Because apparently, remembering what color someone’s eyes are shouldn’t be a full-time occupation.

Welcome back to the Cryptid’s Writing Lair.

This is The Crippled Cryptid reporting from the back table, Bed Jail™, the couch nest, or whichever soft surface has currently been declared headquarters.

Tonight, specifically, my desk.

And around here, writing rarely happens alone.

Luna is usually somewhere nearby, keeping one eye on me and one eye on whatever nonsense is happening in the Den.

Binka is learning that “settling while Mama writes” is a skill, although he remains unconvinced that wrestling with his sister is not technically part of the writing process.

Biscuits has recently joined the writing department, although his qualifications currently consist of purring, making biscuits, walking across keyboards, and attempting to steal whatever snack happens to be within reach.

There are dog-safe snacks being negotiated.

There is probably somebody asking what I’m doing.

And somewhere in the background, M&M is inevitably asking the question I have learned to expect:

“How’s your writing going?”

Sometimes followed by:

“Do you need anything?”

And then there’s the Yard Yeti.

Years ago, we joked that someday, when I became a famous author, I’d buy him an Impala.

Preferably one that looked suspiciously familiar.

We’re still waiting on the famous-author part.

The Impala remains pending.

But the dream is still sitting at the table with me.

Because that’s the thing about writing.

It isn’t just the words.

It’s the people who ask about the words.

The dogs who supervise them.

The cat who thinks the keyboard belongs to him.

The ridiculous jokes that somehow survive for years.

The dreams that started as “wouldn’t it be funny if…” and slowly become something you actually believe might happen.

And then, somehow, I look down and realize:

I wrote.

Not blog words.

Not caption words.

Not “please, insurance company, acknowledge that I am a human being” words.

Story words.

The kind that make me want to keep going.

The kind that remind me why I started.

The kind that prove the stories are still in here.

So, welcome to the Workbench.

Let’s see what we’re building this week.

📚 This Week on the Workbench: Story Bibles

We’re doing something a little different this week.

We’re not talking about starting word counts, ending word counts, daily goals, or how many thousands of words I managed to wrestle out of my brain.

This week, we’re talking about story bibles.

Specifically, why I make them, why I think they’re important, and why I have decided that my fictional characters are never going to be allowed to change eye colors without my knowledge and consent.

Because apparently, that’s something I need to worry about.

I’ve been reading a series recently, and I’ve encountered a particular problem more than once.

An author forgets what their own characters look like.

And I’m not talking about a minor detail that most people wouldn’t notice.

I’m talking about physical characteristics that have already been established in the story.

Eye colors changing.

Details being inconsistent.

Things that should be relatively easy to keep track of somehow becoming completely different a few books later.

And it pulls me right out of the story.

I don’t want to be two books into a series and suddenly discover that a character’s brown eyes are now gray.

I don’t want to have to stop reading and wonder whether I missed something, whether the character’s appearance changed intentionally, or whether the author simply forgot.

Because those little inconsistencies matter.

Readers notice things.

Especially when they’ve spent several hundred pages getting to know your characters.

I want to tell you what Addie looks like.

I want to know where her freckles are.

What color her eyes are.

Where her scars are.

What her hair looks like when she wakes up in the morning versus when she’s actually bothered to do something with it.

I want to know these things because they’re part of who she is.

And I don’t want to accidentally give her a completely different face halfway through her story.

So, I’ve started making story bibles.

For every story.

For every character.

For every book in a series.

And yes, that means if I’m writing a five-book series, there will be a character reference for each installment.

Because characters grow.

They change.

They get older.

They experience things.

They acquire scars, lose people, change their hairstyles, develop new habits, and sometimes become entirely different people from the ones we met in chapter one.

I want to document those changes.

I don’t want to confuse character development with continuity errors.

There’s a difference.

And that’s where the story bible comes in.

🐉 What Exactly Goes Into a Story Bible?

For me, a story bible is essentially the reference guide for everything that exists within a particular story or series.

It’s where I keep the details that I need to remember, even when I’m several books, dozens of chapters, or an unreasonable number of writing sessions away from when I originally established them.

Character profiles are a big part of that.

I want to know:

• Physical appearance: Eye color, hair color, skin tone, height, build, freckles, scars, birthmarks, distinguishing features, and anything else that makes the character recognizable.
• Personality: Their general disposition, temperament, sense of humor, habits, fears, strengths, weaknesses, and little quirks.
• History: Family relationships, important childhood experiences, significant events, and the things that shaped them into the people they are.
• Relationships: Who they know, how they know them, how those relationships evolve, and where everybody stands.
• Voice and mannerisms: How they speak, their vocabulary, expressions they use, how they move, and the little things that make their dialogue recognizable.
• Important story details: Secrets, motivations, abilities, possessions, injuries, promises, and anything else that might become relevant later.

And that’s just the character side of things.

A story bible can also contain worldbuilding information, locations, maps, timelines, family trees, cultural details, magic systems, important objects, and all the little pieces of information that make a fictional world feel like an actual place.

If something matters to the story, it deserves somewhere to live.

Especially if I’m going to need to remember it three books from now.

📖 One Book at a Time

Here’s something I think is particularly important when you’re writing a series.

Your characters shouldn’t necessarily have identical profiles in every book.

Because they’re not supposed to be identical people forever.

If I’m writing five books, I want to be able to look at the first book’s character profile and compare it to the fifth.

What changed?

What stayed the same?

What happened to them?

Did they develop a new scar?

Did their relationship with somebody change?

Did they lose a defining part of themselves, or discover something they didn’t know they had?

Did they grow?

Did they become more guarded, more confident, more compassionate, or perhaps a little more cynical?

Those things are worth documenting.

I want a record of who my characters were when readers first met them and who they’ve become by the time the final page arrives.

And I want to be able to look back at those records without having to reread five entire manuscripts just to figure out whether somebody was wearing a necklace in book two.

Because I have better things to do.

Like write book six.

Or eat something.

Probably both.

🖤 The Digital Copy AND the Physical Copy

Now, here’s where I get a little particular.

I have two copies of my story bible.

There’s the digital version on my laptop.

Digital copies are useful. They’re searchable, easy to update, easy to organize, and generally convenient.

But I also have a physical copy.

And not just any physical copy.

I have a black leather-covered TUL notebook.

The one I make with markers, highlighters, and the good pens.

The one that takes me at least three days to put together because I want every detail to be right.

And I love making it.

There’s something about physically writing everything down, organizing the pages, choosing the colors, and putting all those little details together that makes the information stick.

By the time I’ve finished putting the notebook together, I’ve practically memorized half of it.

Which is useful when I’m writing and need to remember something without having to stop and search through a dozen files.

But there’s another reason I do this.

I don’t entirely trust technology.

And before somebody tells me that I’m supposed to have backups, I KNOW.

I have backups.

I have the silver 1TB flash drive on my MacBook.

I have iCloud.

I have paper copies.

I have another flash drive.

And I have a backup of that backup tucked away somewhere safe.

I understand redundancy.

I’ve learned redundancy.

But I’ve also learned that sometimes technology decides to eat your homework, your manuscript, and approximately three years of your life.

And that brings me to something a little more personal.

💔 The Manuscript I Lost in 2012

When I was sixteen, I had a finished novel.

375,212 words.

Let that sink in for a second.

Three hundred and seventy-five thousand, two hundred and twelve words.

A wordcount that I still think of because, I know that I will never let myself forget the exact number.

I had written an entire novel on a Toshiba laptop.

And then the laptop crashed.

It didn’t survive.

Neither did my manuscript.

It was 2012, and I was absolutely heartbroken.

I had spent so much time on that story. I had characters, a world, an entire collection of words that I had poured myself into.

And suddenly, it was gone.

I almost stopped writing altogether.

I genuinely thought about giving it up.

If not for M&M, I probably would have.

She was one of the reasons I kept going when I really didn’t think I could.

And I’m still here.

Obviously, I didn’t stop writing forever.

But I did learn something.

I became a lot more particular about my tools, my backups, my writing supplies, and even my writing snacks.

Because I never want to experience that again.

And I never want to be sixteen-year-old me, staring at a broken laptop, wondering what the hell I’m supposed to do now.

So, I make the notebooks.

I keep the backups.

I write things down.

Not because I think technology is useless.

Not because I don’t trust myself.

But because I like having something tangible.

Something I can hold.

Something that exists outside of a laptop screen.

And honestly?

I do it for me.

And for that sixteen-year-old girl who thought she’d lost the thing she loved most.

We’re still writing, kiddo.

We didn’t give up.

✍️ The Actual Writing Process (Featuring Questionable Snacks)

Speaking of writing, let’s talk about what the Workbench currently looks like.

Tonight, I’m writing this on a Sunday evening.

I’m wrapped in a hoodie and my favorite flannel pajama pants.

I’ve got a bunch of Sour Patch Kids, Black Raspberry sparkling water, a cold pork tenderloin sandwich, and a whole lot of determination.

Biscuits is asleep in my lap.

Purring.

Making biscuits.

Being adorable.

And then periodically deciding that my desk, my keyboard, and everything I’m trying to accomplish are actually his personal playground.

I’ve put him down approximately a thousand times.

He keeps coming back.

He’s also trying to get into my Sour Patch Kids.

Which is a hard no, little sir.

We are not sharing those.

I have things to do.

I have a Wyrm Workbench to finish.

I have a post to schedule.

And I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow.

Which is precisely why I’m doing all of this tonight.

I’ve been sleeping in longer than I’d like lately, and I know there’s a very real possibility that I won’t be up early enough to put everything together tomorrow.

Add in the appointment, and I know I probably won’t have the mental capacity to sit down afterward and write a whole blog post.

So, I’m doing it early.

I’m finishing it.

I’m proofreading it.

I’m scheduling it to go out at the usual time.

All while watching Fire Country on Paramount+ because I’m actively trying not to binge-watch every new episode of Dexter that exists.

You know.

Priorities.

And tomorrow?

I’m making loaded potato soup.

Because apparently Illinois decided that we were skipping autumn and going directly into winter.

It went from October to cold-weather nonsense in the blink of a fucking eye.

And your ghoul is not handling the temperature change particularly well.

I want soup.

I want warm blankets.

And I want absolutely nothing to do with the outdoors.

Thank you.

🛠️ What’s Actually on the Workbench?

This week’s focus is a little different from our usual writing updates.

We’re working on the organizational side of writing.

The behind-the-scenes work that doesn’t necessarily add words to a manuscript but makes the actual writing process easier.

This week, I’m focusing on:

• Beginning or updating story bible notebooks.
• Creating character profiles with consistent physical descriptions.
• Establishing reference pages for each book in a series.
• Documenting character development and changes between installments.
• Keeping digital and physical references organized.
• Making sure the details I establish today are still the details I remember tomorrow.

Because sometimes the most important work you do for a story happens outside the manuscript itself.

And that’s okay.

Not every writing session has to end with another thousand words.

Sometimes you need to build the infrastructure that lets you write those thousand words later.

That’s what we’re doing this week.

🐾 A Few Notes from the Writing Department

Luna Notes 🐾

Luna Bean continues to provide professional writing supervision, medical alert services, and general perimeter security.

Her current responsibilities include making sure Mama takes breaks, reminding everyone that hydration exists, and monitoring the activities of the other members of the household.

She has not yet submitted her thoughts on the story bible.

However, she would like everyone to know that writing is important, but so is taking care of yourself.

Drink some water.

Take your medications as prescribed.

And remember to stretch when you can.

Moo Memos 🐄

Binka, also known as Blitzø, Professional Potato, and the household’s resident writing interruption, is still learning that Mama sitting at a desk does not automatically mean it’s time to play.

He remains unconvinced.

He would also like everyone to know that if you have a manuscript, you should probably keep it away from large puppy feet.

And if you have snacks, he would like to volunteer as quality control.

Purrgatory Notes 🐈

Biscuits has officially joined the writing department.

His current job description includes sleeping in Mama’s lap, purring loudly enough to qualify as background music, making biscuits, and occasionally walking across the keyboard to provide unsolicited editorial feedback.

He has also developed a particular interest in Sour Patch Kids.

Unfortunately for him, those are not kitten snacks.

He is, however, very pleased with his new position and would like everyone to know that the writing process is significantly improved when accompanied by a purring cat.

His editorial contributions remain questionable.

His morale contributions are excellent.

✨ That’s All For Now

And that’s what’s currently sitting on the Wyrm Workbench.

Some weeks, there are thousands of words.

Some weeks, there are revisions, research rabbit holes, stubborn characters, questionable plot decisions, and approximately seventeen tabs open that I swear are all important.

Some weeks, the biggest victory is simply opening the document.

And some weeks, the most important thing you can do for your story is make sure you don’t forget the details.

It all counts.

Because I’m learning that a writing life doesn’t have to look like the writing life I imagined when I was younger.

Sometimes it happens at a back table while a puppy learns how to settle.

Sometimes Luna is keeping watch.

Sometimes a kitten is purring in my lap and trying to eat my writing snacks.

Sometimes M&M asks how the writing is going before I even realize I needed someone to ask.

Sometimes the Yard Yeti is still waiting on that future Impala.

And sometimes I am just sitting here, writing anyway.

That’s the work.

Not always glamorous.

Not always productive.

Not always easy.

But still mine.

And if there’s one thing I want you to take away from this week’s Workbench, it’s this:

Protect your stories.

Back them up.

Write down the details.

Make the character profiles.

Keep the notebooks.

Give your fictional people somewhere to exist outside of your manuscript.

Because you put a lot of yourself into the things you create.

And those stories deserve to be looked after.

Whether you’re writing your first novel, working on a ten-book fantasy series, building an entire fictional universe, or just trying to get that one stubborn character to cooperate, I hope you give yourself permission to build the tools that make your writing life easier.

You don’t have to do everything at once.

You don’t need a beautiful leather notebook or seventeen different colored highlighters.

You don’t even need a particularly organized desk.

You just need something that works for you.

And if all you managed to do this week was open a notebook, write down a character’s eye color, and remember why you started creating in the first place?

That’s something.

A sentence counts.

A paragraph counts.

A terrible first draft counts.

Opening the document counts.

Starting again counts.

And sometimes, after everything your body, your brain, or the world has thrown at you, getting to say “I wrote today” is its own kind of magic.

Thank you for sitting with me at the Workbench.

Now go make something weird.

I’ll see you next week.

Love you. Now say it back.

– Sky

© The Crippled Cryptid

Still writing. Still weird. Still supervised.

🐾 Writing supervised by Luna, Medical Alert Service Dog & Full-Time Cryptid Perimeter Security

🐄 Additional supervision provided by Binka, Professional Puppy Distraction & Snack Negotiator

🐈 New editorial department member: Biscuits, Chief Purr Officer & Keyboard Menace

🔗 https://linktr.ee/skylanarissa

No pressure to donate. Reading, sharing, and existing alongside me is already enough.

If you want to support the long, unglamorous work of survival, mobility, and making things anyway:

💜 https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-skys-journey-to-health-and-mobility