Story bible vs. series bible vs. style sheet

6 min read · Updated October 23, 2026

Story bible, series bible, show bible, world bible, style sheet, codex, wiki: these terms overlap, and writers use them loosely. They all describe a reference you check so the story stays consistent. The differences are mostly about scope (one book or many), audience (the writer, a writers' room, a copyeditor, or readers) and focus (characters and events, the world, or the words on the page).

If you just want a quick answer: story bible is the general term for novelists. Series bible is the same thing for more than one book. Style sheet is the copyeditor's narrower list of spellings and facts. The rest are variations.

The terms at a glance

Story bible

A story bible is the writer's own reference of everything that's true in the story: who the characters are and what they look like, how places relate to each other, what the rules of the world are, and what happened when. It's organized by subject so you can look things up, and ideally every fact notes the chapter it came from.

It's the umbrella term, and the one most novelists search for. It works for a standalone as well as a series. For the full picture, see what is a story bible.

Series bible

A series bible is a story bible that spans more than one book. The content is the same, but two concerns get much bigger:

• Change over time. A character's title, allegiance or age in book three isn't what it was in book one. A series bible has to record when each fact was true.
• What readers know when. If book two reveals a secret, the series bible needs to show what was and wasn't revealed by the end of book one.

In TV, "series bible" and "show bible" are often used interchangeably. Among novelists, "series bible" usually just signals "this covers the whole series." For keeping one in shape across many books, see keeping a series consistent.

Show bible

A show bible comes from television and animation, where many writers work on episodes in parallel. It serves two purposes that can pull in different directions:

1. A pitch document. It sells the show: premise, tone, main characters, sample episode ideas.
2. A writers' reference. It keeps everyone aligned: character histories, relationships, sets, rules, and what has already been established on screen.

Novelists borrowed the idea mostly for the second purpose. If you see a "show bible template" online, expect pitch sections (logline, tone, episode ideas) that a novelist can usually drop.

World bible

A world bible focuses on the setting rather than the plot. It's common in fantasy, science fiction and game development, where the world is a product in its own right. It might cover:

• Maps and geography
• History and eras
• Cultures, languages and religions
• Politics and factions
• Magic, technology, biology

The risk of a world bible is that it grows faster than the story. A useful test: does this detail constrain a scene? If yes, it belongs in your story bible too. If not, it can stay in a separate worldbuilding file. See the worldbuilding bible guide.

Style sheet

A style sheet is a publishing term. A copyeditor builds one while working on a manuscript, so they apply the same decisions throughout. A typical style sheet records:

• Spellings of names and invented words
• Capitalization ("the Order" vs. "the order")
• Hyphenation and compounds ("cliffside," "ember-lit")
• Number style (numerals or words, dates, times)
• Story facts the copyeditor will check against, such as ages, eye colors, distances and dates

For a series, a publisher will often pass the style sheet from earlier books to the next copyeditor. If you self-publish, you can keep your own and hand it to whoever edits for you.

A style sheet is narrower than a story bible. It records how things are written and the facts most likely to be checked, not the full history of a character. Many writers keep the style sheet as one section of their story bible.

Here's a short example from the sample series The Ashen Crown:

Codex

"Codex" is a name some writing tools give their built-in reference: a set of entries for characters, places, items and lore that sits alongside the manuscript. Game writers also use it for the in-game encyclopedia a player can browse. Functionally it's a story bible with a different label.

Wiki

A wiki is a set of linked entries, one per subject. Fan wikis are the best known: readers document a published series, often in remarkable detail. Some authors keep a private wiki as their bible because the linked format suits big casts.

Two cautions about using a fan wiki as your reference:

• It's not canon. It may include fan theories, errors, or details from adaptations.
• It's spoiler-blind. Most wikis show everything at once, which is a problem if you're sharing it with readers who haven't finished the series.

Which one do you need?

In most cases the answer is one document (or app) that does the story bible job, with a style-sheet section inside it. The labels matter less than having a single place where the facts live. The story bible checklist shows what to put in it.