As some of you will know I am currently working on book 4 of my Ask Amy Green series for young teens. My series was called Amy Green: Teen Agony Queen, which although it sounded pretty zippy, apparently means some parents, teachers and librarians weren’t buying it for age 10/11+ which it is aimed at. The clue was in the word ‘teen’! So Walker, who are very sensible when it comes to pretty much everything, tweaked the series name slightly.

I digress – yes, again! I know, I know, I’m always digressing!

Back to my point. In order to keep track of the ages, physical characteristics, birthdays, clothes, hair, eyes, dancing ability, musical tastes, name of ex-girlfriends/bands/schools and a myriad of other details I need to remember which is only growing and growing with every book, I have a big spiral notebook in which I jot down these things. I refer to if I get a bit confused/lost/freaked out.

And it’s proved invaluable. Each character has their own page, or in the main characters’ cases, pages. Even very minor characters are covered. And I have sticky notes attached to the top of pages with some of the characters’ names on them. It’s all messy, messy but it works.

For example on Mills’s page I have:

Mills Starr, age 13
Dog – Simba (Jeepers, quite honestly I’d forgotten I’d given the Starrs a dog – darn it!)
Claire – Mills’s big sis – in Perm at a ballet school
Mills – great cook
Long dark brown hair she wears in a ponytail mostly
Classic dresser – quite safe
Good with engines – can jump start cars (with leads I mean, not stealing them – she’d never, ever do something like that.), check oil and water etc
Dad – Allan – age 56 – mad into model boats and airfix – bit of a geek (Rex hasn’t actually appeared in any books but he has been referenced), Titanic nut
Mum – Sue Starr – 51 – Cath Kidson addict and loves baking
Mills’s birthday – Valentine’s Day
Says ‘Holy Moly’ a lot
Her real name is Amelia
Salutes at magpies and is scared of crossed sticks
Into star signs
Lives in 21 Sycamore Park
Hiccups in her sleep
Fave food – choc brownies
Fave colour – pink
Collects stones from the beaches she’s visited
In 2O, Mr Olen’s class
This list goes on and on and on and on . . .

I won’t bore you with any more – but you get the idea. You should see the pages for Amy and Clover if you think Mills’s is looking long!

As well as being useful, it’s also fun. I only wish I could draw so I could sketch my characters too. I do envy the author/illustrators.

Anyway yesterday I found out that what I’ve been doing – my notebook of characters – is called a ‘series bible’. Great name, eh!

So folks, how’s your own series bible coming along? Start one now before you need one – it will make your writing life a whole lot easier, believe me.

Yours in writing,

Sarah X