Notes on Writing: Story Background

This will be a short note, it is getting late and I need my sleep. I have finished up the initial section of the book which presents the main characters and the initial story. This next section is made up of flashbacks for the main characters and provides some background for ideas that I describe in the first section and will continue to use in the rest of the book.

However, I suspect a lot of this content may not be used in the final version of the book because parts of it are really lectures from me about events. As a reader, I really dislike book sections where an author breaks out of the story and starts monologuing about their viewpoints. I prefer a subtler weaving of ideas as part of the story but it is tempting to pull out a soapbox and start spouting my ideas. In the final version, these ideas can provide the basis for the story and I plan to sprinkle the ideas in the book instead of simply bludgeoning the reader with my thoughts. I need to write these ideas out though so I can pull from them and revise the chapters for consistency with the ideas I write about in this chapter and the next ones for this section.

For example, in the first chapter I describe how Deidre uses her phone, now that I have a better idea of what the Trusted Internet is I can weave parts of that into her use of the phone. She might have a virtual reality device that allows her to see trust ratings for other people so when the power is out she is at a loss because she no longer has that tool to use.

Right now I’m not sure if I will have a background chapter for each of the main characters. ANd some of these chapters might stay in the final book, but it will be a while before I find out at the rate I’m going. At least my self imposed deadline is keeping my writing going, I am curious to see where I end up. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the next chapter where Marie explains about her ideas for a Trusted Internet infrastructure.