{{Short description|Screenwriter's reference document used for information on a series}} {{For|the religious book|Bible}} [[File:Stephen Hillenburg by Carlos Cazurro.jpg|thumb|Cartoonist Stephen Hillenburg holding the bible of the animated series ''SpongeBob SquarePants'']] A '''bible''', also known as a '''show bible''' or '''pitch bible''', is a reference document used by screenwriters for information on characters, settings, and other elements of a television, film or video game project.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Nagel |first1=Jan |title=The Pitch Bible: Just The Essentials |url=https://www.awn.com/animationworld/pitch-bible-just-essentials |website=Animation World Network |access-date=2 October 2019 |language=en |date=27 December 2014}}</ref>
==Types== Bibles are updated with information on the characters after the information has been established on screen, scripts, or writer's notes.<ref name="Jane">{{cite web |last1=Espenson |first1=Jane |title=How to Give Maris Hives, Alphabetized |url=http://www.janeespenson.com/archives/00000550.php |website=JaneEspeson.com |access-date=2013-10-26 |date=2007-07-01}}</ref> For example, the ''Frasier'' show bible was "scrupulously maintained", and anything established on air — "the name of Frasier's mother, Niles' favorite professor, Martin's favorite bar...even a list of Maris' [dozens of] food allergies" — was reflected in the bible.<ref name="Jane"/> The updated bible then serves as a resource for writers to keep everything within the series consistent.<ref name="Jane"/>
Other bibles are used as sales documents to help a television network or studio understand a series, and are sometimes given to new writers when they join the writing staff for the same reason.<ref name="Jane"/> These types of bibles discuss the backstories of the main characters and the history of the series' fictional universe.<ref name="Jane"/>
Television series often rely on writers' assistants and script coordinators to serve as "walking bibles" in remembering details about a series.<ref name="Jane"/>
==Writers Guild of America== In the United States, writing the bible of a produced series earns that writer the 24 units of required credit necessary to qualify for membership in the Writers Guild of America.<ref>{{cite web |title=How to Become a Member |url=https://www.wga.org/the-guild/going-guild/join-the-guild |website=Writers Guild of America West |access-date=2020-07-07 |language=en}}</ref>
==See also== * Canon (fiction) * Prompt-book * Institutional memory
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.writeyourscreenplay.com/podcast-how-to-write-tv-bible/ How to Write a TV Bible] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Bible (Writing)}} Category:Continuity (fiction) Category:Reference works Category:Television terminology