Question of the Day: Starting Over
August 17, 2022
Moderation: How Much is Too Much?
August 25, 2022If you’ve ever had your novel (especially genre fiction) critiqued by someone else, you’ve probably found that giant highlight which covers two-to-three paragraphs and is attached to a comment which only says “info dump”. The process of giving your readers all the information they need without “info dumping” is a hard one, but it doesn’t have to be. In this post, I’ll break down exactly what turns a paragraph of information into an “info dump”, how to avoid those things, and how to better dispense information throughout your novel.
What is an Info Dump?
Everyone has a slightly different definition for this writing phenomenon, but I’ve carefully constructed one for use in this post. An info dump is a paragraph which contains not immediately relevant information about worldbuilding or backstory and is presented in a way which overwhelms or bores the reader.
Info dumps have a negative impact on the reader’s experience, but the specific impact varies based on the way your readers deal with them. Some readers choose to skip those paragraphs, then find themselves without crucial information later. Some readers plow through those paragraphs like champions, but forget the details later because the paragraph was uninteresting. Some readers take the nosedive in pacing as a cue that this is the perfect place to stop reading for the day—or to stop reading, period. Some readers just shrug it off because they are interested in the world more than the characters, anyway. (Quick aside about that last breed of readers: they’re a very rare breed, almost extinct in almost every genre except Epic Fantasy at this point. Definitely do not assume your readers are going to use this method to deal with your info dumps).
What Factors Contribute to an Info Dump?
There are several factors which contribute to info dumps, from white space, to topicality, to voice, even to pacing. Let’s go through each of those things one at a time.
White space. This may not be something you spend a lot of time thinking about as you write, but it is a huge factor when creating a novel which flows well. Have you ever been told to make sure your paragraphs have varied lengths? If so, the person who gave you this tip probably had some sort of grasp on the importance of white space. If you write giant, half-page long paragraphs, the odds that your reader will become overwhelmed or bored increases. Remember the definition from earlier? Overwhelming or boring the reader is exactly what we wish to avoid. Readers need to breathe, and extra white space helps them do that.
Topicality. Before you give information to readers, you need to make sure they’re primed to receive it. If you go off on a tangent about how trains work while you’re sitting in a grassy park staring at the lovely blue sky, that’s a huge sign that your train tangent is probably an info dump. However, if you spend time discussing the train system while the characters crawl through tunnels beneath the city’s main train line, your readers are far more likely to remember.
Pacing. Usually a drop in pacing is listed as a symptom of info dumps instead of a cause, but take a second to think this through with me. If that paragraph you were writing had elements which promoted pacing, would it still be an info dump? Probably not. Keep an eye on the paragraph level pacing to help identify some of these problem spots. Then, you can use techniques which increase the pacing to make the section more readable. Some of those techniques include: shorter sentences, shorter paragraphs, and more physical action.
Voice. This is the big one—the culprit of most info dumps. When a writer whips out their narrator voice (unless they’re writing in third person omniscient), that’s a huge red flag. I don’t know about you, but taking a break from the spunky, exciting MC I’ve grown attached to during the book in order to listen to the invisible grandpa in his rocking chair tell me about the etymology of the name of this country is an instant nope. I don’t want to take a break from the spunky MC. I like the spunky MC. More than that, I chose to read a book from the spunky MC’s perspective specifically so I can see the world through that person’s eyes. Now you’re dusting off the grandpa voice? Not. Cool. Keep an eye out for places where you change the voice of the piece in order to stuff more information into the narrative. Those are almost always info dumps.
How to Avoid Info Dumps in Your Writing
Here are a few specific information-dispensing techniques which have proven to be very useful in avoiding the dreaded info dump.
- Stay in Character
- Keep it Topical
- Watch Your Length
Let’s go through these together.
Technique 1 – Stay in Character. You are presenting this world to your reader through the eyes of a character, so make sure you never swap to a narrator character to tell your reader about the world. If the narrative requires your reader to have knowledge of the train system, perhaps you can give your MC experience as a train engineer. Failing that, perhaps your MC rescues an engineer earlier on in the story. My point is, put your MC in contact with an expert. Then, let your expert do the explaining.
Here’s the thing about experts. They love to ramble.
Have you ever listened to an expert on a ramble? I have, and let me tell you that they never sound like a narrator. Nope. Experts have opinions. I have learned more than I will ever have to know about the pros and cons of programming languages, but never once did my friend take me aside, gently give me the background to understand the rant, and then patiently explain every microcosm of this topic.
Not even once!
Nope. Instead, this friend started talking about those idiots from work who insisted on using python for a section of the code which was clearly more suited for java. Do you know what the difference is between those two programming languages? Well, luckily for you, I am not the expert nf programming, so I will not subject you to the lectures I have received from that friend.
The point is, that experts are very easily annoyed by idiots. They are also not experts in everything, so a marine biologist might mention that this particular type of shark is very cool, and also not their field of expertise, but they regularly have coffee with their friend, who is an expert on that thing. Voila. You’ve just managed to introduce either an important variety of shark, or a character who you’ll need later. Aren’t experts wonderful?
Let’s go back to trains. Your reader needs to know a few finicky details about the train system, right? If those details are about the schedule, talk to an expert commuter. Maybe your MC is from out-of-town, but your MC’s best friend probably hates it when the trains hit this one bumpy part in the schedule, and then it takes a week for the trains to go back to normal. Or maybe you overhear a conversation between the train engineer and their boss trying to work out this issue with the trains. There are lots of ways to inject an expert into the situation. The biggest thing to remember is to stay in character. Experts do not sound like narrators. Stick to their opinions on the subject, and I guarantee you will end up with a very entertaining chunk of info which could never be called an info dump.
Technique 2 – Keep it topical. If you’re already using an expert, then the expert’s presence will probably go a long way toward making this information topical. Still, make sure you examine your setting to make sure everything makes sense. What’s going on in the scene? Does inserting this tidbit of information disrupt the flow of what’s happening around it? Make sure the information insert seems natural.
Here are a few examples of natural information inserts. Your main character looking around a storage room while they’re supposed to be grabbing something and noticing a toy they used to play with as a child. A secondary character trying to convince your MC to go out to lunch with them and, when your MC want’s seafood, informing your MC that the restaurant in question closed down two years ago. Your MC passing a prominent statue in the city and stopping to pay their respects (or, alternatively, thinking sour thoughts about the fact that their city thinks it’s alright to glorify that person who played a role in insert-historical-event-here).
Technique 3 – Watch Your Length. If your paragraph is more than six lines long, take a very hard look at it. Can the information be condensed? Is there a stopping point where you can truncate the info? There are several places in a novel where two lines of information may be helpful and four lines may be tedious.
If you’re struggling to cut these sections down to size, you might consider the information’s importance to your narrative. If the information isn’t relevant to the plot, it can probably be excluded. If the information is required to move the story forward—or to avoid confusing your reader—then you might consider making this information more central to the scene. For example, you might take your MC’s thoughts about a subject and turn them into a conversation between that MC and a secondary character. That way, you have a series of small exchanges instead of one page-long paragraph.
At the end of the day, there is absolutely no excuse for long, boring paragraphs about things readers will forget in five minutes anyway. Info dumps are a huge problem, but they’re completely solvable! Just make sure to stay in character, keep it topical, and watch your length, and you’ll already be halfway to building informational scenes which knock the socks off your readers.
What about all of you? What techniques have you all found to help cut down on info dumps? Let me know in the comments below!
