By Cynthia Light Brown
I submitted the first “act” of my upper middle grade urban
fantasy to my critique group, looking for high-level feedback (i.e., not line
edits, more story arc crit). One of my questions was whether there was any info
dumping. I had some sections with some necessary backstory, and had worked to
try to rid them of simply dumping information in long sections, and I wanted to
know if I had achieved my aims.
I hadn’t. Or at least, not enough. My readers had issues
with two of my sections. I’ve done some more trimming and tweaking, but I’m
taking a hard look at how I’m doing backtory, and I’m developing a working
hierarchy. My suggestions from least preferred to most preferred are below. (One
caveat: Except for the first level, which is always a bad idea, all of the
levels might work, depending on the story you’re writing.
1. Don’t Do
This! Have two people have a
conversation where one character tells the another character information that
is OBVIOUSLY just for the sake of the reader, because the other character
either knows it already, or should know it. (Just in case you’re wondering, I
at least wasn’t guilty of this.) This is NEVER a good way to impart needed
information.
2. Use a paragraph or more of exposition to explain
things. This is usually not a good idea, although there are certain stories
where it works.
3. Two or more characters have a conversation where
one tells the other information. If the dialogue is good, this can work, but
it’s best in small doses. I used this one a lot – too much.
4. Same as #3, but the characters are also doing
some thing at the same time that is interesting. This is a method recommended
in SAVE THE CAT. But that book is for screenwriting, and it’s easier to
distract with fun action in a movie. In a novel, the action can just get in the
way unless it’s connected to the actual conversation.
5. Show the backstory as much as possible. So if
you have a world with two species – one green humanoid and another purple
insectoid, don’t tell us. Simply reveal those species. This is almost always a
good method to use.
6. Sprinkle information throughout if possible.
7. Leave out the backstory. I thought I had pared
out all of the unnecessary info (and believe me, I had pared out a lot), but in
my rewrite I’m taking even more out. Take out so much that the reader is maybe
just a tad confused, then back in just enough so they’re not confused anymore.
EVERY story – not just fantasies – should have backstory that you never reveal
to the reader. If that’s not the case, then either you have dumped too much
info on your reader, or you don’t know enough about your plot and characters.
The reader may not need to know what town your character was born in or what
their middle name is, but you need to know.
So I’ve pared down my two info dump scenes, but I’m off to
do some major surgery too. At least one scene has to be completely re-done –
different setting, different set of people involved, different (more) action.
Other suggestions? Please comment if you have more thoughts
– I know I’m not the only one with info dump issues.
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