Get a free story bible template: the Story Bible Starter Kit is an 8-page fillable PDF for your characters, places, timeline and plot threads.
Bonus: Download the free Story Bible Starter Kit and plan your story section by section as you read.
Every novelist has a version of the same story. You are deep in chapter twenty, the words are finally flowing, and you stop dead. What colour were her eyes? Was the brother older or younger? Did the letter arrive on a Tuesday or a Friday? You scroll back through 60,000 words to check, and by the time you find the answer the flow has gone.
That is the problem a story bible solves, and it is why I made a free story bible template you can download today. It is called the Story Bible Starter Kit, and it fits the essentials of your novel onto eight pages.
What Is a Story Bible, and Why Use a Free Story Bible Template?
A story bible is the reference book for your novel. Television writers have used them for decades to keep a whole writing room consistent, and novelists borrowed the idea because one writer over two years can be just as forgetful as ten writers over one season.
You could build one from scratch in a notebook. The trouble is that a blank notebook does not tell you what to write down. A template does. Each box is a prompt, so you capture the things that cause continuity errors before they cause them.
Above is the first working page, filled in for an invented novel, The Last Bus to Belmullet. One page, and the whole book is clear: who the story is about, what they want, what stands in the way and how it might end.
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Chain Story Online
Fun, free, flash fiction writing with writers just like you. You have ~100 words to begin a story or continue a story and make it yours.
Story Bible Studio
Digital space for writers to plot, plan, and build better stories. Designed by writers for writers. Your final draft awaits.
What You Get in the Starter Kit
The kit is a fillable PDF. You can type into it on a laptop or tablet, or print it and use a pen. Here is what is inside:
- Your story at a glance: working title, genre, logline, point of view, tense, theme and ending, all on one page.
- Character cards: four cards with wants, needs, biggest flaw, secret, and the small details of look and voice that are easy to forget.
- World and rules: your setting, key places, and the rules your world must keep (with the cost of breaking each one).
- Timeline: thirteen rows of events, including backstory, with a column for who knows what.
- Continuity tracker: every open thread and promise to the reader, with a box to tick when you pay it off.
Who the Kit Is For
The kit suits you if you are starting a first novel and want structure without a 300-page planner. It suits plotters who like to know the ending, and it suits pantsers too, because you can fill it in as you discover the story rather than before.
It is especially handy if you are getting ready for Novel November. Ten minutes with the first page before 1 November saves a lot of scrolling in week three. If you are planning a month of writing, pair it with my 30-day novel writing plan.
How to Get Started in Ten Minutes
- Download the kit from go.storybible.pro. It is free; you just tell us where to send it.
- Save a copy named after your book, so each project gets its own story bible.
- Fill in the story-at-a-glance page first. If you can explain your story in one page, every other page gets easier.
- Add one character card for your main character, then stop. The rest can grow with the draft.
Want the page-by-page version, with a different filled-in example? Read the full guide on Story Bible: how to use the Story Bible Starter Kit.
When Your Story Outgrows Paper
Eight pages are perfect for one book. If you are writing a series, juggling dozens of characters or co-writing with a friend, you may want everything linked and searchable instead. That is what Story Bible Studio is for: the same sections as the kit, online and beside your manuscript, free to start.
Final Thoughts on This Free Story Bible Template
A story bible will not write your novel for you. It will stop you losing the details you have already worked hard to invent. Download the kit, fill in one page tonight, and keep it open beside your draft. If you would like to warm up first, add a few lines to a shared story on Chain Story Online.
Next step: Grab the free Story Bible Starter Kit, try a collaborative tale on Chain Story Online, and compare the best writing apps.
Related reading: How to Finish Your First Draft (and Stop Starting Over) · How to Write a Novel When You Work Full-Time
Enda Storrie is a writer and the creator of Story Bible, the planning journal and app for writers, and Chain Story Online, a free collaborative storytelling platform.
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