A Story Bible That Covers the Essentials
| Module | Contents / update |
|---|---|
| Character profile | Contents: Identity, history, ability limits and long-term goals. Update: When an established fact is formally changed |
| Current state | Contents: Location, resources, relationships, knowledge and open matters. Update: After each meaningful change |
| Relationship record | Contents: Mutual promises, debts and how the relationship stands in public and in private. Update: When an action changes the relationship |
| Author’s timeline | Contents: Objective event order and dates. Update: When a new fact is confirmed |
| Reader knowledge | Contents: What the prose has already revealed. Update: When a chapter is finished |
| World rules | Contents: Conditions, exceptions and costs. Update: When a rule is established or revised |
Give each fact one authoritative home. Other files should refer to it or record only the resulting current state.
A Character-State Template to Copy
Current as of chapter:
Present location and action underway:
Current goal:
Abilities and available resources:
Key relationships: Record promises, debts and boundaries for each important person.
What the character knows / falsely believes / conceals:
Unresolved matters:
Source of this change:
Create state pages only for characters who will recur. Leave one-off passers-by in chapter notes to keep the story bible manageable. When revising an earlier chapter, work forward from the change and recalculate the affected states.
Original Filled-In Example: The Old Water Station’s Caretaker
Current as of chapter: Chapter twelve
Location and action: The old water station’s duty room, preparing to close the northern-line valve
Current goal: Prove that contamination comes from the return pipe before the maintenance crew arrives
Resources: Duty keys and pressure records from the past three days; no authority to take samples
Key relationships: Owes the residents’ representative a public explanation; the verbal confidentiality agreement with the station manager has broken down
Knows: Northern-line pressure is abnormal at night; falsely believes: the maintenance crew has received the complete records
Unresolved matters: Who deleted the early-morning data, and why the key was copied
This current-state record omits childhood and appearance. It stores the facts that will constrain action in the next chapter.
Prioritise Conflicts When You Find Them
Locate explicit facts first, then check rule conditions, chronological order, cause and effect, and costs. Address direct contradictions or conflicts that break the main storyline first, followed by less obvious causal gaps. Record minor appearance discrepancies separately; overdue foreshadowing belongs among reminders. For each issue, cite the premise, the triggering event and the point of contradiction. The story bible supplies evidence. It does not decide for the author which plot is better.
Update a changed dimension without losing the rest
Continuing the water-station example: in chapter thirteen, the resident representative receives the duty key. The protagonist remains at the station, lacks sampling permission and has already broken the confidentiality agreement. Update possession without clearing other dimensions.
| Field | Change |
|---|---|
| Key | Before: Protagonist holds it. After: Representative receives it; cite the handover |
| Location and authority | Before: Station; no sampling permission. After: Both unchanged |
| Ties and open issue | Before: Broken agreement; copied key unexplained. After: Both remain; key handover does not restore trust |
Manual notes can update their designated authoritative entries. Oh Story submits changes through the chapter workflow and derives current views from structured state, rather than editing each generated file. Character cards retain stable identity and long-term goals.
Receiving a key does not make every resident informed about the investigation. Record actual transfer, witnesses and disclosed information; keep future plans separate.
Write the transfer before filling the complete current state: Keep the selected chapter-thirteen key handover and add a brief candidate, without a new investigation finding.
The residents’ representative held out a hand at the duty-room table. “Let me keep the key for now.”
The protagonist passed over the duty key and released it after the representative had a grip. The past three days’ pressure records remained in front of the protagonist.
“I still owe the public explanation,” the protagonist said. “I’ll keep checking the records here.”
The representative put away the key without taking the papers.
This changes key possession without sampling, publishing data or solving the copied-key question. Preserve the preceding facts in a manual update:
Current through: Chapter thirteen.
Location and action: Still in the old station’s duty room, checking records. Northern-line closure remains intended; no closing action appears here.
Goal: Still wants to prove the return pipe caused contamination before the crew arrives. A goal is not a proven cause.
Resources and authority: The pressure records remain available; the representative holds the duty key; sampling permission is still absent.
Relationships: A public explanation is still owed; the station manager’s verbal confidentiality agreement remains broken.
Knowledge / false belief: Still knows about abnormal nighttime pressure and mistakenly believes the crew has complete records. This passage does not correct that belief.
Open matters: Deleted early-morning data and copied key remain unexplained.
Change source: Chapter-thirteen handover in the duty room; cite the actual passage in a real manuscript.
This complete manual card helps check what must remain. Do not paste it into an Oh Story generated view. Submit actual changes through the chapter transaction to generate current views. A matching view proves correspondence with stored state, not that the novel omitted or misrecorded nothing.
FAQ
Does this method require a fixed number of chapters?
No. Let actual changes in the story determine chapters and stages. The table only helps check whether causality, resources, and relationships are moving forward.
Can I reuse the example plot directly?
The example demonstrates the method. Replace the story engine, character choices, and consequences rather than merely changing names and locations.
Do it with the skill
Use $story-long-write to update stable settings, complete current state through chapter M, objective events and each party’s knowledge from written prose. Cite changes and preserve unaffected dimensions. Submit Oh Story tracking through the chapter workflow, not generated views. Do not draft prose.
Read the method: Tracking authority and current views · Complete state recalculation after revision · Write established changes as connected scenes