Week 2: Building a Bible

What goes in a continuity bible, how to make it findable, and how to tell whether it works before anyone else has to rely on it.

2 March 2027

A bible is only as good as the next writer’s ability to use it. This lecture covers how to build one that a stranger can, which is what the Capstone tests.

Outline#

• The four parts. A timeline, a character register, the rules of the world, and a canon policy.
• Rules, not history. A list of events tells a writer what happened. A rule tells them what can’t happen next. Bibles need both, and usually lack the second.
• Findability. A fact the writer cannot find in a minute is not in the bible.
• Gaps on purpose. What to leave undecided, and how to mark it so no one mistakes silence for permission.
• The stranger test. Why the Capstone ends with one, and how to run a small one on yourself before week 11.