A Series Bible…’bout time I made one

Book three in the Jorja Matthews’ mystery series is currently in the middle of revisions and will soon be in the hands of an editor to assist me with making necessary editorial changes before I finally complete the final draft of Ties That Bind.   I’m going to be working with someone new for editing during this book and I’m very excited about this new business relationship.  It’s going to be some months before the necessary edits and revisions are complete but while that takes place, I’ve decided that as I work on revisions, I also need to finally put together a Series Bible.

What’s a Series Bible?

It’s a very useful organizational technique crucial to staying organized while writing a series.  The series information is contained in one handy binder (before it becomes two or three or more) that the author can thumb through when needed to quickly confirm details about the characters, the setting, arc or plot points, information obtained from research, a timeline for each individual book’s story and for the series as a whole, and whatever else the author feels will be helpful to stay on task with the series.

I’ve got all that information for my series but it’s contained in multiple notebooks and folders and it’s not always easy to find what I need at a moment’s notice while I’m in the middle of writing the next book in the series.  I read about creating a Series Bible sometime while I was writing Best Kept Secrets but I was just too busy writing to worry about putting all the information into an organized binder.  And at the time, I only had the information from No Mother of Mine to thumb through and it didn’t seem all that cluttered.  I could have made an attempt to create the binder while I was revising Best Kept Secrets, but I just didn’t seem to have the extra time.  Now, three books into the series, I’ve accumulated quite a lot of notes, printouts, photos and research information so that my folders are becoming very disorganized.

I love being organized and it’s beyond me how I’ve written three books without becoming annoyed by the fact that the bulk of my story information is in such a disorganized fashion.  Well, it’s finally beginning to annoy me.  Now that I’m in the middle of revising Ties That Bind, I’ve decided that I am going to make the time to finally complete my Series Bible.  I feel better knowing that I can swiftly move into the fourth book in the series without faltering when specific details are not quite within the grasp of my memory.

It’ll be a time-consuming project but it’ll be a fun project and it will help me as I continue to write the series, which is the most important reason for keeping a Series Bible.  Since I really have no idea when this series is going to end, if it ever does, I know it’s about time I get serious about organizing all my notes before it becomes a monster of a project!

Now it’s time to get moving.  The sun is finally out and I have a book to work on so I’m going to work on my book and Series Bible while I soak up some Vitamin D.

Enjoy your day!