YOU GUYS.
WE’VE OFFICIALLY OUTLINED OUR NOVELS! 🎉
Welcome back to Day 26 of Preptober 2026! 🎃✍️
Over the past few weeks, we’ve brainstormed our stories, developed characters, built fictional worlds, mapped story beats, and outlined three entire acts!
But now?
WHERE DO WE PUT ALL THIS INFORMATION?! 😂
That’s exactly what we’re talking about today!
We’re creating our STORY BIBLES!
1. What Is a Story Bible?
A story bible is essentially your novel’s personal encyclopedia!
It’s where you organize all the important information about your story so you can easily reference it while drafting.
Think of it as your one-stop shop for everything related to your novel.
Instead of searching through dozens of notebooks, random documents, and sticky notes, you’ll have everything in one place!
And trust me, when you’re 40,000 words into your manuscript and suddenly can’t remember a supporting character’s last name, you’ll be SO glad you created one! 😂
2. What Should You Include?
Here’s what I recommend organizing inside your story bible:
- Story Overview: Your premise, genre, themes, and central conflict.
- Characters: Names, appearances, personalities, goals, motivations, relationships, and false beliefs.
- Worldbuilding: Locations, cultures, societies, politics, magic systems, and technology.
- Plot & Outline: Your three-act structure, major story beats, and chapter outlines.
- Important Details: Timelines, rules, terminology, and anything else you might need to remember.
But here’s the thing!
Your story bible doesn’t need to contain EVERYTHING about your fictional world.
Only include information that’s useful for writing your novel.
We’re organizing our ideas, not creating another enormous project before November! 😂
3. Choose a System That Works for YOU!
You guys know I LOVE organizing things.
But your story bible doesn’t need to be complicated!
You can create yours using:
- Google Docs: A simple document with headings and a table of contents.
- Microsoft Word: Perfect for keeping everything in one organized file.
- Scrivener: Great for storing character sheets, research, and manuscript notes together.
- Notion: Helpful if you enjoy databases and interconnected pages.
- A Physical Binder: Perfect for writers who love printing things out and organizing everything by hand!
Personally, I recommend choosing a system you’re already comfortable using.
Don’t spend five hours learning a new organizational tool when you could be preparing to write your novel! 😂
And don’t forget to back up your files!
4. Keep Your Story Bible Updated!
Here’s something important to remember.
Your story bible is a living document!
Your characters might change.
Your plot might evolve.
You might discover new details about your world while drafting.
That’s completely normal!
When something important changes, update your story bible so you can maintain consistency throughout your manuscript.
Think of it as a reference you’ll continue using long after Preptober ends.
✍️ Today’s Preptober E-Guide Exercise
Grab your FREE Preptober E-Guide and turn to page 23: Story Bible!
Today, we’re bringing everything together.
- Choose where you’ll keep your story bible.
- Create sections for your premise, characters, worldbuilding, and outline.
- Transfer the important information you’ve developed throughout Preptober.
- Organize everything so it’s easy to find.
- Save a backup copy!
And remember:
You don’t need a perfectly organized story bible before November 1st.
You just need something you can reference while writing!
We’ve Finished Prepping Our Stories! 🎉
YOU GUYS!
Look at everything we’ve accomplished!
We’ve developed our stories from the initial brainstorming stage all the way through creating chapter outlines and organizing our story bibles.
That’s AMAZING!
But we’re not quite finished with Preptober yet.
Because having a novel ready to write is only half the battle.
We also need to prepare our WRITING LIVES! ✍️
🎥 Follow Along With Preptober 2026!
I’m sharing 31 FREE daily YouTube videos throughout October to help writers prepare for Novel November!
Coming Tomorrow: Day 27 — When, Where & HOW Will You Write Your Novel? ⏰
Tomorrow, we’re figuring out how to make writing fit into our actual lives!
We’ll talk about creating a realistic writing schedule, finding your ideal writing environment, and choosing the tools that help you stay focused.
Because let’s face it.
Writing isn’t just going to happen. We have to make it happen! 😂
Now I want to hear from YOU!
Are you creating a DIGITAL story bible or a PHYSICAL binder? And what’s your favorite way to organize your writing projects?
Let me know in the comments! 💕
We’ve got a novel to plan. 🎃✍️
