Hello loves, and welcome back! Time to discuss one of my favorite things to rant about!

Info dumping.

DUN DUN DUUUUN

But seriously. We've all struggled with this infamous problem. How can you describe your world and its intricacies without dropping a crap ton of information on your reader? And why is no one ever pleased with your results?

Quite simply, it's because there's no 'right' and 'wrong' to literature. If anyone ever tells you otherwise, just ignore them. All those things that you've been told you can never ever ever ever ever ever do, you'll most likely find in published fiction. Maybe even in the greats! Let's face it, if you wrote your first chapter like Chapter One of The Hobbit is written, the critics would have your head for info dumping. Yet this is arguably the most famous piece of high fantasy ever written. How does that work?

Everyone has their preferences, and because of how much high fantasy has pushed the bounds of its genre, there are many different styles. I personally am the type of writer that likes to throw you right into everything and hope you figure things about by context clues (*Amber silently sobs in the corner*). Many of you could be the type to start your story off by a brief, 2,000 word history of your world. If you asked me to critique your work, I'd tell you I got bored right around the family tree of the eighth king of the elfish realm of D'ai'yan'di. If I asked you to critique mine, you'd join Amber over there and demand to know what the heckfire I think I'm doing.

But if we did that, we'd both be wrong!

Now that I've established info-dumping isn't technically wrong, I'll explain why it's generally frowned upon and how to avoid it.

Mostly, you'll get complaints about info-dumping in the YA fantasy genre. This is because our generation has the attention span of a squirrel. We want to get to the good stuff, plot and action and romance. Unless we really love your world, we won't want to sit through two pages of random facts about it, especially in the very beginning. In my humble opinion, the beginning of your story is the worst part to go into exposition mode. Wait until the reader is hooked and they've figured out why they're sitting through all this.

Of course, this can be hard. You've spent weeks, months, even years developing your beautiful world. You want to show off how intricate and detailed it is! But see, that's not the story. That's the setting. Nobody watches a movie to see three hours of the actors describing their sets, kapeesh?

Okay okay okay, but that doesn't solve your problem. If you're not supposed to tell them at the beginning, then where? How do you make sure your readers understand what's going on?

Here are my suggestions.

1. Context clues! Context clues are super helpful. To put it simply, it's placing your subject (be it a word, a power, a social rank, a species) in a sentence or dialogue that gives the reader a rough idea of what the aforementioned subject is. For example, they don't need to know what the word djort means if your MC shouts it angrily at someone who pushed her into a puddle of mud. Due to the context, they'll most likely assume it's some sort of insult. Of course, this method does depend on your readers being intelligent enough to add two and two, so be careful ;)

2. Dialogue. This is possibly my personal favorite for sharing information. I love dialogue, a little too much according to some people. It gives characters a chance to shine and show just what kind of character they are based on interactions with others. It can also be an excellent way to tell your reader something important without going into long-winded expositions.

For example, say you have a scene with two MCs, Varum and Irilia, having a conversation on horseback. They're talking about a tribe that's been raiding villages, and you need to tell your readers that it's a tribe of goblins and explain what's been going on. You could break the scene for a few paragraphs of exposition, or you could do it like this:

Yes yes yes it could use some polishing but do you see what I mean? With natural dialogue, not only will you avoid breaking scene to explain something, but you'll get to build on your characters and find witty ways to tell your readers the things they need to know. Thanks to this bit of dialogue, readers will (hopefully) be able to put together that 

a) The La'rai are a goblin tribe 

b) They've been raiding villages very frequently for a year now, and people are scared 

c) the king has pulled his troops off the southern border to aid the war in the north, and 

d) goblins are green. 

They may also be able to pick up on undertones of tension between the south and the king, and the fact that the outskirts of this kingdom are seen as unimportant and lowly. That's a lot of information packed into three lines of dialogue, but (again, hopefully) it doesn't come across as info-dumping. Of course, this scene is nowhere near perfect, because I wrote it in two minutes. I have faith that you guys can do better!

3. Use only when necessary. This should be obvious, but just in case, I'm stating it- don't throw random information in when it's not needed. If you have a scene that people have complained is info-dumping, take a good hard look at it and figure out what's essential and what isn't. Obviously, you'll need to explain parts of history and culture at some point, but timing is just as important as your method. Your reader should feel that the information is relevant to the story at that moment and helps them understand something better. If neither are true, find somewhere else to put it.

4. Be witty. If your story is too dark for such light-hearted antics, then this might not work for you, but in general, people like stories that make them laugh. Make your explanations entertaining to read, so they're getting the information they need without having it force-fed to them. This doesn't mean your work has to be goofy or silly, but a couple scenes of characters ribbing each other or a POV with a sassy mind can go a long way. I don't think I need to tell you how much millennials love sarcasm ;)

5. The clueless character trope. If this is a trope, it's for good reason. The noob character who doesn't know anything is a perfect excuse for explaining things without seeming forced. This can easily be paired with 2 and 4 by throwing in a bit of impatient dialogue and banter.

6. Questions before answers. If your reader is absolutely dying to know something, they'll eat up any information you give them. Make them want the explanation by creating intrigue on the subject. Build up suspense, be super vague and mysterious, and then drive them insane with curiosity before you finally reveal what these characters are so worried about. It can come off as tacky if not done properly, but it's beautiful when done right.

As an example of a story where all of the above is applied masterfully, I present thee Black Tide by armageddonpie. Some of you may know VK as one of our reviewers, but I know her as the author of possibly my favorite pirate story of all time (and a good friend as well). Her story, Black Tide, uses every method we've just discussed to reveal her incredible world without a moment's lull. I shan't use an example to avoid plagiarizing, but you can go check it out if you want (READ IT RIGHT NOW! SEARCH! MARCH! GO! READ! IMMEDIATELY!).

For perhaps the... fifth time? Sixth time? I lost track. Anyways, I'm going to say it again just to be safe XD

You don't have to use these methods. You can take risks and straight-up info-dump away. Stay true to your style and don't be afraid to do things people may say is wrong. The purpose of this article is just to shed some light on a very well-known term and show you why and how to avoid it if you so choose.   

Last week, Element_Time asked:

"What is the best way to write a description of a character's magical abilities without being too repetitive?"

You guys were faithful and provided amazing answers! 

armageddonpie says:  

It depends on the ability (duh) but I think incorporating the ability into everyday life without making a big deal about it would be kind of neat.

Say your character can manifest light. So you could describe this ability by having someone lose a ring underneath a bookshelf, and the character uses glowing fingertips or something to find it. Then you can describe the ability more fully over time. At first, you could just flat out say what it does, or you could be vague: "Cora's fingertips lit up" or "A soft, delicate glow illuminated Cora's veins". And then later, the character could use it in different or bigger ways, prompting a different and more detailed description of the ability.

CaptainSarcastic101 says:

Blow stuff up. A lot. Make 'em angry and then if there arms catch on fire you know they ain't normal. And angry so run. Definitely run.

LunarsFantasies says:

I would say don't describe every detail in the beginning. Only choose certain important moments where you can go all out with the ability, or look up synonyms of different description words, or you could also try viewing it from different views or angles.

kra_gl_e says:

I would say that a great way to describe a character's abilities is to show it in action (not sure what the asker meant by repetitive though). Instead of saying "This is Bob. He can turn water into chocolate." You can say "Bob stepped forward and dipped his hand into the water. Within seconds, it turned dark and... brown and creamy? I took a sniff: sure enough, it smelled like the most scrumptious milk chocolate this side of the kingdom." And then maybe Bob can explain later how his power works.

They pretty much hit the nail on the head. I agree with all of that. Put your character in situations where they have to use their power, and don't make a huge deal out of it. Synonyms are a great help. If there's a certain process that happens every time or a rush or buzz or something, I'd say use synonyms and don't describe it more often than necessary. Consistency is good, but your readers should get the gist of it after the first few times. I know it's not high fantasy, but in The Maze Runner, the main character has a very specific memory loss and the author has to explain it. He does so over and over again long after the reader gets the point, making it kind of annoying (for me at least). If you have a couple good, detailed explanations, keep it simple the rest of the time.

LunarsFantasies asks:

Would it be a bad idea to hide a secondary/main character's abilities from your audience?

Endow us with your wisdom, young ones!

The brooding MC who's an outcast and doesn't belong anywhere

It can be tempting to use this to make readers sympathize with your MC. Please don't! Everyone's an outcast, guys. Gender, race, religion, clothes, hobbies- we all have something that makes us feel like we don't belong at times. Don't make your MC that pouty stormcloud kid that sits in the back and never talks to anyone because they're too different, they'll never fit in. Self-pity isn't attractive. So many books have those scenes where the MC looks at the group of "totally normal" people (such things only exist in fiction) and wonders wistfully what it would be like to just have a regular life. We don't need to add yours to the count. 

If I've offended your baby, I'm sorry! I'm sure that it sometimes seems like you can't avoid this, but you can. A character that is an outcast on purpose because they don't like talking to people would be just as relatable (people get on everyone's nerves) and a lot more fresh. Especially if you throw in a best friend or love interest who refuses to leave the MC alone, despite being constantly told to go away and buzz off. 

How does your character walk?

Do they saunter? Do they skip? Do they wander? Do they march? Do they keep their head down and pray no one will see them, or do they smile and make eye contact with everyone? Do they have good posture or do they slouch? Do they have a carefree sort of swagger or do they walk like they're constantly exhausted? Study the people around you this week and decide how their walk portrays their personality, or how it affects the way you see them. 

What if they have a world-at-risk mission, and they fail?

I GET TO PICK ANOTHER ONE heeheehee.

Reader of the week is WhatWeHad! I love her so much, every comment she leaves brightens my day. She's one of my oldest readers and she's never been anything but supportive and kind. She lets me bounce ideas off her, she gets excited about updates, and she always takes the time to let me know that she loved it. Having that support is so so important and I don't know what I'd do without her. Currently, she hasn't posted any books, but fingers crossed for someday! You should follow her anyways because she has a dog and really epic taste in music. Could you ask for anything more out of a person?

Don't forget to nominate your favorite reader and share some of the love they've given you!

Thanks for reading this, angels. Have a fabulous weekend!

Much love,

Nora