B is for Background – Getting it right #AtoZChallenge2021

Background in the third of a series is vitally important. Especially when you discover it’s several years since you published book 2. This year’s AtoZChallenge is mainly about my writing, and my Work In Progress, a science fiction adventure called Zanzibar’s Rings, that I’m logging at CampNaNoWriMo.

Background detail long forgotten

So, I knew all my main protagonists, and who they were. I knew what I wanted to happen, and several twists and turns along the way. But I hadn’t got to the end of the second page before I realised I’d forgotten all the detail of the previous books.

• names of the protagonist’s sister , let alone her family
• how many refugees were airlifted and relocated
• the need to keep the refugee’s place of origin secret from the antagonist
• the name of the planet that specialised in seed growing (and other agricultural things)
• the terminology for various space artefacts
• the names of the council members on the home planet

And that is just in the first chapter. I got so fed up with this, and worrying about plot points as I wrote them, that I spent last weekend rereading the two previous books. Oh, skimming parts of them that weren’t relevant to this book, yes, but … If you write, do you find yourself getting to a point where you’re reading it because you’re enjoying it?

I found I hadn’t noted any of the character names and these terminology and peculiarities in my datasheet – or bible, as it is also known. How had I written the previous book without that? Or… had I lost the update and was working from a previous version? I wrote the previous two books in the series on a different computer, after all. No matter, it’s up to date now.

Wordcount

So while I’d hoped to start this month at 20,000 words, I was a little short. But not much. And it only makes a difference of about 100 words per day.

And I start today at…. 19,993!

Yesterday I showed you the starting point and the daily total required. I’m updating it in the progress bar (#amwriting) at the foot of the page. So far, so good!