Story bible, series bible, show bible, world bible — if the terms feel interchangeable, that is because they mostly are. They all describe the same underlying thing: an authoritative reference for a fictional world. But each term carries an emphasis worth knowing, because the emphasis tells you what the document is primarily for and who it is written for.
Here is the plain-language difference, and why it ultimately matters less than the job all of them share.
World bible
A world bible emphasizes the setting — its rules, history, geography, cultures, and systems. The term is most common in fantasy, science fiction, and game development, where the world itself is a major draw and its internal logic has to hold across a lot of surface area.
If your project lives or dies on whether the world feels coherent and rule-bound, you are building a world bible, whatever you call it.
Series bible & show bible
Series bible and show bible are essentially the same document, used most in television. A show bible is the reference for a series' characters, ongoing arcs, tone, and canon — and it does double duty as a pitch and onboarding document. It is what a network reads to greenlight a season and what a new staff writer reads to write an episode that does not break the show.
The emphasis here is on characters, voice, and continuity across episodes, because TV is written by a room in parallel and the bible is the shared truth that keeps the parallel writers aligned.
Story bible
Story bible is the broadest, most medium-neutral term, common among novelists and across formats. It covers the whole story — characters, world, timeline, plot threads, and canon — without privileging setting or series structure. When in doubt, "story bible" is the safe word for the general thing.
A novelist building a trilogy, a narrative designer documenting a game world, and a showrunner prepping a room are all building a story bible; they just lean on different sections of it.
Frequently asked questions
- What's the difference between a story bible and a series bible?
- A series bible (or show bible) is a TV-specific reference emphasizing characters, arcs, and continuity across episodes, and often doubles as a pitch. "Story bible" is the broader, medium-neutral term for the same kind of document.
- Is a world bible the same as a story bible?
- Nearly. A world bible emphasizes setting, rules, and history — common in fantasy, science fiction, and games — while a story bible covers the whole story without privileging the setting.
- What is a show bible?
- A show bible is a television series' reference for its characters, ongoing arcs, tone, and canon. It is used both to pitch the series and to onboard staff writers so episodes don't break continuity.
CanonBoard scans your whole world and tells you where it disagrees with itself.
Start free