I know this has been covered, but I am stuck and would love some input. How do you avoid the info-dump when introducing a new character? Namely, where the character's background and career are important to the plot, and need to be revealed pretty quickly after the initial introduction. Info dump, info dump, info dump. Ugh.
Avoiding the dreaded info-dump
- Thread starter MsGneiss
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I don't.
If it's important to the plot, it'll come out naturally.
For instance, I've only just found out, 97k into my WIP, that one of my female MCs is adopted. It's important to her and explains a lot, but the information only emerged as I wrote it last night.
If it's essential to the story it'll come out when it's ready. And not every little thing needs to be spoon-fed to the reader. A little ambiguity leaves them room to think for themselves.
If it's important to the plot, it'll come out naturally.
For instance, I've only just found out, 97k into my WIP, that one of my female MCs is adopted. It's important to her and explains a lot, but the information only emerged as I wrote it last night.
If it's essential to the story it'll come out when it's ready. And not every little thing needs to be spoon-fed to the reader. A little ambiguity leaves them room to think for themselves.
By always giving readers credit. Readers are intelligent creatures and can manage to follow along without being spoonfed every piece of information about a character that resides in the writer's head. Bring readers on your journey with you; don't just thrust information at them and say "here."
If what she does is important, show her at work (though you still have to male sure you have all the necessary story elements--goal, plots, stakes, etc). If her background is important, show her in a situation where that information is revealed. If she used to be a bank robber, she picks up the paper and sees her old crew was just arrested robbing the Savings and Loan, for example.
I have found that if I'm unsure about information, I leave it out. If the story needs more to be understood, my beta readers will tell me when and where and then I can add it. The more I do this, the more I see just how little I can say and the story doesn't suffer. And most of the time, readers want to know more much later in the story, after they already care about the character and their problem.
A lot of times, the backgrounds and historys mean a lot more to us authors than it does our readers.
I have found that if I'm unsure about information, I leave it out. If the story needs more to be understood, my beta readers will tell me when and where and then I can add it. The more I do this, the more I see just how little I can say and the story doesn't suffer. And most of the time, readers want to know more much later in the story, after they already care about the character and their problem.
A lot of times, the backgrounds and historys mean a lot more to us authors than it does our readers.
Info dumps stall the story. Two sentences that tell you a what the MC does for a living is not an info dump. Six paragraphs expounding on the entire history of her career at Law Agency X and the people she works with can be an info dump.
How do the other books you've read recently handle the reveal of information?
How do the other books you've read recently handle the reveal of information?
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Reveal the information when the readers need to know, and find a natural way (plot, dialogue, etc.) to reveal it. Remember, just because you know something about the character doesn't mean the readers need to know immediately.
Imagine being at a party and you just met someone new. You don't get to know everything about them, but the information will trickle in as you continue your conversation. Or maybe something else happens and you find out more about that person. You piece all the information together to get a better picture. Rarely do you hear the whole life story (infodump) of the person you just meet. And if he or she is infodumping, chances are you will be finding an excuse to leave the conversation.
So don't let your readers find an excuse to leave your book.
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It's quite interesting how little you need to tell the reader for them to 'get' it. For example if I wanted my readers to know where my character is...
example1:
Bill awoke in a dark, dank dungeon to the sound of a prisoner screaming in another cell.
example2:
Bill awoke in a room made of damp bricks on three sides and a damp cobbled floor littered with straw and stinking of faeces. On the fourth side were metal bars which looked out onto a hallway and other similar rooms to his. The walls had rusting hoops of metal and thick links of chain from which all manner of torture instruments dangled. From one of the other cells he could hear a prisoner screaming.....
Okay pretty raw examples there, but the point is Example 1 will pretty much evoke the same images in the reader's mind as Example 2. There really is so much you don't need to bore a reader with.
example1:
Bill awoke in a dark, dank dungeon to the sound of a prisoner screaming in another cell.
example2:
Bill awoke in a room made of damp bricks on three sides and a damp cobbled floor littered with straw and stinking of faeces. On the fourth side were metal bars which looked out onto a hallway and other similar rooms to his. The walls had rusting hoops of metal and thick links of chain from which all manner of torture instruments dangled. From one of the other cells he could hear a prisoner screaming.....
Okay pretty raw examples there, but the point is Example 1 will pretty much evoke the same images in the reader's mind as Example 2. There really is so much you don't need to bore a reader with.
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Footnotes. Put all the info in footnotes at the back of the book and little numbers where you want iinfo.
In fact, you don't even really need the stuff at the end, nobody reads footnotes anyway.
In fact, you don't even really need the stuff at the end, nobody reads footnotes anyway.
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I disagree. I tend to withhold a lot of information myself, but you can't always avoid it. Using dialogue to expose background information is usually a bad idea though, unless you have the skill to pull it off without interrupting the flow of the story.
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Whenever I try to expose the information through dialogue, it always seems so forced and campy.
If you can't cram the information in through dialogue or exposition doesn't that tell you you probably don't need it?
Leave things implied. Allow a character's "character" show me who they are. If Joe is traumatized by his experiences in a war, you don't need to say "Joe is traumatized by his experiences in the war," make him stutter, or appear anxious a lot, or claustrophobic while riding a subway car in through a dark tunnel and have him freak out. Show who your characters are, so I can make up my own mind about them. If you just tell me "Sam is sad," what do I actually get out of that? What is sad? What do I see in that? I see a word--SAD. Nothing else. I don't give a damn about him. Show that he's sad, or troubled, or hard-nosed, and allow me to decide on my own, and maybe I'll actually start caring about what happens to him/her.
Long answer short...to avoid an info dump, simply don't write one. Show, don't tell, who and what your characters are.
EDIT: I just read the part about you saying that information needs to be revealed quickly after a character's introduction...WRONG. Not right. We don't NEED to know anything about a character immediately. Allow their actions, attitude, speech patterns, mannerisms, etc. to reveal these things to us. Imply, imply, imply. Readers aren't as stupid as we like to think sometimes.
Long answer short...to avoid an info dump, simply don't write one. Show, don't tell, who and what your characters are.
EDIT: I just read the part about you saying that information needs to be revealed quickly after a character's introduction...WRONG. Not right. We don't NEED to know anything about a character immediately. Allow their actions, attitude, speech patterns, mannerisms, etc. to reveal these things to us. Imply, imply, imply. Readers aren't as stupid as we like to think sometimes.
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Foreshadow some of the details in earlier scenes.
Give a character a strong reason to say or think briefly about one or two details that you want to express.
Give a character a strong reason to ask about one or two details of the character's background. "Hey, aren't you that ambulance chaser I see on TV at 3 am?"
Find one or two essential, evocative details (ones that suggest things that you want the reader to know), and give those.
Pick a detail that you're pretty sure is important and leave it out. See if anyone notices.
Trust readers to infer some of the details from the character's actions and from other characters' reactions.
Dale
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As an exercise, try writing nothing except dialog and action and maybe some bits of description and/or reflection, with no breaks for information dumping anywhere. See how it reads, and ask yourself if you really need the infodumps.
This is dangerous, though. Because sometimes info-dumps come out naturally, but don't need to be there.
I say to keep it to the bare minimum. Readers are smart. They have imaginations of their own. Let them use 'em.
That's not to say, have no description/background info/what-have-you, but keep it small . . .d&f.
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Maestro brought up a very good point. Introductions can give a touch of information, without being an info dump.
"Bob, I want you to meet JoAnne. She's a trial lawyer at Muckity, Muck & Muck."
And then as Bob gets to know JoAnne, he can find out how she hates her job, and all the corruption, and she really wants to do pro bono work to help kids. As maestro said, you want just enough to get the conversation started. But there's nothing about her history, or her schooling, or what kind of dog she has, because it's not necessary right at this moment.
Which is, as I see it, what Scarletpeaches and others have been pointing out; only give the amount of information the reader NEEDS at this EXACT moment. Everything else can come out later.
"Bob, I want you to meet JoAnne. She's a trial lawyer at Muckity, Muck & Muck."
And then as Bob gets to know JoAnne, he can find out how she hates her job, and all the corruption, and she really wants to do pro bono work to help kids. As maestro said, you want just enough to get the conversation started. But there's nothing about her history, or her schooling, or what kind of dog she has, because it's not necessary right at this moment.
Which is, as I see it, what Scarletpeaches and others have been pointing out; only give the amount of information the reader NEEDS at this EXACT moment. Everything else can come out later.
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