So my newest novel adventure is The August Grimm Files. This is sort of like the fairy tale version of Castle. Which just happens to be my favorite show on television. So August Grimm is an up and coming author or urban fairy tales. Yes her last name if Grimn, but so far I haven't come up with a plausible excuse for an American black girl to be related to white Germans so as it stands the name is just something I wanted to give her.
But anyways August is a writer of fairy tales, but she doesn't believe in them. That is for children, but the hero in her her stories is Apple White, the daughter of Snow White who is a detective. The stories. follow her adventures in Ferry Landing. She is a best seller and living the good life, till she comes face to face with the Fablehaven Police Chief who needs her help solving a murder that is based of murders in her books. August is dragged into the fairy tale world that she just wrote off as children's stories to help solve the case.
After the case she returns to the human world, but from time to time she gets called on to help on the cases in Fablehaven.
Yes the entire novel idea is based on the Castle episode of Flowers on Her Grave, but really that plot has been done over and over again and I don't think that I'm stepping on any toes.
So TV shows have what is called a series bible. They can include:
These series bibles are extremely handy in keeping everything canon. Like if August in Book 1 has a female Egyptian Mau named Bentley then in book three it doesn't turn into a male Tabby named Miles. Its easy for something like that to slip someone's mind if you only mention the cat once or twice but readers pay attention to things like that. I know I do, and it irks the hell out of me when things change like that in books. Unless there is an explanation to the change.
So I want to start a series bible for the August Files, but I just have no idea how and all I can find on the the google machine is how to do a TV series bible. Well maybe I should do mine in the same manner it seems a simple format, but a lot of things are tailored for television.
It might take a little bit of effort on my part to do a series bible for my new novel, but I think in the end it will keep me on track and keep my honest.
But anyways August is a writer of fairy tales, but she doesn't believe in them. That is for children, but the hero in her her stories is Apple White, the daughter of Snow White who is a detective. The stories. follow her adventures in Ferry Landing. She is a best seller and living the good life, till she comes face to face with the Fablehaven Police Chief who needs her help solving a murder that is based of murders in her books. August is dragged into the fairy tale world that she just wrote off as children's stories to help solve the case.
After the case she returns to the human world, but from time to time she gets called on to help on the cases in Fablehaven.
Yes the entire novel idea is based on the Castle episode of Flowers on Her Grave, but really that plot has been done over and over again and I don't think that I'm stepping on any toes.
So TV shows have what is called a series bible. They can include:
- The overall concept
- Ongoing characters - main, supporting, villains
- The setting
- The rules of the world you're creating
- Gadgets and gizmos [if any] and how they work
- What CAN'T happen in future story lines
- Format
- Series tone
- Series theme
- An opening story
- Story suggestions
- Nuisances of all the characters (ex. eye color, best friend from 3rd grade, favorite type of bubblegum)
These series bibles are extremely handy in keeping everything canon. Like if August in Book 1 has a female Egyptian Mau named Bentley then in book three it doesn't turn into a male Tabby named Miles. Its easy for something like that to slip someone's mind if you only mention the cat once or twice but readers pay attention to things like that. I know I do, and it irks the hell out of me when things change like that in books. Unless there is an explanation to the change.
So I want to start a series bible for the August Files, but I just have no idea how and all I can find on the the google machine is how to do a TV series bible. Well maybe I should do mine in the same manner it seems a simple format, but a lot of things are tailored for television.
It might take a little bit of effort on my part to do a series bible for my new novel, but I think in the end it will keep me on track and keep my honest.
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