Paul Whybrow
Full Member
Something that we’re advised against doing is dumping information into the narrative, slowing down the action and distracting the reader, maybe even boring them. Sometimes, though, it’s essential to provide a minimal amount of back story, particularly when writing a series.
Novel Boot Camp – Lecture #3: How to Avoid Info Dumping
We previously discussed this dilemma in 2018, but, I’ve just come across a flagrant example of it—and, by one of my favourite authors of comedy crime novels, Carl Hiassen.
He’s passionate about protecting the environment, and all of his novels and children’s stories feature flora and fauna, some of which shouldn’t be in Florida, but which have been abandoned by bored and irresponsible owners.
His latest title Squeeze Me begins with a diminutive fundraising socialite getting gobbled up by a python. Various capers ensue. I’m 100 pages into the story and Hiassen has twice dumped information about troublesome species. A page-and-a-half was devoted to the queen conch mollusc. And three pages to the Burmese python. Certainly, it helps a reader to understand the problems they cause in Florida and how they impinge on the action, but I doubt that a debut author would be allowed to give such mini-lectures.
It made me ponder how I’ve information dumped facts on my readers. I’m currently immersed in turning my second Cornish Detective novel into an audiobook, which features a serial killer taking victims as part of an arcane roleplaying game, which are chosen for him on the turn of a card. In killing a Roman Catholic priest, he allowed prejudice to come in:
Any of the holy men in his kill zone would have made a suitable sacrifice—there were ten of them, for different denominations. His choice of the Catholic priest was prejudice, but why not? He limited his impulsive streak as much as possible, and it was still a carefully-planned sacrifice. It was impossible not to experience personal feelings about this death though. Most of his grandparents' families were exterminated in the Jasenovac Concentration Camp which was orchestrated by vested interests in Rome.
I think that’s a tolerable information dump. If a reader wants to know more about the Vatican’s involvement in WW2 atrocities, they’ll investigate further.
How do you deal with information dumps?
Clay Shirky - Wikipedia
Novel Boot Camp – Lecture #3: How to Avoid Info Dumping
We previously discussed this dilemma in 2018, but, I’ve just come across a flagrant example of it—and, by one of my favourite authors of comedy crime novels, Carl Hiassen.
He’s passionate about protecting the environment, and all of his novels and children’s stories feature flora and fauna, some of which shouldn’t be in Florida, but which have been abandoned by bored and irresponsible owners.
His latest title Squeeze Me begins with a diminutive fundraising socialite getting gobbled up by a python. Various capers ensue. I’m 100 pages into the story and Hiassen has twice dumped information about troublesome species. A page-and-a-half was devoted to the queen conch mollusc. And three pages to the Burmese python. Certainly, it helps a reader to understand the problems they cause in Florida and how they impinge on the action, but I doubt that a debut author would be allowed to give such mini-lectures.
It made me ponder how I’ve information dumped facts on my readers. I’m currently immersed in turning my second Cornish Detective novel into an audiobook, which features a serial killer taking victims as part of an arcane roleplaying game, which are chosen for him on the turn of a card. In killing a Roman Catholic priest, he allowed prejudice to come in:
Any of the holy men in his kill zone would have made a suitable sacrifice—there were ten of them, for different denominations. His choice of the Catholic priest was prejudice, but why not? He limited his impulsive streak as much as possible, and it was still a carefully-planned sacrifice. It was impossible not to experience personal feelings about this death though. Most of his grandparents' families were exterminated in the Jasenovac Concentration Camp which was orchestrated by vested interests in Rome.
I think that’s a tolerable information dump. If a reader wants to know more about the Vatican’s involvement in WW2 atrocities, they’ll investigate further.
How do you deal with information dumps?
Clay Shirky - Wikipedia
