Free tool
A story bible template built around where stories break
Most story bible templates are character questionnaires with a worldbuilding section stapled on. This one is organized around the six places long stories actually contradict themselves: characters, world rules, places, objects, time, and who knows what. Download it free, no email required.
Free to use, share, and adapt. No signup, no email, no watermark.
What the template covers
Characters, including what they know
The usual fields, name, aliases, appearance, voice, wants and fears, plus the one most templates skip: a per-character table of what they know and when they learned it. Eye color errors annoy readers; knowledge errors break plots.
World rules with limits and costs
A rule written down is a promise to the reader. The template asks for each rule's limits, costs, and exceptions, because those are what a convenient late-draft scene tends to quietly break.
Objects tracked by state, not description
Objects break continuity by being in two places at once, or by returning after they were destroyed. Each object gets a state-change log: given away in chapter four, broken in chapter nine, and never seen again.
A timeline with elapsed time
One row per chapter with a time-elapsed column, which is where impossible schedules reveal themselves: the wound healed too soon, the journey made too fast, the pregnancy in its fourteenth month.
Secrets and a continuity log
A story-wide table of every secret, who knows it, and who must not, plus a log for every contradiction you catch and the ruling you made, so you decide each one once instead of every revision pass.
How to use it without abandoning it
The template survives contact with a real draft under one habit: update it in the same sitting as the chapter, not later. Fill in only what the chapter established, leave everything else blank, and when two entries disagree, record the ruling in the continuity log. For a series, start each new book by copying the previous book's status-at-story-end rows. If you want to see how a maintained bible compares to software that maintains one for you, the honest comparison is on spreadsheet vs app.
Common questions
What is a story bible?
A story bible is the single document where you record what your story has established: who your characters are, the rules of your world, where things happen, what objects exist and in what state, how time passes, and who knows which secrets. Its job is to keep chapter thirty from quietly contradicting chapter three.
Do I need to give you my email to download it?
No. Both files download directly from this page, with no signup, no email, and no watermark. The template is free to use, share, and adapt for any project.
Which format should I pick?
The Word version (.docx) opens in Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice, and Pages, and is the comfortable choice if you like tables you can tab through. The Markdown version is plain text that lives happily in Obsidian, Notion, iA Writer, a git repository, or any notes app, and it will still open in fifty years.
Why does the template track what characters know?
Because the most damaging continuity error in long fiction is not a changed eye color, it is a character acting on information they have not learned yet. The template gives knowledge its own table per character and a story-wide secrets table, so you always know who is in the dark.
What if keeping the bible updated by hand gets tedious?
That is the honest failure mode of every story bible: it is accurate for five chapters and abandoned by chapter twelve. If that happens, Bunsho builds and maintains this same record from your manuscript as you write, and checks new chapters against it when you ask. The template works fine on its own either way.
Prefer a story bible that writes itself?
Bunsho builds this record from your manuscript as you write and checks new chapters against it on request. The editor is a free download for macOS and Windows, and writing is never metered.