Friends don't let friends info dump

[PuckIt]

Ok, first; yeah it's been discussed. And not just here. And yeah, I've been in on a lot of discussions about the topic before, but I need a brain jumpstart so get out the jumper cables.

In the current piece of cr-... er, story I'm hammering my head against I'm struggling with a HUGE info dump. If I stick with linear development (as I'd rather), I'm left with about three lit screens running on fast forward through medical history and then four summers of building back story concerning how the heroine made the knight who he is before I set the hook. Which anyone with even marginal "talent" knows is a mistake.

But, if I don't do it, it reads like Captain Fabulous rides to the rescue on his iron horse and peels off his leathers to reveal his buff lifeguard alter-ego. I can, maybe, alleviate some of it in as 1) flashbacks (although I personally loath them) and 2) dialogue between the characters and 3) personality quirks.

However, it feels like I'm having a brain glitch and forgetting some of the more subtle tricks I used to know. Can anyone remind me what else I'm forgetting to steer around the dreaded info dump?

 

[Hypoxia]

Can anyone remind me what else I'm forgetting to steer around the dreaded info dump?

Start with mindless action. Then back off for dialog about the background. Then more action, especially fucking. Then more data-dump dialog. Ladle it out in small portions, framed by events. Like salt, too much data ruins the stew.

Events can happen during the dialog too. Have some guys sitting by a pool drinking beer and eyeballing babes whilst catching up on mega-history -- or gender-flip it with fruity cocktails. Or maybe bright robots getting lube jobs. Whatever. Weave it all into the tale. Leave significant details to be discovered later.

*OR* (and this is the hard part) edit-out TMI stuff. How much background is *really* necessary? How little can you get away with at any point? What can be hinted at?

 

[HandsInTheDark]

If you write in first person, then the main characters reveal things by telling themselves about it:

"I remembered Julie. High school drama queen who turned out in the end to have some actual drama in her life - a rather embarrassing outing of her frequent sexual activity, a subsequent wedding to a guy who'd have her, and angry parents. But her marriage hadn't gone badly last I'd heard. What the hell was she doing here?"

And everyone else reveals backstory via conversations:

"What, you didn't hear about her husband?"
"RIchard? Banker sort, clean-cut, seemed decent... there was something to hear about him?"
"He was gay. The marriage lasted three years, they quit it last August. Julie didn't take it well... and here she is."

If you're fussing with 3rd person forms, then either the narrator is in effect a camera, but has little or no special knowledge (so, thankfully, he can't info dump) , or is omniscient, and exists for the purpose of giving dumps, and then you've got the problem of making it palatable.

My solution at least in erotica is to avoid 3rd person omniscient. That forces me to make my characters carry the story,. If you're stuck with it, do short flashback scenes. Wherever possible, make the characters do the reveals. If none of the characters can have known the facts, why should the reader? You want the reader to identify with the characters.

 

[AlinaX]

Alternation

One common approach is to alternate between a past storyline and a present storyline. I like to write in first person, and have the present in present tense, and the past in past tense, but a lot of people dislike first person present tense (having been exposed to too many bad examples of it).

Flashbacks can work, though these can be done awfully. I especially hate stories that start with an exciting hook and immediately regress to fill in the backstory. ("As I sank to my knees to wrap my lips about a cock of literally divine proportions, I thought back to the day I first came to the temple...")

 

[NotWise]

I might postpone offering the information until a point in the story where it was needed, and then provide it in dialogue as much as possible.

If you do that, then you might find out that some of the information you're dumping is never really needed in the story.

Another method might be to intersperse the back story with current activity. I did that in the first chapter of "Unlikely Angels."

 

[Carnevil9]

A classic example is Jurassic Park. When the main characters first arrive at the park, they take a ride through a movie theater type place, where an animated "Mr. DNA" explains how the park/amber/mosquitoes/dna work. In other words, arrange to have a naive character (standing in for the reader) who needs to be schooled by a well-versed character (standing in for you).

An even more classic example is Citizen Kane, which starts with a news reel, explaining who Charles Foster Kane was, his entire backstory, and the fact that he just croaked. Then jumps to a room full of journalists criticizing the story for the things it left out, and the things they still want to figure out.

 

[patdown]

Sometimes more backstory is needed if it's really unlikely that two characters would ever get together, meeting at a business conference or camping in the woods. But if a guy is going after his sister in law then it's short and to the point.

 

[PuckIt]

Sometimes more backstory is needed if it's really unlikely that two characters would ever get together, meeting at a business conference or camping in the woods. But if a guy is going after his sister in law then it's short and to the point.

Ayup. That's what I'm running into. If I don't set up the backstory, it reads like Captain Fabulous rode up on his motorcycle to give the poor handicapped girl a pity fuck out of the goodness of his heart.

Instead, I keep trying to channel my inner Danielle Steel circa "Palomino" or "The Ring"... and I obviously ain't her.

 

[sr71plt]

There's a technique to doling out backstory when and as needed and interspersed with plot-propelling action. You can learn it by reading and by practice.

 

[hylas_]

I'm left with about three lit screens running on fast forward through medical history and then four summers of building back story concerning how the heroine made the knight who he is before I set the hook.

The "medical history" sounds boring, but I also can't really imagine a story in which more than a paragraph of medical backstory is really essential?

All this stuff about the heroine making the knight who he is, however? Sounds like that could be (the first part of) the actual story, as opposed to backstory.


Another way of going about it would be to focus on how the characters feel about each other, and merely hint at why. For example, let's say all this backstory leads to a situation in which character A feels like they owe character B something, which is the setup you desire for your story. If the story isn't supposed to be too long, you don't necessarily have to explain the full backstory. You can establish their relationship/feelings, and merely hint at the plot of the backstory.

 

[NotWise]

There's a technique to doling out backstory when and as needed and interspersed with plot-propelling action. You can learn it by reading and by practice.

I have an issue that's similar to the info dump. It's the image dump. I'll write a paragraph or two at the beginning of a scene to set the surroundings. On rereading, the description sometimes seems isolated and out of place. My normal solution--when I find the problem--is to intersperse the description with action and dialog.