I had Authoritus Infodumpus bad when I started out. I finally cured myself of it by avoiding having any info to dump. I don't mean that wondrous things did not exist in my world, I simply didn't know what they were until I wrote about them. If my characters rode on the backs of giant mice, they didn't give a dissertation on the 3000 years of breeding necessary. If one of the giant mice got sick, the vet that showed up didn't explain their anatomy. Now when I write, I know all about that colony of sentient giant mice living under the city, plotting their revenge and sometimes riding the subway. But nobody else does until the end of Act 1.
Ha Authoritus Infodumpus - Love it! I think that was my trouble. I started this story after a conversation with my husband that went like so "Oh my gosh, imagine if this happened and blah blah." From there over dinner we had came up with this incredible world that had so much depth to it that before I even had my inside story I was way into planning the dynamics behind this futuristic society.
It just hit me while i was eating a banana with chocolate a few minutes ago. You can put all your info in your story if you don't want to part with it, but make it that there is this really annoying character who will annoy readers and characters alike who all he does is talk about things, never shuts up and has to explain everything. A know-it-all blabbermouth that not one reader will like, but the ones who don't like your info-dumping can still just skip his speech bubbles.
>_> Firstly, a banana with chocolate? Secondly, is that a genuine suggestion or are you taking the kick out of me? I'm not quite sure.
Here's a somewhat different view: When I was a kid of about ten, I read a ton of science fiction, including a large number of stories by Robert A. Heinlein. Some of them really impressed me, and though I hadn't reread them for forty years, I remembered them fondly. Recently I went on a bit of a nostalgia kick, bought a volume of these stories, and settled down to recapture past glories. I found that Heinlein infodumped like a madman. I also found that, in many cases, the infodump was the only actually interesting part of the story. The characters were boring, standard-issue hero types and the plots were sometimes absurd and almost always instantly forgettable. What I had remembered for so many years - what had blown my young mind - were the infodumps. Those were the parts in which Heinlein explained his future world, the technologies used, and so on. That was what was interesting, and when I was rereading the stories, I started thinking Heinlein would have done better just to write essays about his future world and not bother with dull characters and plots. So what does this tell me? Maybe, if your characters and plot are weak, the most interesting thing you have to offer is the vision of the world you're writing about. If that's the case, maybe you'd do well to leave in the infodumps. Of course, if your story is strong, don't bother with them, as everyone in this thread has said. But be sure of what you're doing when you take out the infodumps. You just might be taking out the most interesting and memorable parts of your work. In other words, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
That could work. Just name him Xatron. Seriously though, I swear that's what certain scifi writers did in the '50s. Not even bad ones. Asimov had more than one in the same book. Infodump was why I could never get through Foundation.
I said the same thing until my girlfriend made me try it. It blew my mind. And it is a genuine suggestion. As jwideman said it is no original idea, but it works for some books. You would have to make that character versatile though, completely unlikeable to readers that hate info-dumping and likable to the ones that do.
I use to smoke. How did I quit? I smoked less. Sure, my advice is broad, but it makes sense. Basically saying that you don't have to explain every little detail of historical content a story might have because a reader can get along without it, but give enough so they understand the situation. It's harder to give better advice without an actual manuscript or parts of it. At least from my newbie standpoint.
All I can suggest is the tired but true, "show, don't tell". Make a game of revealing the future a piece at a time.
Drip feed. I've been struggling a lot with some info dump style chapters, and not sure where to fit them in because I believe, often, that the character would mention it earlier, yet it bogs down the flow of the start and I want people to keep trudging. In the end it's just bad writing and my attempts to edit have been working.
Leave the info dump behind and let the mystery stand. Your readers will love you for it. And if they want to full back they'll ask for it. Then you'll have a whole new story to write.
By definition, infodumping is unecessary information unwanted by the reader. What you have there is interesting, so it is thus not infodump. It's world-building exposition. They are similar because they are both telling instead of showing, but the key difference is that one helps keep the reader reading, and the other hinders.
I'd like to agree with you, but the definition you provide does not seem to be one generally agreed upon in this thread. If infodump is a term used exclusively for boring, unnecessary exposition, then of course it has to go. But people in this thread often seem to think infodump means any exposition at all, needed or not, interesting to the reader or not. As I pointed out, exposition is sometimes very interesting and memorable. It can even be mind-blowing to kids receptive to that sort of thing. I'd very much like to see participants in this thread accept that not all exposition is infodump.
True that we hadn't come up with a clear definition of what infodump means. I guess I assumed that everyone was defining it the way I defined it in that post. So, very good points.
When i say infodumping, i mean any and all excessive exposition that, as funkybassmannick said, hinders the reader instead of helping him. And as much as a few people that love this kind of stuff will receive it differently, to most it will be a hurdle when trying to follow the story. It wouldn't make it commercially viable.
A trail of breadcrumbs. The odd question here or there, maybe a brief conversation about a relevant pivotal moment in history...but avoid exposition unless the exposition fits snugly and neatly into the plot.
