Info dumps
@Graptopetalum (1807)
Canada
February 6, 2012 1:24pm CST
This is where the author has to include some information that the reader needs to follow the plot. Perhaps this is more relevant to science fiction and fantasy where the reader clearly isn't going to know the qualifications for becoming a Gardorian necromancer.
The problem is that people don't like info dumps where this information is given. It seems to me that my writers group are screaming "info dump" at the first sign of factual information. Having people say something like, "As you know Bob the orbital vector of ..." isn't considered good form either. Then people have also expressed annoyance at the ignorant or stupid character who has to have everything explained to them (e.g. most of Dr. Who's assistants).
I have a general annoyance that people complain about my work being too complicated and hard to understand but then something like "Lost" comes along and is wildly popular so is this really a problem?
I started reading Moonheart Charles de Lint (a well known author) which was published by Ace Fantasy Books in 1984 and went to at least a third printing. This basically starts with two chapters, 38 pages of rather dull info-dump! Yet this seems to have been a successful novel! I gave up reading it after the first two chapters.
Have we all developed really short attention spans or what?
Do people really find info dumps that annoying? What are good ways to include the information without annoying people? Do you just want to have stuff happening with no explanation?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@crimsonladybug (3112)
• United States
6 Feb 12
I don't know about "annoying" but they are why I tend to shy away from most fantasy. One author is amazing at the info dump...that is to say, making them feel like a logical part of the story rather than a huge aside, is Jim Butcher. His Codex Alera has a few more than the Dresden Files but he keeps them short. A paragraph, maybe a page, and it's back to the story. And he uses his characters to help work the information in. This character remembers a time when something happened to make things the way they are now. I have never felt that running in mud feeling you sometimes get when reading sci-fi and fantasy with his books.
@Graptopetalum (1807)
• Canada
6 Feb 12
Haven't read any Jim Butcher.
I have people complaining about info dumps when its just a sentence. Another thing marked as an info dump was: '"... These artifacts may be illegal and the dealer might have been worried about tackling somebody with a lot of magic weapons."'
Not sure how I could have made that shorter and it was in a conversation!
@inedible (768)
• Singapore
7 Feb 12
@crimsonladybug: Agreement with your opinion on Jim Butcher. Haven't read Codex Alera, but I do read and like the Dresden Files.
@Grap: Can't really judge for certain without the rest of the passage, but it might not have been the length, but how it was phrased. A relatively short phrase might be seen as an infodump if it sounds like it was written specifically to explain something for the reader instead of being something that would sound natural in a real conversation. Just take, for example, every children's show ever. "Oh no, the guy we're all looking at is doing something and I feel the need to say this out loud even though all the characters can already see him."
Point is, maybe rather than worrying about the length, the flow might be a more important consideration.
@bluerhapsody (161)
•
13 Feb 12
The most memorable info dump I have encountered would be 20,000 leagues under the sea by Jules Verne. It was really tedious to read all of the scientific marine stuff so I just skipped and skipped. It wasn't really helping the plot at all in my opinion.
@Graptopetalum (1807)
• Canada
13 Feb 12
I don't remember that. I've read this book a long time ago. Then I'm interested in biology so this may not have bothered me.
@inedible (768)
• Singapore
7 Feb 12
I personally do not have a problem with info dumps. Not unless it's particularly badly done. But well, I am usually interested in learning about the fictional setting in which the story occurs, so maybe that's why info dumps don't bore me much, not unless they're telling me something I already know. I suppose if someone has zero interest in background and just wants action in the plot, they might object to anything they consider unnecessary.
But really. If someone objects to every bit of stated facts in the story, they're dumb as posts. In any story, there will certainly be characters that are better in any one field than the others. It makes perfect sense that they might sometimes have to explain their reasoning and theories to other characters. NOT having them do any explaining, ever, would be weird as it would imply that either everyone else immediately understands how every conclusion is reached, or everyone just accepts their words blindly. As long as you don't make it use too many technical terms, it should be fine.
