Building a World that Feels Lived In Without Info-Dumping
Info-dumping is the killer of narrative drive. It smothers tension and leaves stakes out in the cold. It makes a story… putdownable.
To successfully avoid this booby-trap of attention attrition, it’s critical to understand what info-dumping is and when it’s likely to happen — and then how to dig a manuscript out of the mire of boredom.
What is info-dumping?
Info-dumping is exactly what it sounds like. It’s when a writer pauses what’s going on in the story to deliver lots of information to the reader. And, it signals a lack of trust in the reader, which is always to be avoided, especially in upmarket/literary and historical fiction. Readers in these genres long to have the author’s trust. By over-explaining, a writer is basically saying:
“You’re not swift enough to put this together on your own, so I’ll spell it out for you.”
In an age when just getting people to stop their scroll can be a full-time job, stopping the story to explain things readers can figure out for themselves is story-suicide.
Want yet another reason not to info-dump? It cuts the legs out from under any attempt at creating subtext.
Info-dumping often stems from good intentions. A writer has done copious amounts of research and not only do they want the reader to know it (to earn the reader’s trust even though it will have the opposite effect), but they also want to teach the reader about every interesting fact they uncovered in their research.
Fiction readers aren’t coming to your novel for a lecture. I promise.
There’s a huge difference between a reader remarking that they learned something interesting from a novel and opening the front cover only to be assailed with the writer’s thesis on that setting.
The temptation to share research that doesn’t serve the story is real. But it just makes the author seem like a show off who doesn’t respect their readers’ intelligence.
It’s one of the fastest ways to end up on someone’s DNF (did-not-finish) shelf.
When do writers info-dump?
Unfortunately, info-dumping can happen at any time in a story but there are two areas where it’s most common. I’m sharing this so that you can keep your eyes peeled and be merciless with your red pen in these areas.
(In general life, I’m an empath and a fan of mercy, but not with a red pen and a manuscript.)
The most common place for info-dumping is at the beginning of the story. This is usually because the writer is trying to kick off the story in the wrong place. This is then a setting symptom of a structural/plot issue.
The second most common place for info-dumping is in the muddy middle of a story. This is usually because the writer hasn’t unearthed the protagonist’s deepest why yet, and they’re hoping their info-dumping will get the gears spinning (it won’t). This is then a setting symptom of a character issue.
(Can there be info-dumping that isn’t related to setting? Yes, but it’s far less common, so I’m sticking to this as a setting issue for now.)
How do we fix an info-dump?
Once we’ve worked through any structural and/or character issues that need addressing, the next step is approaching how to deliver setting immersion that feels lived in as opposed to lectured.
We do this through point-of-view (POV).
A POV character isn’t going to describe elements of a setting they take for granted. They also won’t describe setting elements that have nothing to do with their lens. A pro athlete who has never baked a day in their life isn’t likely to notice that their loved one’s bread dough hasn’t doubled in size.
POV characters notice what fits their lens. And this can change over the course of the story and as the character grows if they’re a dynamic character. (This is one way you can feed that subtext to your reader.)
Let me give you an example. When I was writing Daughter of the Seven Hills, my protagonist Aurelia starts out as a healer (in secret). Witnessing violence or battle, she doesn’t notice the same things a warrior would notice. But, by the end of the novel, she’s learned how to be a warrior and then notices those things.
It wasn’t that they weren’t happening around her. They were definitely part of her setting, but her description of them would state the action and notice details that were then filtered through her lens of seeing the world.
Of course, we can just take the red pen to info-dumping and well, dump it. But it’s so much more satisfying to fix the sickness it’s a symptom of and then use the opportunity to create a lived-in world that offers subtext and trust to your reader.
Your Turn: The Exercise
I want you to examine the first pages/first chapters of your work-in-progress if you’ve already started writing. Are there any areas where you’ve stopped the story to info-dump? Be ruthless with that red pen.
Then, I want you to do three things:
Rewrite that scene practicing setting the world through your POV character’s lens.
Take my free mini-course, Spark to Story, to develop your story and character so that you don’t feel the need to info-dump.
Make a social media post about the cool stuff you’ve researched that may or may not make it directly into your story. This will have the added benefit of enticing readers and also giving you an outlet to share that fact you learned so you don’t have to lecture mid-story.
