If you're like me, one of the most attractive things about scifi and fantasy are the opportunities to create entirely original cultures and languages. Making special titles for parents and grandparents, deciding what's the accepted method of apology, what simple actions are outrageous insults and what are flattering compliments is one of my favorite parts about writing and worldbuilding.
But I encounter two problems when applying this, my favorite of activities: using unfamiliar concepts too much and coming up with names. We'll cover names in the next post.
That last mistake is called infodumping. Dictionary.com defines it as an act or practice of presenting an indigestible or incomprehensible amount of information all at once. It's like reading an encyclopedia about this strange new world instead of experiencing it through the senses of the characters. It's like walking into a theater expecting to see and action movie and getting a documentary on nuclear physics instead. How many people would get up and walk out? It's the same if you infodump in the middle of the book, or at the end. Story comes first. Don't interrupt it.
But what if there's some information the reader just needs to know to understand what's going on? Rule #1: don't stop the story. Rule #2: working large chunks of information in-between action means it's gonna get skipped. Rule #3: characters standing around chatting about something they already know and don't need to discuss is also stopping the story.
So what do you do?
Some of the best examples I've seen of working info into stories is in action movies. Action movies only exist if the audience doesn't get bored, and that kind of audience has a very, very short attention span. Usually, there's an elaborate plan involved in the course of the story. The audience needs to know the plan so they're not entirely lost when everyone's suddenly split up and doing seemingly unrelated things. Often, they use a specific version of the "dumb puppet trick" (see here for the explanation), what I call "the briefing." Here are examples from Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
We've learned all kinds of information. We know the plan, we know the character's opinions of the plan, we know additional information such as Lando's promotion and the fact that the computer array in going to be very, very hot. We don't necessarily need that information, but it enriches the story world and keeps us connected.
This is only one kind of info-sharing, but it's all I can cover in one post. Try applying this principle to your stories and characters, in your books or just as a standalone scene.
Next: coming up with those pesky character names when babynames.com doesn't help.
Further reading:
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