Braindump
The least formal section. Pour in what you currently know — premise, character ideas, themes, world rules, questions.
Quick Verdict
Sudowrite Story Bible is the feature that makes the platform useful for long-form fiction rather than just short AI generations. It stores the facts, style, characters, worldbuilding, synopsis, outline, and scene-level planning that Sudowrite can reference while helping you draft and revise.
The biggest mistake is treating Story Bible like a form that must be completely filled before writing. It works better as a living source of truth. Add what is genuinely known, keep uncertain ideas outside canon, update it when the story changes, and remove details that no longer matter.
When Story Bible is clean, tools such as Write, Draft, Chat, Feedback, and Muse have a better chance of staying consistent with the book you are actually writing.
What Is Sudowrite Story Bible?
Story Bible is a structured project reference system inside Sudowrite. It has two jobs.
First, it helps the author organize the book. Second, it gives Sudowrite's AI features reliable context.
A traditional author might keep this information across notebooks, Scrivener files, spreadsheets, character sheets, and sticky notes. Sudowrite puts much of it beside the manuscript so the same information can be used by the AI.
Each Sudowrite project has its own Story Bible, and it can be turned on or off depending on how you want to work.
Why Story Bible Matters for AI Writing
AI-generated prose can be fluent while still being wrong for your story. A model might:
- Change a character's eye color
- Forget a sibling
- Break a magic rule
- Reveal a secret too early
- Put a character in the wrong city
- Change the protagonist's motivation
- Forget an injury
- Misunderstand the ending you planned
The problem is usually not grammar. It is context.
Story Bible gives Sudowrite a structured place to find that context. It does not create perfect memory, but it reduces the need to manually restate the same information every time you generate text.
Story Bible Is Not the Same as a Prompt
A prompt is temporary instruction for one task. Story Bible is persistent project context.
For example, a prompt might say: “Write the next 300 words with more tension.”
Story Bible might already contain:
- The protagonist is afraid of deep water
- The current chapter happens on a ferry
- The antagonist knows about that fear
- The missing brother disappeared at sea
The prompt controls the immediate task. Story Bible supplies the deeper meaning.
Braindump
Braindump is the least formal Story Bible section. Use it to pour in what you currently know — premise, character ideas, ending idea, important scenes, themes, world rules, questions and conflicts. Do not worry about order.
“Small-town supernatural mystery. Elena returns after her mother's death and finds that everyone remembers a childhood friend she does not remember. The friend appears in old photographs. I want the mystery to involve memory rather than time travel. The town lake is important. Elena's father knows more than he says. Ending should be bittersweet, not a clean victory.”
That is useful raw material.
What Not to Put in Braindump
Avoid dumping unrelated research simply because it might become useful later. If your story takes place in Victorian London, you do not need twenty pages of general Victorian history inside the core project context.
Keep research separately and add only story-relevant facts once they become important.
Genre
Genre helps Sudowrite interpret reader expectations. Use specific labels when possible.
Instead of “Romance”, try “Contemporary enemies-to-lovers romance with workplace tension.”
Instead of “Fantasy”, try “Adult political fantasy with limited magic and court intrigue.”
Genre can influence pacing, tone, expected scene types, relationship arcs, reveal timing and level of description.
Style and Style Examples
Style defines how you want the prose to behave. Useful instructions focus on observable writing choices:
- Close third-person limited
- Past tense
- Short, controlled sentences during action
- Dry interior humor
- Minimal exposition
- Dialogue carries subtext
- Avoid ornate metaphors
- Use specific physical detail
- Keep paragraphs compact
Vague style directions such as “make it literary” are harder to interpret consistently.
Style Examples
Sudowrite also supports Style Examples that show the model what you mean. This is often stronger than adjectives.
If you want the AI to match your voice, give it a sample of your own prose rather than asking it to sound like a famous living author. Your sample demonstrates sentence length, vocabulary, rhythm, dialogue style, description density and internal monologue.
Synopsis
Synopsis gives the AI the large-scale story shape. It should answer questions such as:
- Who is the protagonist?
- What do they want?
- What stops them?
- What major change happens?
- Where is the story heading?
The Synopsis does not need to be pretty enough for an agent submission. It needs to be clear enough for context.
Should the Synopsis Include the Ending?
The reader needs surprise. The planning system does not.
If you know the ending, include it. An AI writing partner cannot foreshadow an ending it is not allowed to know. Writers sometimes hide twists from their own Story Bible because they want the output to “feel surprised.” That usually makes continuity worse.
Characters
Character cards are among the most valuable Story Bible elements. A useful main-character card can include name, pronouns, age, role, physical description, personality, goals, fears, relationships, secrets, backstory, voice and important traits.
Keep the information relevant to scenes.
Character Goals
Goals are more useful than long biographies. If a character's immediate goal is clear, AI-generated scenes have stronger direction.
Weak: “Cal is a complicated detective who has had a difficult life.”
Stronger: “Cal wants to close the case before Internal Affairs removes him. He believes the missing witness is alive and refuses to tell his partner why.”
The second version creates behavior.
Character Voice
Record how a character speaks if their dialogue needs a distinct identity. Useful notes:
- Avoids contractions when angry
- Uses jokes to deflect personal questions
- Never swears
- Speaks in short direct sentences
- Overexplains when nervous
These details help more than generic labels such as “funny.”
How Many Characters Should You Add?
Add characters that recur or materially affect the plot. Do not create a detailed card for every person who appears once. Too many irrelevant cards can create noise.
A practical rule is to create a proper character entry when you expect the AI to remember that person later.
Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding stores facts about the story environment. This includes far more than fantasy lore.
| Genre | Typical worldbuilding entries |
|---|---|
| Fantasy | Magic rules, kingdoms, religions, factions, creatures, technology |
| Science fiction | Ship systems, planets, AI laws, political structures, scientific constraints |
| Contemporary | Company structure, family business, town geography, school layout, social groups |
| Mystery | Crime scene, police department, suspect relationships, timeline locations |
Worldbuilding Rules Should Be Testable
A rule such as “Magic is dangerous” is vague.
A better rule is: “Using memory magic permanently removes one autobiographical memory from the caster. Larger spells remove older, more important memories.”
Now the AI can apply a consequence.
Outline
Outline gives chapter-level direction. Plotters can create the full book. Pantsers can outline only what is currently known.
The important thing is to separate canon from possibility. If chapter twelve is only one possible route, do not write it as fixed fact unless you want future tools to assume it will happen.
Scenes
Scenes are the current building blocks used by Sudowrite Draft. They replaced the older Beats workflow.
A good Scene should usually have a specific location or situation, a POV, a goal, a conflict or change, and an endpoint.
“Mara visits the closed pharmacy after midnight to find the prescription ledger. She expects the alarm to be disabled. It is not. She discovers that the page for her brother has already been removed. End when headlights stop outside.”
That is much easier to draft than “Mara investigates.”
Extra Instructions for Scenes
Extra Instructions can specify constraints not obvious from the outline:
- Keep the scene under 1,200 words
- No flashbacks
- Do not reveal who is outside
- Stay entirely in first person
- Make the conversation polite but hostile
- End on a sensory detail
These instructions can reduce unwanted generation and save credits.
How Sudowrite's Tools Use Story Bible
How Draft Uses Story Bible
Draft converts Scenes into chapter prose. The selected model can reference Story Bible information while generating. This is why the quality of the chapter depends on the quality of the source material.
If your Outline says one thing and a Character card says another, the model has conflicting context. Before generating a large chapter, clean those contradictions.
How Write Uses Story Bible
Write continues existing prose from the cursor. Sudowrite says Write can look back at up to 20,000 preceding words and can also use Story Bible elements such as Style, Genre, Characters, Worldbuilding, and linked Outline information.
This creates a useful combination: recent manuscript context + structured project context.
How Chat Uses Story Bible
Sudowrite Chat can read Story Bible data and project documents. That means you can ask questions without manually pasting a giant master prompt. Good Chat questions include:
- “Which character has the strongest reason to distrust Lena?”
- “Does this chapter contradict the magic rule?”
- “What promises have I made to the reader that are still unresolved?”
- “If I move this reveal two chapters earlier, what later scenes break?”
How Feedback Uses Story Bible
Feedback can leave margin comments while understanding project context. That is useful because a generic editor might say “This dialogue feels inconsistent.” Story-aware Feedback can potentially connect the problem to established character behavior or Outline intent.
You still decide whether the comment is correct.
Story Bible pays off across Write, Draft, Chat and Feedback
The qualifying partner offer adds 200,000 bonus credits to an eligible subscription.
Claim bonus credits
Story Bible for Pantsers and Plotters
Story Bible for Pantsers
Pantsers should not avoid Story Bible entirely. Use it differently. Start with premise, main character, current desire, a few known world rules and tone.
Then update Story Bible after discoveries become permanent. If you discover in chapter four that the protagonist grew up in Dublin, add it once you decide to keep it.
Story Bible becomes a record of discoveries rather than a pre-written blueprint.
Story Bible for Plotters
Plotters can use the system more deeply. Before drafting, create a full Synopsis, character arcs, world rules, chapter Outline, Scene plans and POV information.
Then Draft becomes a controlled prose-generation step rather than a plotting step.
Story Bible for Series Writers
Sudowrite's Series Folders can share selected Story Bible information across books. Projects in the same Series hierarchy can share Characters and Worldbuilding.
This helps with recurring characters, locations, factions, magic systems, technology, family histories and long-term arcs. Series support is particularly useful when book five needs to remember a minor detail from book one.
Avoiding Duplicate Series Data
When moving projects into a Series, duplicate Characters and Worldbuilding may be preserved. Review those entries.
If two versions are intentional because the character changes over time, keep them and label them clearly. If they are accidental duplicates, hide or remove the unnecessary entry. Duplicate canon can confuse future generations.
Using Import Novel With Story Bible
Import Novel can bring an existing manuscript into Sudowrite and create a Story Bible around it. This is one of the fastest ways to onboard an existing book.
After import, do not assume every generated field is perfect. Review character names, relationships, world rules, outline summaries, POV and tense. AI extraction is useful, but your manuscript is still the authority.
Story Bible for Sequels
A strong use case is importing a completed book before writing its sequel. Sudowrite can help extract Characters and Worldbuilding, then you can move the resulting project into a Series workflow. This saves time compared with manually rebuilding every detail from memory.
How Much Detail Should Story Bible Have?
Enough to prevent ambiguity, but not so much that important facts are buried.
For a main character, 300 useful words can be better than 3,000 unfocused words. For a worldbuilding rule, one precise paragraph can be better than a ten-page history. The AI needs relevant context, not an encyclopedia for its own sake.
Salient Information Beats Maximum Information
The temptation with AI is to give it everything. More context is not always better. Every extra detail competes for attention.
Prioritize facts that affect current choices, continuity, voice, plot constraints, relationships and scene outcomes. Archive background research elsewhere if it does not need to influence generation.
Keep Story Bible Updated
A Story Bible becomes dangerous when it is outdated.
Suppose your original Outline says the villain is Mara's father, but during drafting you decide it is her aunt. If you change the manuscript but not Story Bible, the AI may continue foreshadowing the old plan. After major story changes, update the source of truth.
Remove Abandoned Ideas
Writers collect possibilities. Story Bible should collect decisions. If an idea is abandoned, delete it or move it into a separate notes document. Do not leave five possible endings inside a field the AI treats as canon.
Use Clear Names
Avoid ambiguous entries such as “Old place” or “Magic thing.” Use names that make sense months later. For series work, include era or book labels where useful — for example “Rhea - Book 1 Character State” and “Rhea - Post-Coronation”.
Story Bible and Credit Usage
Story Bible itself is organizational context, but AI operations that read and process large context can affect credit consumption. A larger, more complex task can cost more than a simple targeted request.
That does not mean you should starve the AI of necessary context. It means you should avoid irrelevant clutter. See the pricing guide for how credits are calculated.
Story Bible and Muse
Muse is Sudowrite's fiction-focused model and is designed to work with the platform's narrative context. When a model knows the story's Style, Characters, Worldbuilding, and planned Scene, it can spend less effort inventing basic facts and more effort writing the actual moment. That is the theory behind Sudowrite's integrated approach — more in the Muse and models guide.
Example Story Bible for a Thriller
Genre
Psychological thriller with family mystery.
Style
Close first person, clipped observations, limited metaphor, tension through withheld information.
Synopsis
Nora returns to her hometown after her estranged father's death and discovers he had been paying rent on an apartment no one knew about. She investigates while hiding that she once saw the apartment key as a child.
Main Character
Nora Hale, 34, forensic accountant. Precise, distrustful, notices financial inconsistencies before emotional ones. Wants to settle the estate quickly. Secretly fears her childhood memories are unreliable.
Worldbuilding
Apartment building at 18 Vale Street. Built in 1972. No cameras in hallways. Basement records room is accessible only through superintendent's office.
Scene
Nora visits the apartment pretending to be an insurance assessor. She notices the electricity account is still active. She finds a child's height marks inside a closet. End before she recognizes the handwriting.
This is enough context to generate a focused scene without writing the whole novel for the AI.
Example Story Bible for Fantasy
Genre
Adult political fantasy.
Magic Rule
Magic is performed by transferring heat between living bodies. A caster cannot create heat, only move it. Using magic without a second living source causes hypothermia.
Character
Ilya Venn, junior diplomat. Brilliant at protocol, physically weak after childhood illness, secretly able to use heat magic.
Conflict
Ilya must negotiate a winter treaty without revealing that the northern court is using prisoners as magical heat sources.
A precise magic rule creates meaningful consequences for every later scene.
Common Story Bible Mistakes
Avoid these
- Treating every idea as canon — keep possibilities separate from facts
- Vague character traits — “interesting and strong” is not actionable
- Overloading Worldbuilding — store what the story uses
- Forgetting the ending — if known, tell the planning system
- Leaving old Outline versions active after structural changes
- Duplicating characters across a series unintentionally
- Ignoring POV and tense — set them clearly and verify imports
Do these instead
- Record decisions, not possibilities
- Write goals that create behaviour
- Make world rules testable with consequences
- Include the ending if you know it
- Update the source of truth after big changes
- Label versioned series entries clearly
- Confirm POV and tense after Import Novel
Final Verdict on Sudowrite Story Bible
Story Bible is not useful because it stores lots of text. It is useful because it separates what is true about your story from whatever the AI happens to invent in one generation. That distinction becomes more important as a manuscript grows.
Use Braindump for messy thinking. Use Character and Worldbuilding cards for established canon. Use Synopsis for the big picture. Use Outline for direction. Use Scenes for immediate execution.
Then let Write, Draft, Chat, Feedback, and Muse draw from that foundation.
Keep the Story Bible accurate and relatively lean, and Sudowrite becomes much better at supporting a novel across tens of thousands of words instead of behaving like a clever stranger who only remembers the last prompt.