Let's Talk...Info Dumping

Today's Earworm:
Today's Date: February 13, 2017

Yes, I know, I'm doing quite a bit of the Let's Talk Series, right? Well, the reason why is because I'm rewriting the Settling Down to Write Series and I want to get most of them done before moving on to something else.

But why am I here to talk about information dumping and just what the hell is it?

Well, it's what it sounds like. It's when you dump a lot of information into a short space of time. Or in a piece of writing, when you put all of your information into only 2 to 10 paragraphs. When you write a story, you want to tell the story, but that includes building up the setting, the characters, the plot, and kick starting it all.

But you want to spread the information out. You don't want to just go "here, have all this information about the main character and the setting that you're going to forget because there is just to much".

Look, we retain information a lot better when it's introduced slowly and it's woven in around the story itself, which we're enjoying.

So when a sudden flood of information happens, it throws off a reader and makes it hard to remember those details. Which doesn't exactly make a reader want to read the book after that.

Which is a bad thing since as writers, we want them to read the book. And then, hopefully, tell their friends to buy and read the book so that we can make more money to continue to write amazing books that will have them coming back for more.

But how do you stop just dumping the information out?

It's actually very easy to dump the info so you might not notice it...until you go back to reread it. So, as to stopping it while writing it, you need to keep a note on what you've introduced during that chapter and what you need to yet introduce. And then keep an eye out just chunks of text filled with thoughts and ideas.

It's all about keeping introductory points down in each chapter. For me, as a rule of thumb, I tend to keep it to one to two interconnected introductory points.

What do I mean by that?

Well, in the prologue of Bad Dog, I introduce my Idiot Villain and what he is doing. Pretty much I have him sitting in his 'home' and going over a list of herbs and ritual items that he needs. That's an interconnected introductory point. It's introducing my character and introducing what he is doing at the moment.

Another chapter has him burying a body and meeting a werewolf after he has done so. Again, these are interconnected introductory points. Even if they don't look like it at first glance, they are.

Unfortunately, I have something like 10 introductory points that all branch off of one point in the first official chapter. I need to figure out what points I want to go over in that first chapter and go through the other points later on in the story, spread out.

Dialogue is your friend for a lot of things, but you also need to weave in the details that make up the world into the story itself.

It's kind of annoying trying to remember to weave instead of just going "here, have at it". As easy as it may be to just give a reader all of the details, again, it turns them off. So, remember to edit. Spread out your points. And keep an eye out for an information dump.

I'm still fixing my own dump. A week after I found it.