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Hmmm... on the backstory... it's always tricky. I would say, if you can, pick the most salient points and work them in early, maybe as flashbacks. Then when the reader's hooked, give it to us in larger chunks.

Who does this well? Drat, I know someone I should be mentioning. Obviously no one does it that well! Have you ever read Tad Williams' (brilliant, wonderful) Otherland series? It's not exactly what you want, but it has a number of different characters whose stories get told over time.

Does that help? I'm struggling with "make something happen, everyone's just talking", myself.

Does that help? I'm struggling with "make something happen, everyone's just talking", myself.

Thanks, that helps some--fits with the advice I'm getting from Ben Bova's book on writing SF, which I'm reading now for tips. On the thing you're struggling with, there's some good discussion of that in Monica Wood, Description, Chapters 2 and 4. If you can't find it in your library/bookstore I can write up a summary for you--should probably review that myself anyway. Offhand a couple things I'd suggest are 1) make the talking relate to the action and 2) when people are talking, whenever possible describe them as moving rather than sitting still--like for instance they might be travelling in a car between scenes; this is something I do in my novel so that there's still a sense of motion/progress even during dialogue.