By the third book in a series, you will have forgotten something. Perhaps it is the colour of a character's eyes, perhaps which side of the river the inn stood on, perhaps what exactly a charm costs the person who casts it. Readers will remember. Series readers read closely, and a continuity error in book three is the kind that gets quoted in a one-star review. This guide covers how to keep a series consistent: what to track, how to organize a series bible, how to handle things that legitimately change, how to catch errors, and how to link characters and worldbuilding between books in Quillen.
The short answer
Keep one source of truth for each thing that must stay constant: characters, the world, the timeline, the rules of magic or technology, and style choices. Update it as you write, not afterwards, and record changes with the book they happened in. In Quillen, you can mark a book as part of a series and link its characters and worldbuilding to the other books, so a change in one appears in all.
What to track
Series errors cluster in a few places. Track these deliberately:
| Area | What goes wrong | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| Characters | Appearance, age, speech and history drift | A profile for each recurring character, and when they change |
| World and places | Geography and customs shift between books | Entries for each place, with relationships between them |
| Rules and systems | Magic, technology or law bend to suit the plot | The rules, their costs and their limits |
| Timeline | Dates and ages stop adding up | A dated timeline of events across all books |
| Names and terms | Spellings and capitalization vary | A style sheet of names, terms and spellings |
| Open threads | Promises made in book one are forgotten | A list of unresolved questions and who knows what |
Build a series bible
A series bible is simply the collected record of everything above. It does not have to be elaborate. A good one is organized by thing (a page per character, per place, per rule) rather than by book, so you can find a fact without remembering where it appeared. Add to it as you write, in the same session, because the facts you invent mid-draft are the ones you forget fastest.
Handle change deliberately
Not everything should stay the same. Characters age, learn, lose limbs and change their minds, and places burn down. The distinction that matters is between deliberate change, which the reader sees happen, and accidental change, which the reader notices later. For each change, record what changed, the book and chapter, and the date in the story's timeline. In a character profile, it helps to note two states: how she is at the start of the series, and how she is now.
Plan for the character who is right for one book and wrong for another. A secondary character who appears in book one as a villain and book three as an ally needs a profile that can hold both, with the turn recorded.
Check as you go
- Before you draft a book, reread the bible entries for the characters and places that will appear.
- During drafting, note every new fact straight into the bible.
- After the draft, search the manuscript for names, ages and key terms and compare them with the bible.
- Before publishing, reread the final chapters of the previous book, because readers will.
- Keep a list of promises, things the story set up that must be paid off.
When to link and when to copy
Some information is shared across a series, such as the world, and some belongs to a single book, such as the situation a character is in. The same character can be the same person across all books while being in a different place, state and mood. This matters when you choose how your tools share information between books: shared facts should be linked, so a fix in one place appears everywhere, while book-specific facts should be kept separate.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | Problem | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Relying on memory | Facts drift across years of writing | Write every fact down as you invent it |
| Organizing the bible by book | Hard to find a single fact | Organize by character, place and rule |
| Changing the rules to suit the plot | Readers feel cheated | Record the rules, and test every scene against them |
| Not dating changes | Cannot tell the old character from the new | Record the book and date of each change |
| Copying instead of linking | Fixes have to be made in several places | Link shared information |
| Not rereading the last book | New errors against old facts | Reread the key chapters first |
Do it in Quillen
Quillen lets you mark a book as part of a series, and choose how information is shared with the other books in that series.
- Open the book and click Edit Details in the header.
- Tick "This book is part of a series". A panel opens with a Series menu. Choose an existing series, or choose Start a new series and give it a name.
- Attach another book if you have one. Under "A book that is already part of it (optional)", choose a book already in the series. Leave it at "None: this is the first book" if there is not one yet.
- Set the book's number. Under "Which book in the series is this?", enter its position.
- Choose how information is shared. Link information (recommended) means changes to the linked characters and lore in this book appear in the other linked books too. Import a copy, but don't link copies the information over once, and after that changes in one book don't affect the other.
- Pick what to link. You can link the world's lore (usually the same in every book) and the characters. Quillen notes that characters change over a series, so even when they are linked, any one of them can be made specific to this book later, from their profile.
- Click Save Changes. A book can only join a series of the same type, fiction or nonfiction.
Use the Lore section for places, world rules, economy and history, and the Characters section for people, so each has one home. See how to build a fantasy world and how to create a character profile.
Checklist
- One source of truth for characters, places, rules, timeline and names.
- Facts recorded as you invent them.
- Changes dated and tied to a book.
- Shared information linked; book-specific information separate.
- Key chapters of the previous book reread before drafting.
- A list of open threads and promises.
Common questions
What is a series bible?
A collected record of every fact that must stay consistent across a series: characters, places, rules, timeline, names and open threads, organized by thing rather than by book.
How do I link books in a series in Quillen?
Open Edit Details, tick 'This book is part of a series', choose or start a series, and choose Link information to share characters and lore across the linked books.
What is the difference between Link information and Import a copy?
Link information means changes to linked characters and lore appear in the other linked books. Import a copy copies the information once, and after that changes in one book do not affect the other.
Can a linked character be different in one book?
Yes. Quillen notes that characters change over a series, so even when linked, a character can be made specific to one book from their profile.
Can a book join a series of the other type?
No. A book can only join a series of the same book type, fiction or nonfiction.