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Thinking about the information dump (#1)

As I started writing this blog, and going in one particular direction, I realized the ‘problem’ of the information dump is actually kind of big and has a lot of facets. Depending on how you’re looking at it, an info dump could be a matter of explaining how a bit of magic or technology works. Another type of information dump involves an explanation of events in the story. A cliché example is the villain monologue, but there are a lot of other examples executed in a similar manner that serve the same purpose. The real problem though is that the information dump must happen. (Insert little text frowny face here -I refuse do to it, so just pretend). Damn. How does one info-dump in a way that doesn’t make the reader sigh and close the book, because ‘a moron wrote it’? I haven’t the foggiest. As a reader though I know what I don’t like. This is the perspective that I try to keep in mind as I write. To keep things simple, I thought I’d break up my thoughts on the topic into more than one post. The first (this one), is going to cover the villain monologue type information dump.

My fourth chapter started out it’s life as almost entirely a nighttime stroll/information dump. Still is. It’s the part in the story where the main character finds himself under attack, and being thrust into a world of magic and a very old war that he is totally unfamiliar with. This is solved by adding a character who is intimately familiar with all of this stuff (fantasy cliché, I know). It’s the perfect set-up for an information dump. Something along the lines of

“Well, the reason that … is because … Oh, yes, and also … happened because ….” Which would get the response of, “What about …?”, followed up with “Well, the explanation for that is simple, it’s …”

Unfortunately, that’s an easy thing to write, but not very fun to read. Not that you can’t get away with that, because you totally can. A great example is the king’s cross scene of Book 7 of the Harry Potter series. Setting aside any bias you might have against the series, that scene is a great example of a totally unabashed info-dump that totally works. I frikin’ love that scene. She sets it up so well, by the end you want more.

In my case, it wasn’t working. So, I concluded I needed to look at all of the information I was presenting, and start peeling bits away. The first thing I tackled was the motivation of the bad-guy. In the early drafts, he did not explain himself, nor was there any explanation of what he was up to (I despise the idea of a villain monologue, and I didn’t want to fall into that trap). Turns out, you can villain monologue. I mean, after all, when you get into an argument, the first thing you want to do is establish how right you are. For this to work though, I think you need to write it so that both characters are talking in context, using flash-backs or something to conjure up enough context for the reader to follow. With all that in mind, a few well-placed sentences in earlier chapters, and the bad-guy’s motivation was not only not force-fed, it seemed a lot more natural.

The revision was good, except, it was still an unruly bit of writing with too much information, so I the next thing I did was look for any information that I could share more effectively elsewhere. There were three main approaches here. The first was to explain some of it earlier in the story. In my case I wasn’t far enough in to make that one work for me. Another approach was to simply avoid the information altogether and bring it up later. I did, in fact, have one piece in there that seemed totally relevant, but after consideration I decided that the main character wouldn’t have even thought about it, and the know-it-all character wouldn’t necessarily know about it either. So, I dropped the explanation with the decision to give it far better treatment in a later chapter (turned into a whole sub-plot in this case, but it really is that important). The third approach is a situation where the main character must to ask the question, it would be weird not to. As it turns out, the know-it-all doesn’t have to know it all, and so some of the explanation could be pushed off a later point, making the information available for discussion very limited.

Once I had addressed these two things, I was better able to deal with the information dump that I had no choice but to deal with. The real benefit of this series of revisions was it left me more space, which I’m using for the development of setting, characters, and elements of foreshadowing. Anyhow, those are my thoughts on the topic. This is a far longer post than I usually like to do, but there it is. If you have anything to offer on the topic, I’d be glad to hear it.

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Do I have to?

Okay, this is totally a rant, so ignore it if you’re not into that sort of thing. I’m struggling to get into my story, and I’m going to blame life. This week started out as something of a panic attack. I had Monday off, but still had phone calls from work (This is generally okay, I’d rather have the discussion on sampling difficulties real-time than weeks later when nothing can be done about it.) Then, on Tuesday, I spent most of the day memorizing four slides of a presentation I’ve already given, along with a good 40 pages of supporting material. (I love the State’s public process. It makes me feel good about the state we live in – everyone can have a say in regulation, but when you work for the state, it can sometimes feel outrageously onerous to prepare for a presentation for a proposal that could very well be DoA.) Sometime during this memorization process, I got an e-mail asking to submit an abstract for the ‘little triple-a’s’ (This is cool and all, I mean getting to stand in front of folks and say: I help to manage the largest data-set of subsistence information in the world and now I’ve got a super-shiny way for you to look at our data, is super-neat. I mean, what I’ve got to present becomes a bit of an ego-trip.) sort of no-problem (I cheated and submitted the same abstract I used for a presentation at a climate change conference in November), except that I’ve already got 4 30-page survey instruments to finalize, and finish the database redesign project I’ve been promising for the better part of six months, and also the one major analysis project I didn’t delegate is four months behind schedule. At the end of the workday, with all this on my mind, I keep opening the file containing the first 12 pages of chapter 11, scanning to the end, and staring blankly at the last paragraph. I KNOW what needs to go there, I can see it, it’s not long, or even difficult to write, yet I can’t get there. I’m just too distracted by work!

Ahhh -now that’s off my chest, I’ve got an hour before bed. I think I’m going to close wordpress, pour a nip of the cheapest whiskey I have in the house, and stare at that chapter for a while.

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WW: Five Things To Ask Your Characters

I saw this exercise and thought ‘what a lovely way to try and get to know my problematic character better’. The questions don’t fit the world so well, but I’m going to give it a go anyhow. I’m just going to give the first initial of my character, I’ll call him ‘N’, so here it is.

1.) If he were to go into a bar, he would order a large mug of dark sweet ale, down it fast, and immediately get another. That mug, he would nurse for a good long while, unless he was with friends or celebrating, in which case, it wouldn’t be long before he needed a new mug. What happens in the bar sort of depends on the type of bar it is. Let’s say it’s a fancy place (in his world, it would be a place for various upper-class types – even lords may venture into such an establishment from time to time.) In this place, he would find a dark corner and sit around uncomfortably until it was time to go. Though were he with his brother (I’ll call him ‘E’), he might loosen up a bit and have a time. Now, if the bar were more of a place for travelers, soldiers and the like, he would be front and center at the bar, telling tales of adventure and debauchery. The thing is, he’s been out of that life for a while, and he’s a lot less connected with that life than he used to be, and so it would have the air of an out-to-pasture soldier telling of events long past.

2.) N is not wantonly destructive to the landscape around him. Like anyone else trying to scrape a life from the land, he respects the world as a dangerous place. He is not a fan of the city, and when in nature notices all of the types of trees, plants and what-not across the landscape. By no means an expert, and not even really an enthusiast, he still appreciates the diversity of the forests. As a former soldier, and short-lived life as a farmer, he also doesn’t hold with waste. As time goes on through the story, this changes, and the character becomes even more in-tune with nature, noticing life and magic under every little rock, becoming almost obsessed with magic and all of it’s mechanics and nuances.

3.) N is not given to lying, as a general rule, preferring to mislead by omission when necessary. He tends to be brashly honest and thoroughly unapologetic in instances where others might use a small lie to attempt to cover their own minor mis-deeds. This sometimes comes off as acting somewhat like a spoiled child. In no case does he allow someone else to take blame for something he’s done, but he will not suffer false accusations on himself, excepting to take responsibility for those he leads.

4.) This is sort of an evolving situation with N. I’d say his back story has him at the pub with friends. The current bit of the story has him out in the forest hanging out with a dryad, then later the forest becomes a place for him to be, much later it will be something altogether different.

5.) At his heart N is a strategist. He would attack the problem of the lost bank by searching the city in a methodical manner, starting with the most likely place for a bank to be, and moving out to less likely places, he would also spend that time looking for anyone who might help.

Well, this was helpful, mostly… Still needs work, I think.

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