The world that the novels are set in was originally to be a very minor part of the story. Nothing more than a setting. But the more I developed the story, the more I realised that I couldn’t leave it in the background, but instead, the plot needed to be focussed around the world as well as the relationships between characters.
I knew that I had to develop the story of the world even though a lot of it never entered the book. Part of it was told in the storyline of Willow and Bracken’s parents, but a lot of it wasn’t. It’s all background information that you need to know, but your readers may not. Using my tried and true method of recording random thoughts, the timeline and development of Nuovo, the Establishment, the Mudders and the Rebels came to light.
We’ve all seen the movies, read the books and articles of where the world could head if we do not look after our planet. The horror stories of the results of genetic modification. The terrors of global warming and natural disasters. And the scariest thought of all it is that it could happen quickly. Although I didn’t map out the specifics of the events which led to the world’s inability to sustain life, they are what occurred during Dune, Jake, Skylark, and Falcon’s earlier years. Hunger became the world’s number one killer. At first, when the big companies failed to provide food, people turned to old fashioned gardening, and farming what land was still fertile. But this led to fighting and looting and everything began to fall apart. One developer, Mr Rhinehart, came up with the solution of nutrition pills, and they, along with sustain and water, were able to provide a healthy life. People were still hungry, but not in need of food. A company took Mr Rhinehart under their wing, and this company then morphed into The Establishment; a collection of companies that quickly became the single highest source of power as it had the one thing people needed most. Nutrition. From there, they dreamed up cities that lived separate from nature, which enabled them to strip the earth for profit at the same time as claiming to save it. But with the rise of the Establishment also came the people that opposed it. They tried to thwart the Establishment, because of all the laws they had made to stop people farming their own food, and their desire to make people fully dependent on a coalition of companies. They attacked the construction of the dome, and the Establishment responded by forming their own army of Guardians. They turned people against each other by claiming the people that opposed them did not wish to save the planet.

This was all developed in my mind and scribble down in various forms until I had a clear understanding of the world. Once this was sorted, it helped with plot development and the motivation behind a lot of the characters choices.
I even wrote a creed of sorts that belonged to Nuovo, which also explains the origin behind the naming of the Mudders.

Chaos reigned.
People were starving.
Ours was a world based on greed.
Once nature and man had set their course,
The land was left devastated in their wake.
With food gone, hunger set in.
Society as we knew it, ceased to exist.

Man rose against beast. Man rose against man.
Man became beast.

The dawn of the Establishment brought the end of poverty and hunger.
In their place it created order, industry, and protection.

But the rise of every empire, brings a wave of opposition. The Rebels.
They embraced the chaos, embraced the fight for survival.
“Give us our land,” they shouted. “Let us roll about in the mud from whence we came.”

Polluted as it was, we vowed to protect the land. And with the defeat of the Rebels, Nuovo stood.
A symbol of life, untouched by nature.

We created our world anew . . .
Founded on Equality. Preservation. Sustainability.

The next post will be published on 27th August.

Behind the Glass | Dreaming | Characters

*If you haven’t read Girl Behind Glass yet, it is currently free in the Kindle store – http://goo.gl/KUGZrA