I've been stretching a lot today. The nice doctor man said I had to, to stop my calf shortening as it heals. Anyway, I've had the day off work and spent most of it lying flat on my back with the affected limb in an elevated position.

So, plenty of time to get some reading done. Nothing, as yet, on the character biographies. That said, there are a lot of things I meant to do this weekend which had to be postponed after yesterday. For example, Maisie needs a good clean - the northeast's roads being particularly claggy this time of year. But plastered in embarrassing filth she remains.

What I have started doing, though, is running through Ray Frensham's "background and setting" checklist. (Yes, yes, I know this sounds like writing by numbers, but it's a big help, and made all the difference on 'Them and Me' and 'Have You Ever Been To Vegas?'). Background's important because it's where the characters operate, and everyone's affected by their environment. It's also, often, where they come from - it's formed them. In some drama and fiction it's arguable that the setting is actually a character: we might call it pathetic fallacy, but the moors in 'Wuthering Heights' seem to have moods and almost human characteristics. Milton stresses the importance of the geography of hell in 'Paradise Lost'. Lester Burnham's primary co-actor in 'American Beauty' is small-town America, with all its foibles and prejudices.

Just realised I've put my teaching hat on - must be a result of being deprived of today's fix of patronising didacticism. Apologies: I'll shut up.