# Example Bible Excerpts

Show these to the user when their answers are too vague, or when they ask "what should this look like." These are density-and-shape references — the level of specificity the bible needs to hit.

All examples come from a fictional demo bible (working title: **HOLLOWTIDE**, a folk-horror ensemble set in a coastal fishing town). It's invented purely for calibration. Use it to show the format, then pivot back to the user's own story.

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## Example — One-line premise

> *"In a fog-locked fishing town where the tide brings something back every full moon, four estranged siblings return home for their mother's funeral and find out she was the last thing keeping it at bay."*

Not one sentence exactly, but the shape is right — setup, protagonist role, engine, twist.

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## Example — Thesis

> *"HOLLOWTIDE is a story about what a family owes a place, and what a place owes a family. Every chapter is some version of one question: **What do you inherit that you never agreed to?**"*

Thesis works when it collapses to a single question every scene answers.

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## Example — Aesthetic era differentiation

Notice how each era gets a distinct visual signature, not just a mood:

> *"- **1962 (flashback era)** — grainy Kodachrome, warm ambers, salt-stained wood, kerosene lamplight, low sun through fog*
> *- **Present day (main timeline)** — desaturated grays and mossy greens, wet stone, sodium streetlight cutting through mist, long lens compression*
> *- **The Tideward (the thing beneath)** — inverted palette, bioluminescent teal against total black, wet reflective surfaces, no natural light ever"*

Each line is copy-paste-ready as the environmental anchor for a scene prompt in that era.

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## Example — Faction

> *"**The Harbor Council.** The seven oldest families of the town, meeting monthly in the salt-house on the pier. They own the docks, the cannery, the ferry, and every business that touches the water. They present as civic stewards — parades, memorials, scholarships. Underneath: they enforce the tide-pacts. Every generation, one member of one family goes into the water on the last night of the year. The town has voted in that death since 1798. No one outside the seven families knows. Fighting the Harbor Council means fighting the town's memory of itself."*

Faction blocks work when they cover: what they own or do, what they believe, how they present publicly, the gap between public and actual, and why they're hard to fight.

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## Example — Location

> *"**The salt-house.** A century-old wooden structure at the end of the longest pier, built on stilts sunk into bedrock. Interior: raw plank walls, tallow candles in iron holders, a single long table, seven chairs, no electricity. The council meets here monthly. Nothing has been added, removed, or repaired in ninety years — anything that breaks, stays broken. The floor sags. The candles smoke. The building holds."*

Location works when it has: what it is (function), specific visual tags for prompts, and one poetic line that captures the feel ("The building holds.").

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## Example — Character section

```
### MAREN — *The Eldest*

**Visual:** Ash-blonde hair, cropped short and uneven, like she cut it herself. Cool fair skin, freckled across the nose and cheekbones. Sharp square jaw, straight nose, thin unpainted lips. Gray-green eyes, downturned at the outer corner, deep set. Small silver ring in the left earlobe, worn since 16. Tall, wiry build, hands too big for her wrists. Default expression: watchful, jaw slightly set. No teeth-showing smile.

**Function:** The one who left and stayed gone. Represents refusal — the sibling who tried to break inheritance by walking away. Learns across the story that walking away is not the same as being free.

**Backstory:** Left town at 19, twelve years ago. Works as a paramedic three states over. Has not spoken to her mother in eight years and to her siblings in three. Came home only when the estate lawyer called. Once, at 15, saw something in the water she has never told anyone about.

**Present-tense psychology:** Braced. Wearing the same jacket she left in twelve years ago because she didn't pack for staying. Carrying the certainty that if she doesn't get out by the funeral, she never will. About to be handed a document that requires her signature to leave.

**Speech:** "low mid-register voice with dry contained tone, quiet volume, short precise sentences, deliberate pausing before answering, plainspoken practical vocabulary, never raises her voice"

**Movement:** "economical gestures, weight settled and grounded, walks with a slight limp in the left leg she doesn't acknowledge, keeps her hands in her jacket pockets when idle"

**Stillness:** "settled watchful stillness, weight evenly distributed, hands in pockets, shoulders slightly raised, jaw set, eyes level and unblinking"

**The signing:** When the lawyer slides the paper across the table, her hand moves before her face does. She signs. She does not look up. She knows before her siblings know that the document is not what they were told it is.
```

That's the density. Every section is one to three lines. Every quoted descriptor is prompt-ready. Every backstory beat is specific ("wearing the same jacket she left in twelve years ago because she didn't pack for staying" — not "she doesn't want to be here").

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## Example — Ensemble dynamics

> *"**Among the siblings:** Maren leads by refusing to. Owen fills every silence with something practical. Iris asks the question everyone else is avoiding. Wren watches the other three and reports back to no one.*
>
> ***Pairings:** Maren and Wren are the quietest room in the house — neither fills space, both notice everything. Owen and Iris cannot be in the same kitchen without one of them leaving. Maren and Owen fight in complete sentences. Wren has not spoken to Owen since 2019."*

Ensemble dynamics work when they name the *feel* of specific pairings and groupings, not just the relationships.

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## Example — Structural engine

> *"1. **The council meeting** — a Harbor Council session, always in the salt-house, always at night. A vote is taken. Someone loses.*
> *2. **The tide chapter** — a full-moon night. The Tideward comes closest to surface. Rules of the world bend. Combat, if any, lives here.*
> *3. **The confession chapter** — one sibling tells one other sibling one thing. Whole story shifts."*

Engines work when each is a shape (not a plot), and the user can mix and match them for new chapters.

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## Example — Production rule

> *"**Locked physical traits, never omitted:***
> *- Maren: ash-blonde uneven crop, small silver earring left ear, slight limp*
> *- Owen: always wearing his father's watch, band cracked, still worn*
> *- All four siblings: cool fair freckled skin (never tan, never porcelain)*
> *- All four siblings: no teeth-showing smiles — default expression is watchful, closed-lip"*

Production rules work when they include the "never" clause. What's excluded is as important as what's included.

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## The universal signal

Every section should pass this test: **could a stranger who has never heard of this story write a scene in it, using only this bible, and get it right?**

If yes, the section is dense enough. If no, keep pushing.
