Can’t believe I waited so long to do this. After all, I’ve written a variety of other things, but for some reason, I never thought about writing my own bible for storytelling purposes. It’s not a coincidence that all the details of a TV series, summed up in one convenient place, has been referred to as a “bible” versus an “encyclopedia” since The Bible is a collection of parables, which details the Christian faith. The same is true for TV bibles for the shows they represent.
For over a month, I’ve been reading through a variety of TV bibles for different genres of shows. By and large, my favorite ones combine the overall feel of the show in pitch fashion rather than a dry collection of facts. Since episode dialogue can be added to a bible as an example of an exchange or to show characterization, the overall gist of the story arcs can be discussed in broad sweeps without getting into the weeds.
TV bibles can take many forms as long as the form enhances the storytelling rather than distracts from it. Some of the detractors I’ve found so far are pictures that don’t reproduce well when photocopied; fonts that are too small and once enlarged, margins too wide to see the complete sentences without scrolling from side to side; and fonts that are smudgy to give it an old typewriter feel.
The best part is that I can quickly jot down several ideas about a show to get them on paper, figuring out plot twists ahead of time prior to writing episodes and committing to all the characters.
Another thing I’d not considered: selling the show. At best, I’m an emerging entrepreneur. At worst, I suck at it. I joke about monetizing certain skills that I have, which I do nothing about because the capitalistic way forward eludes me. Whenever I do make an effort, I’m amazed at how I STILL don’t make money.
Even though I want to have an episode ready in case someone is interested in the show, I’m not clear as what the industry. In other words, the example episode doesn’t necessarily have to be the pilot although that seems counterintuitive to me. I don’t know if the rest of the series would make any sense without the opening pilot. Then again, what do I know?