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What a codex is, and whether you need one
The idea A codex is the bible of your world: the characters, places, things, factions, rules, events and maps, each with a page of its own, and each page knowing what is true where and when. Write keeps one per universe, so every series set in that world reads...
Put your series in a universe
Why a book has to belong somewhere A codex lives in a universe, and a book reads the codex through its series: if the series is in the universe, every book in it sees the codex, and every entry can say "this is true in book 3" by name. Until a series is in a u...
Make your first entries
Opening the codex From the Library, Manage → Codexes, then Open codex beside the universe. You'll land on a page with a search box in the middle and the entry types down the left—Characters, Places, Items, Factions, Rules, Events, Maps, Other, each with a coun...
The codex while you write
The Codex button In the editor's toolbar, beside Notes, there's Codex. Click it and a rail opens on the right with the heading In this scene: every codex entry whose name or alias appears in the scene you have open, the most-mentioned first, with a small ×coun...
Calendars and dates
Why the codex has calendars Some facts are only true for a while. A captain holds a rank until she's promoted; a city stands until it falls; a character is twelve in one book and forty in the next. To say when a fact applies, the codex needs a way to write dat...
What's true when and where
The problem a codex solves In book 1 the ship is called the Intrepid and Tanis is a lieutenant. By book 4 the ship has a new name and Tanis commands it. A spreadsheet gives you one cell per fact and makes you choose. The codex lets a field hold the general ans...
Your own types and fields
The built-in types are a starting point Every universe begins with Characters, Places, Items, Factions, Rules, Events, Maps and Other, each with a sensible handful of fields. Many worlds need more: ships, spells, species, clues, deities. The codex lets you add...
Find every mention in your books
What Mentions does Every entry page has a Mentions box. It searches your manuscripts for the entry's name and every alias, and lists each scene where one appears—so you can see every page a character walks through, every time a ship is named, every place a cit...
Notes that become codex entries
Start small You don't need a codex to keep track of a book. The notes panel in the editor is a perfectly good place for a character sheet, a map of the town, a list of rules you've made up—and notes have two things that make them a small codex of their own. Ta...