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I was curious how other authors handle when they have to give the reader a bunch of information so they can understand the story and the situation.
anybody?
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Comments
Couple idears
(1) break it up and feed it into the story organically, in small packages; and
(2) as much as possibly, use dialogue as a vehicle rather than exposition; and
(3) avoid the dreaded “Wall of text!”
Hugs,
Emma
You beat me to it.
Folks talking about what is going on ... how they feel expressed in what they say. Gosh.. why does this seem vaguely familiar?
Love, Andrea Lena
Sprinkles
Definitely sprinkles across those donuts. (Mmm...sugar!!)
It's always a challenge especially when writing multi-book series on how best to refresh the reader's memory of critical previous events without serving up bites of text too large to swallow all at once, but the same techniques apply to divulging backstory. Dialogue is an excellent choice, though with first person narration such can also naturally woven in.
Just don't drop frosting bombs...frosting is best when carefully layered atop the cakes!
Hmmm. I may be hungry...good thing dinner may have just arrived, hooray!
implication
Sometimes things things don't have to spelled out in detail. for example, just refer to an apprenticeship in assassination; let the reader assume any skills used were learned then without pages of explanation. Conversely, a character's memory of training or events can introduce facts that are needed. Quotations, real or fictional, at the heads of chapters are a common device.
I'm with Emma
A little at a time mostly in dialog. If need be another tool is a prologue. If there's something that the reader really must know before they even start reading, you can put it in a prologue. It kind of like an epilogue when you tie up loose end in the story to not leave the reader hanging. The prologue sets the stage for the story. A kind of mini prequel.
Something on the order of:
Then you simply tell a short tale of what got the protagonist or the narrator to the point of the first chapter of the story. It should have a beginning, a middle and an ending. It OK if the ending leaves the reader with questions that are unanswered. That's what the story is for to answer those questions posed in the prologue.
If you are in the middle of the story you can use flashbacks. See "Dear Ariel" Rylee Skye does a masterful job with that technique many times in the story.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
A long beginning 'info-dump' messed me up ...
It was a BC contest, where we were voting the winner(s).
One contest entry was all world-building, all setup ...
I read it, got confused, re-read it ... and tried a third time, looking for a >story<, looking for a >plot<, looking for >characters< ... and I kept coming up empty.
Sigh. I voted the story at the bottom of my list.
Only after the same author had posted a number of additional chapters - did I realize the world-building 'info-dump' was proportionate and appropriate to the >novel< they were writing.
And I was sufficiently embarrassed to apologize to the author for my "bad" voting ...
===
So, what other have said.
We can also have the characters in a history class ...
Or, one character asks another a question about something - and the second character answers, and tells us readers something we need to know. # The asker can be a 'youngling', and it's OK that they don't know.
Just leave it out
Think of the classic stories - they do no worldbuilding. We are presented with a family of bears who talk, live in a nicely furnished house, and cook porridge - are these the only civilized animals in this world? What do the bears do for a living to afford to own a house and buy grain? We don't know; all we're told is what's relevant, which is that they have a house with three of everything in it, and they're leaving it unlocked.
World without building
Well said, Jennifer!
Authors can, of course, write a detailed backstory and rationalisation if they really want to. Just don’t publish it – the same way you wouldn’t publish the timeline or the character sketches you made along the way.
Sugar and Spiiice – TG Fiction by Bryony Marsh
I feel it's essential
In my view, it is essential that the author have a solid understanding of the backstory for the tale they are writing. This is the foundation the plot line is built on and serves to guide the author in keeping his/her characters in character.
However just how much of that back story is revealed to the reader varies from story to story. When I reach a point in my story telling that is difficult to understand I use an aside to make part of the back story available to the reader. Something on the order of: He had always, from a young age, felt as if he didn't fit in with that group of kids.
What I don't tell them was that he also felt he didn't fit in with his family and that only his dog seemed to care whether or not he did. l also didn't tell them that he wanted to fit in with the other group so badly that he spent an inordinate amount of time studying what they did, how the did it and what they said about it.
Somewhere in the story it may come up that the reader needs to know some of that. A flash back or a conversation with some other character can reveal what's necessary. But again, not necessarily all.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Info Dumps
There are several excellent ideas for handling an info dump already given by the other commenters. I can't really expound much on what they have already said for the most part, I think they've all fairly well nailed it.
But, if for some reason you do feel the need to drop a bunch of info all at once, like Emma said, avoid the dreaded "wall of text". Break it up into smaller paragraphs to put some visual breaks into it. Your paragraphs should already have full on spaces between them, not just indents where a new one starts. And if you can break up the data into smaller chunks scattered in among some character dialog/action/interactions where the two fit together kinda like puzzle pieces would be even better. One can lead into the other which gives way to yet another.
- Leona
wot they said
but in addition, unless its pertinent to the plot, don't include too much in depth information. There are some authors who force feed you facts that you don't need to know and are just an excuse for them to showboat their 'superior' knowledge about subject A or process B (and not always correct at that!)
We don't get the technical manual for a warp drive in Star Trek or even why a towel is essential in the HHGTTG. the fact that the first works and you need the second is enough.
All of us soak up information supplied in small chunks much better than big lumps, so, much like fuelling for endurance sport, little and often is better than a huge plate. But don't starve the reader of information either, you can reference something without explaining it in minute detail, if something does require more explanation, do it once.
Treat the readers as equals.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Chekhov's Gun
I second this.
One of my favorite web comic authors once cited Chekhov's Gun: if you introduce some object, you have to use it in a significant (i.e. plot advancing) way in the next chapter or the one after that at the latest. This is one extreme point of view and may make more sense with plays for theater than for novels, but still … just include the amount of world building / character background necessary close to when it is actually needed.
Disagree...
I get what you’re saying – the story’s the thing... but we are told why the towel is essential – and it’s done in a very entertaining fashion. Exposition of this kind is part of the appeal of the HHGTG:
Sugar and Spiiice – TG Fiction by Bryony Marsh
Don't forget your beta readers; One college professor ...
... set an X-page limit on essays.
A bright red line in front of page X+1 and a bright red note of "I stopped reading here" got the students' attention that all of their top marks brilliance had to be within pages 1 through X.
Nobody wants bad (this is subjective) writing, except here: www.bulwer-lytton.com. A "cruel to be kind" beta reader will want to save all other BC-ers from such.
===
One time at work, I was called into the Test Lab to look at a misbehaving piece of code. I started groaning "Oh this is bad. This is so embarrassing. I missed this." and similar.
The System Testers solicitously asked "Why, did you write it?"
"No. I >Reviewed< it.
I always have info dumps when writing then kill them in editing
In my first draft, I'm trying to figure out the character myself, so I always include too much. When I edit, I'm more confident in my characterization and try to delete/move most of it to make it more organic. I have the most trouble dealing with things that happened before the story started. Do you use flashbacks? Or leave a trail of breadcrumbs hoping the reader figures it out.
It is fun for me as a writer to tell the reader paragraph after paragraph about the world I created, and this writing is good at reminding me what I was thinking at the time. In editing, I try to remind myself that if I include it, I'm doing it to stroke my own ego. 'Look at all of this backstory I've created for you!' If you're going to do it, I try to do it early in a prologue, with the understanding too much will drive away readers. Anything that doesn't help the story must go, but it's hard to kill your favorites.
Might it help to keep the infodump ...
In a separate file?
Then you/we (authors) have a backstory, a character reference file. And we don't have to strip it from our stories ... and miss some bits.
Then we (authors) avoid changing city names, characters' hair color, starship speeds, and other faux pas.
Special for BC: a boy name <=> girl name section.
And we still have our private copy of our 'great prose'.