The story behind the story.

 Backstory. 

Every book has one. 

Sometimes they are more visible than others. Writers are warned against the 'info dump'  - leaving a pile of  background information lying in a heap at the beginning of a novel. Information should be released slowly and carefully, threaded through the narrative like a string of jewels. Hah! I'm getting poetic! 

Basically, let the information out slowly. 

Except when you don't let it out at all. 

Sometimes the backstory is something the author needs to know, but it doesn't have to be revealed to the reader - or only in the most subtle way. It helps the writer, but it's not part of the story they are currently telling.

I had one in A Villa in Portofino. Megan inherits property from her great aunt who disappeared from the family records after the war. A little of the story of how this came about appears in the novel, but not the whole thing. I know exactly how it came about, and how she met and fell in love with an Italian Prisoner of War and then eloped with him. I've told myself I might write that love affair as a short story one day. Maybe. The idea came from a tiny detail about POWs that I found in the Council records when I was researching the PhD. 

And it seems to be happening again for the WIP. I'm not sure yet but as part of my research I'm delving into the history of Tarot cards, by way of an evening course at the university. The origin of the cards, and the beautiful hand painted ones that were produced by artists for ducal courts in 15th century Italy has attached itself to an idea that I was already working with for the book. 

It's not fully formed yet. but I have that faint tingling up the spine that happens when I know something is organising itself in my head. Will it be part of the book? In an overt form, I don't think so. But it is giving shape to something that was already there.

It's a buzz that comes from the creative process. It's one of the reasons that I write.