The StoryGuide Scriptures are my attempt to make a version of the scriptures in which the typesetting and layout of the text reflects the internal literary structure and organization that the original authors used. In other words, I’m trying to recreate the outline that the prophets had in mind as they wrote, depicting it through such features as paragraphs, headings, and shaded boxes (read below for a more detailed description).
You can download here the current draft of each book. The drafts are currently messy and in various stages of incompleteness, but I’ve posted them due to repeated requests, so that others can benefit from them while waiting for me to finish the final versions.
| Hardbound Print Volume | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Book of Mormon | |||
| 1 Nephi Book of Mormon, Draft 1.x Sample But misaligned parallel bars |
21 Jul 2014 | ||
| 1 Nephi 20 parallel Isaiah 48 Book of Mormon, Draft 1.x Sample Example of parallel bars |
24 Mar 2012 | ||
| 2 Nephi 26–27 parallel Isaiah 29 Book of Mormon, Draft 1.x Sample Example of parallel bars |
9 Oct 2013 | ||
| Book of Mormon, Draft 1 But very messy, unusable running headers, etc. |
13 Sep 2012 | ||
| Doctrine and Covenants | |||
| D&C 1–40 (New York period) Doctrine and Covenants, Draft 3.x Sample Includes historical narratives between each section Blog post |
May 2020 | ||
| Doctrine and Covenants, Draft 3 Added historical summaries under each unit heading; removed timelines |
26 Apr 2015 | ||
| Doctrine and Covenants, Draft 2 Blog post |
4 Sep 2012 |  Order a copy |
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| Pearl of Great Price | |||
| Pearl of Great Price, Draft 3 But misaligned parallel bars and shaded boxes, etc. Changed color coding of speech |
May 2020 | ||
| Pearl of Great Price, Draft 2 | 4 May 2012 |  Order a copy |
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I try to emphasize the internal structure of the scriptures primarily by minimizing the chapter and verse divisions and maximizing the original divisions—using various typographical features such as paragraphing instead of verse breaks, multi-layered headings, coloring any spoken dialogue, digressions in shaded boxes, symbols indicating diverging narratives, bars alongside the text indicating parallel passages, occasional explanatory footnotes, etc. The text itself is the same as standard LDS editions; only the layout has been changed. My hope is that this edition makes the scriptures easier to read and understand. (Note: I previously referred to this project as the Structured Edition, so you may see some places where that term is used.)
 | Click here to join my StoryGuide Facebook page, where you can receive updates or suggest improvements. |
If you’d like to try your hand at making your own custom version of the scriptures, see my Do-It-Yourself Scriptures page where you can download the Microsoft Word files of each book of scripture to get started.
Related Blog Posts
| Redesigned Scriptures Project. An explanation of multiple endeavors that all involve redesigning the layout of the scriptures so that reading them is easier and more understandable, including ideas for doing this on your own. |
| Structured Edition of the Pearl of Great Price, Draft 1. A detailed explanation of the current draft, as well as some insights that can be drawn from it. |
For D&C 20:80, there is a note as to whether to include the additional information in the “StoryGuide Scriptures.” I would request that such items be left—they are invaluable insights and are appreciated! Thank you for your hard work and diligence.
I’m happy to know people are reading through it so carefully. Yes, it is a very difficult judgment call to make, which insights to include in the footnotes. I have to whittle down the footnotes to a manageable number, but I wish I could include everything. Thank you for letting me know what readers are interested in.
Wow what a tremendous project very useful!