# Story Bible example: The Spare Key

An invented mystery for trying the accompanying guide. Keep it separate from your own story.

Try the exercise in the guide before changing anything. Use the five sections below as five notes, or keep them together in this file.

## 1. Story overview

Fictional example: The Spare Key. Keep this example separate from your own story.

### Premise

Nora Vale returns to her late aunt Mara's house to catalogue the belongings. Her neighbour Eli Ward offers to help. His familiarity with the house does not fit what he has told her.

### Current work

The spare key scene in chapter 5. Its wording is a draft. Use Timeline for the scene date and the events around it.

### Viewpoint and scope

Close third person from Nora's perspective, in the past tense. Reader-facing prose stays within what Nora can perceive or know. Author-facing discussion may cover hidden history.

Review continuity before rewriting. A detail missing from the reference remains unresolved.

### Boundaries

Eli's denial and his knowledge of the key are an intentional clue. His motive remains undecided. A brainstorm is not story history.

### Where the facts live

Characters holds identity, birth dates and character knowledge. Timeline holds event dates, reader order and the current reveal plan. Intentional clues holds the key's purpose, location and the contradiction to preserve. Ideas and decisions holds possibilities and pointers to approved decisions.

Flag a conflict between the draft and reference for the author rather than silently changing either.

## 2. Characters

Fictional example: The Spare Key. These characters belong only to the example.

### Nora Vale

**Established identity:** Mara's niece.

**Birth date:** 17 June 1988.

**At the start of the key scene:** She has heard Eli claim he has never been inside the house. She has not learned about his earlier visit.

**At the end of the planned key scene:** She has noticed that Eli knows where the spare key is. She questions his denial, but has not established when he visited, why he was there or why he lied.

### Eli Ward

**Established identity:** A neighbour who knew Mara.

**Birth date:** 4 November 1984.

**Author's established truth:** He has been inside the house before. See Timeline for the event. He knows where the spare key is; its purpose and location are in Intentional clues.

**Claim made to Nora:** He says he has never been inside. This conflicts with the established history on purpose.

**What he knows during the key scene:** He knows about his own visit and the key. His knowledge of Nora's other discoveries is not established.

**Not established:** His reason for lying.

### Mara Vale

**Established identity:** Nora's late aunt and the former resident of the house. She knew Eli and showed him the key during his visit.

**Not established:** Her birth date, date of death or involvement in any crime.

## 3. Timeline

Fictional example: The Spare Key. This note holds event dates and the current reveal plan. Birth dates belong in Characters.

### Events in story order

| Story date | Event | Status | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 15 July 2007 | Eli visits Mara inside the house. She shows him the spare key. Nora is not present. | Established hidden history. | Approved background. |
| 10 October 2025 | Eli tells Nora he has never been inside the house. | Established dialogue, not a true account of his past. | Chapter 2. |
| 12 October 2025 | Eli identifies the key's location while helping Nora. She notices his familiarity. | Approved event; scene wording is a draft. | Chapter 5 plan and Intentional clues. |

### What the reader learns, in reading order

| Chapter | Information available to the reader | Status |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 2 | Eli claims he has never entered the house. | Established scene. |
| 5 | Eli knows the key's location, giving Nora reason to question him. | Approved scene plan; wording in progress. |
| 9 | Eli visited Mara in 2007. | Current approved reveal plan; not yet a written scene. Its date within the story is not set. |

The reveal plan says when the reader learns about the visit, not when the visit happened.

### Revisions to the plan

No revisions recorded.

## 4. Intentional clues

Fictional example: The Spare Key.

### Eli knows where the key is

**Established object detail:** The spare key opens the locked garden shed. It is kept in a blue tin on the top pantry shelf inside the house. This is its current location and the place Mara showed Eli during the visit in Timeline.

**Setup:** In chapter 2, Eli tells Nora that he has never been inside the house.

**Apparent contradiction:** In chapter 5, he identifies the key's location without Nora telling him.

**Purpose:** Give Nora and the reader a reason to question his denial. The clue does not establish a motive or prove a theft.

**Preserve:** His denial and his knowledge of the key.

**Do not reveal yet:** The earlier visit, before the planned reveal in Timeline. Follow Characters for Nora's knowledge in reader-facing prose.

**What would be an error:** Erasing the denial or the key knowledge to make them agree; explaining the hidden history too early.

**Unresolved:** Why Eli lied.

An author-facing review can discuss the hidden visit. A reader-facing revision must respect Nora's knowledge and the reveal plan.

## 5. Ideas and decisions

Fictional example: The Spare Key.

### Possibilities, not established facts

| Idea | Status | What remains to decide |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Perhaps Eli stole something from the house. | Brainstorm only. | Whether there was a theft at all, and whether Eli was involved. |
| Perhaps Mara asked him to keep something private. | Brainstorm only. | Whether this happened and what the secret would be. |
| Perhaps Nora heard a rumour about Eli before she returned. | Brainstorm only. | Whether to include it and when she learns it. |

These are alternatives, not pieces of an established explanation.

### Approved decisions and their homes

| Decision | Reason | Current reference |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Keep the denial and the key knowledge. | Nora should notice something before she can explain it. | Intentional clues. |
| Separate reader order from story order. | Delaying the reveal must not move the actual visit. | Timeline. |
| Review from Nora's perspective. | Narration should not explain what she has not learned. | Story overview and Characters. |

Store changes to the reveal plan in Timeline, including its revision entry. Do not keep a second reveal chapter here.

### When an idea is approved

Save only the specific change the author requests. Update its main reference, record the reason and leave unrelated ideas undecided. A discussion alone is not approval to change the reference.