Writing Problems: Avoiding the Info Dump by Rebecca Seaton

 

Writing Problems: Avoiding the Info Dump by Rebecca Seaton

 

An info dump? Sounds painful?!

An info dump is the ‘dumping’ of a large chunk or chunks of information in a text.

Why should this be avoided?

By its nature, the info dump is clunky. This can put readers off as it’s dense and tedious to read. Unless you’re Tolkien, it isn’t generally very entertaining. I believe there are parallels with how God works with us. Although I would sometimes like to know more of God’s plan for my life, I have to accept His timing. While this can be frustrating, imagine what would happen if God revealed everything to us at once! Similarly, the author, who is essentially playing God with their reader, needs to reveal their world over time. We also don’t want to insult the reader by over explaining what they could easily pick up if threaded through the text.

                                                    

                                               A map is a guide but can also allow for twists and turns.

How can it be avoided?

Drip feeding information is important. I mostly write fantasy where the temptation to explain my carefully crafted world is very tempting. However, much as I could easily write a thirty page opening on the religious, political and cultural aspects of the world, this isn’t going to keep people reading! Instead, I need to release information like expensive oil from a bottle, a comment about dress here, a few lines about a key festival there. By the end of the first chapter of my first novel, the reader is in no doubt about the importance of religious and cultural ceremonies as well as some idea of how the society the main character lives in operates.

‘Show don’t tell’ is also a great way of getting information across. I don’t need to tell the reader how important following her gods is to my MC: her fears, adherence to rules and stress related to a key festival all convey that.

Let me tell you about my world...

It also helps if you can have a plausible reason for your characters to comment on surroundings themselves. In A Silent Song, my protagonist is banished from her native country. When she takes flight to a foreign land, it is natural for her to comment on and react to the differences there, highlighting these to the reader without labouring the point. I still think Home and Away is one of the best soaps around for the original premise of centering action around foster carers – easily laying a path for all manner of long-lost relatives and past secrets to come out in future episodes!

As with so much of writing, it comes back to thinking of your reader. If they are getting the necessary information whilst being absorbed in your world, then the writer has done their job. Avoiding the info dump means crediting your reader with enough brains to fill in the gaps and feel like they are on a journey with your character, not being given a list of information about them.

Rebecca writes fantasy novels and had her first novel, A Silent Song, published through Pen to Print’s Book Challenge competition. She is currently working on a new trilogy when not distracted by her  cat, who thinks keyboards are for sitting on and that rodents make an ideal present.