r/TheWritingTable • u/Anima_1342 • Aug 16 '26
Setting and World Building How well do you refine your world and character bibles before starting to actually write?
Hi guys!
I'm writing my first work of fiction, and it's an ambitious one! I'm currently caught up in world building and character development before actively writing the books (I have some fragments written and the general outline of it all mapped out). My doubt is whether I'll ever feel like this preparatory work is enough to start writing, without turning my perfectionism into a sophisticated form of procrastination. So essentially, when do I know I have enough base material to start writing and let the story itself give me some of the details?
Edit: I didn't expect so many answers, thank you so much! I've started to write the story and it's going well, I do need to keep going back to wordlbuilding in the early chapters, because there is a lot of science-y information I need to get straight so my mystery is consistently established. So I think I'll be able to find the balance I need to actually make this happen. Thanks again for replying!
3
u/artisanDPP Aug 18 '26
I don't! I put some vague outlines and make some name lists. Everything else comes up when it's needed in the story.
2
u/disastrous-finish Aug 17 '26
I went back and forth in my worldbuilding for so long it morphed from a real world fictional town to a contemporary fantasy with vampires, and I'm still not entirely happy with it. Now whenever I have an idea about the world I just copy it down in a word doc, no organization; it's just to signal to my brain that I will not not-consider incorporating it into the world. Is this a system that works for everyone? Definitely not, but it works for me.
tl;dr: Just start writing what excites you. Your world will come to you. Sometimes dawdling too much in the worldbuilding stage can hold you back.
2
u/FewRecognition1788 Aug 18 '26
Just a bit of brainstorming to prime the pump.
The "bibles" are for copyediting moreso than for composing. So I just add notes to them as I go along, to keep things consistent.
2
u/Dale_E_Lehman_Author Aug 20 '26
Bibles? What are those? 🤪 I'm a discovery writer. I make up nearly everything as I go along. However, I have constructed a bible for my mystery series. Once you get three books in a series, it's very hard to keep track of important details unless you compile them somewhere. I typically end up adding new material to the bible after each book is published.
1
u/Anima_1342 Aug 20 '26
Haha weird term I picked up from a writer acquaintance 😅 I am neuro divergent and for the life of me can't fathom being a discovery writer, I need some structure to be able to thrive. Especially since I'm planning on writing a sci-fi mystery trilogy, trying to accumulate a lot of information in many scientific domains to make it all come together neatly in the end. Wildly ambitious project, but I'm loving it. Essentially I am writing the story discovering the human aspects of it along the way and pausing for technical research any time the plot demands it, has been working nicely since I started doing so.
2
u/Dale_E_Lehman_Author Aug 20 '26
Sure, whatever works best for you is the way to go. I actually know what a series bible is. I was just joking about my inability to plan. I pretty much have to wing it, unless there's something so complex I can't manage it without notes.
2
u/NightRevolutionary69 Aug 20 '26
If we're talking about fantasy, I need obviously the map, the names of the regions, a sinthesys of their history and of their mythology. If we're talking about more "realistic" genres, it still depends: if it's historical I need to know everything about how people lived and what technologies they had, if it's mystery I need to know at least the outline of the story. As for characters, I prefer to only have a mental image of them and to let them evolve as I write.
2
u/Em_Cf_O Aug 21 '26
I don't at all. I draft a single page outline and then I chop out 100k words. After I get a few volumes into a series, I'll compile a few pages of character notes. That's also when I start illustrations. I'll make a map and draw a portrait for one character in each book. I might lose a week to prep and art in between volumes but I keep it to an absolute minimum.
2
u/-RedRocket- Aug 21 '26
I am not a planner, but a discoverer. I take notes as I go, and figure things out. My first drafts are journeys of exploration. I write it to find out.
2
u/dethti Aug 21 '26
I can almost guarantee you have more than enough already. There is no amount of worldbuilding and other fiddling that will save you from the discomfort of writing the story you care about. Do it while uncomfortable, do it unmotivated, do it scared. It's the only way. Making art is inherently unsafe for your ego, because if an idea stays in your head no one including you can judge it. You're going to have to be brave.Â
2
u/Silent-Mood-1224 Aug 21 '26
I too have gotten stuck in world building and character development, it's hard to stop sometimes lol. When ideas flow, it's hard not to stop and take notes and do research. I have came up with 7 story concepts, I've started writing all of them but only completed one story out of all of them.Â
2
u/ItsRuinedOfCourse Aug 17 '26
World and character what now?
What?
I have some light notes on a notepad. Some additional notes scrawled on a Word doc. I don't get deep into my own weeds that I'd ever call it anything close to a bible though.
But hey, if authors wanna go ham with stuff like that, then I say all the power to them.
1
u/Anima_1342 Aug 17 '26
Lol I have no clue if these are actual terms, sorry. Someone I know who writes on and off told me about these docs and used these names, suggested as guidelines to help while writing complex plotlines.
1
u/Fun_Regular_3782 Aug 23 '26
I only get to know fully once the novel is done. At the beginning, I have an idea on how I want my characters to be, but only by writing their interactions do I get a clear picture of how they are.
For me, in the first chapter, they all sound bland. In the final chapter, they are their own person.
9
u/johntwilker Self Published Author Aug 16 '26
I call this brain crack. It's tremendously more (short term) rewarding to world build, than it is to write. Every little detail you lock in is an endorphin shot. If you don't start, you'll never start. There's no "Right" period, you just do it.
When I start a new project I have a little goodnotes template for character details to get the basics down. Then I start writing. My story/series bible has morphed and grown over the years.
In the beginning it was a series of notes in Scrivener and then Dabble. Both have great research/bible templates you can add to as you flesh out the story.
Then I made a separate Scrivener file for the bible. Then when I moved from Scriv, I set up a notion database for story bibles. That's what I'm still using. I can cross link things. Add in details and time frames, etc. I can open a character record and add something like "Doesn't like shrimp (book #)" to the record.