Okay here’s my new theory about infodumping: the earlier in the book we are, the less well it works and the shorter the tidbits have to be. Once we’re a bit more invested in the story, we want the backstory more and will absorb it better. By then we can take a couple paragraphs at a time. - ThreadSky

danifinnwrites.bsky.social • 93 days ago

Okay here’s my new theory about infodumping: the earlier in the book we are, the less well it works and the shorter the tidbits have to be. Once we’re a bit more invested in the story, we want the backstory more and will absorb it better. By then we can take a couple paragraphs at a time.

Comments

pearl-editing.bsky.social•92 days ago

Interesting! I do believe you're right.

subspaceteati.me•93 days ago

I think that's correct. I remember when I first started reading Gideon the Ninth I initially bounced off a little at some of the early infodumps but by the third book in the series every time I don't get an infodump answer to a question I want to eat my own organs.

zprospero.bsky.social•93 days ago

So, lore foreplay. Basically.

boldickv.bsky.social•93 days ago

I love this, and I am using it from here on 😆😆

danifinnwrites.bsky.social•93 days ago

Exaaaaactly. I believe in worldbuilding edging

sirequinox.bsky.social•93 days ago

Loreplay?

trudieskies.bsky.social•93 days ago

I had to do some info dumping in my Cruel Gods book 1 because the reader needed to know straight away that the MC has blue skin, we have races here which aren't normal, and there is a giant portal in the middle of the city 😂 But I do agree with this, and hope to do better in my next WIP.

jenichappelle.bsky.social•93 days ago

I think this is true. In the beginning of a book, the reader has to hold a lot of new info in their mind at the same time, but after they've absorbed that, they have room for new stuff. There's probably some brain science here about working memory and short-term memory 🤔

jmavants.bsky.social•93 days ago

This is actually fascinating and by george I think you may be absolutely right

byfield.bsky.social•93 days ago

My basic tactic for sex and action scenes also applies to infodumps: they work best when a scene does more than one thing. For instance, place an infodump in an argument, and it can become a character study as well.

loresjoberg.bsky.social•93 days ago

That’s remarkably insightful. I may have to move the etymology discussion even further back in my novel.

jaeeglass.bsky.social•93 days ago

danifinnwrites.bsky.social•93 days ago

To be clear infodumping is not bad! It’s important sometimes! We just need to be purposeful on when, how, and how much we do it.

svrtnsse.bsky.social•93 days ago

Absolutely.
The reader needs to know why the info matters.

If possible, you want them to go “aha, it all makes sense now” when they get to the info and not “this is probably important for something that happens later.”

dmeyerauthor.bsky.social•93 days ago

I agree. The very first draft I wrote of CREDIBLE THREATS, I struggled w/ explaining how magic works, so there was this terrible section where Sam basically delivers a TED Talk for a couple of pages. Much later, I realized it worked better explaining it later on, where it came about more naturally

trashxbucket.bsky.social•93 days ago

I like to sprinkle just enough through my first person narrative but not like too much

nailamoonsi.bsky.social•93 days ago

this was my problem--at first i didn't drop enough info at the beginning to the point my earliest alpha readers were confused!

initially i thought i should tier it slowly? but after all the confusion i realized it was still necessary so i tried adding "a structural skeleton" early on,

nailamoonsi.bsky.social•93 days ago

even beyond the worldbuild i'd already dropped small mentions of. in the end one of the major lores debut in chapter 5 of the epic science fantasy i'm planning to kickstarter soon. [2/3]

nailamoonsi.bsky.social•93 days ago

it was interesting learning from many people (around 20) how to structure and talk about this series (since it even wound up useful for the webcomic i started for it). [3/3]

faythompsonauthor.bsky.social•93 days ago

Mostly the writer should allow worldbuilding to occur organically through the experiences of characters. Dumping info thrusts the reader out of the story and with DNF prevalent, the writer should know they get one shot at retaining the reader, don't screw it up.

servantand.bsky.social•93 days ago

Good theory

sollizyy.bsky.social•93 days ago

You're right tbh. Everything about a story impacts the pacing of the story. Not all pacing has to be fast, but the point of the intro of a book is to pull people in, world build whilst telling the story-

danifinnwrites.bsky.social•93 days ago

Hammer meets nail head. The point of the intro is to hook the reader. 🙌

sollizyy.bsky.social•93 days ago

And like obviously you can do that with a lore intro, there's so many ways to hook a reader, but yeah the intent and the effect is important

sollizyy.bsky.social•93 days ago

You can afford to slow the pacing down in the middle of the book, so that's usually the best time for lore.

jeanniemarschall.bsky.social•93 days ago

That works for menwhen I read, yeah - that's comfortable 🙂

namibluesky.bsky.social•92 days ago

That’s a good point. I always think not making an infodump pure infodump but including character and theme or even just evocative language makes a big difference. But spacing information so it’s answering questions the reader has had time to ask is also a good practice

johnthelibrarian.bsky.social•92 days ago

I’ve noticed this in the history of science fiction: Golden & Silver Age did a ton of info dumping right at the beginning to establish the world. As the genre evolved into the modern era, you see less and less of that. Modern SF handles world building very much in medias res style.

danifinnwrites.bsky.social•92 days ago

Agreed!