take shape for the readers with plenty of questions to court their intrigue. I hope as I get further into it, that people have the same anticipation for more FRACTURED DAWN as they have with their favourite TV shows. I guess only time will tell.

BIG WORLD

Currently I’m working off of my NaNoWriMo 2014 draft and a pile of notes but, if things go to plan, then this world is going to get very big.

Overall I’m hoping for it to be an ongoing series, one without ending (much like The Walking Dead graphic novels or your favourite daytime soap). With this in mind I realised that a couple of note books wouldn’t cut it. I needed something bigger.

It’s not just going to be about world building to allow me to write the story. I’ll need something to have at hand much like a reference book, like an encyclopaedia . . . like a wiki.

GENESIS

Today I have started work on the FRACTURED DAWN story bible. I’ve never put together anything this before (as most of my work is stuck at first draft, I’ve not required one yet) so I’m both excited and nervous.

The idea is to build an overlapping word document containing everything I’ve written and everything around it. And, like a wiki, it will be filled with hyperlinks to navigate around the world and its people.

CONTENTS

So far I’ve entered in what has been written so far; a couple of characters, the town of Bridgewood, and the guide for the first three episodes. Over the weekend I’m going to start filling in the details about where I’m headed and who else will be showing up. I have a lot of info to mine what with the first draft, my notes, and all the planning I did for the early fantasy novels I now intend to cannibalise.

I’ve learnt a few new techniques on MS Word too, with bookmarks and linked contents pages (I love geeking out on MS Office).

I hope that, in the long run, this bible helps make for a better story with more consistency between episodes. While it feels small now with only a handful of characters and two settings, it will grow into something epic, just as long as I keep at it and keep track of it.

I hope you guys are enjoying the project so far. I have three episodes up at the moment. If you haven’t read them yet and have spent this post wondering what the heck I’m rambling on about then dawdle over here and see what you think. I’d very much appreciate any and all feedback because, until I know what other people think, I’m just writing in a vacuum.

See you in seven.