Info-dumping is when you bog down the narrative of your story with paragraphs of information that, while helps explain a character's history or how an object works, contributes very little to what's happening at that point in time in the story. We've all done it at one point or another, I'm especially notorious for it. Although I like to think I'm getting better at reducing and spreading out technical and historical information, I'd still like some tips on how you guys deal with info-dumping.
Here's a method I used quite recently in my own story. I'm working on the first chapter right now, and I'm trying to do as much as I can to establish the characters, the location, and a brief history of the world to help the readers understand a little more about the inner workings of their society. Instead of bogging down the entire thing in narrative, I turned all the information into dialogue. The main character and his friends are attending school and the teacher begins giving them a quick overview of the history of the world, which leads into a lesson on prominante historical figures, or heros from the past if you will. This grabs the main character's attention because he holds great respect for people who protect others, and encourages the teacher to tell them more. The conversation soon shifts from heros to villains and the teacher starts talking about a horrible king that lived a long time ago and who used his powers over darkness to rule. This begins to establish one of the story's reaccuring themes, that those who can control the powers of darkness are always consumed by it in the end. This becomes a major issue for the main character because later he finds out that he also has the power to control darkness.
Another way I find that helps against info-dumping is to take some time and think about where you're going to place certain information. For example, in my story the main character and his mother have lived in the same house as another family since the main character was born. Because of that, the main character grew up with the son of the other family and the two of them are like brothers. Instead of explaining this when the main character's best friend comes in, the best thing to do in my opinion is wait until the two of them get home before explaining it, that way the readers can see that they live in the same house.
Anyway, I'm curious to see how the rest of you deal with info-dumping. Please give me some tips, as well as sharing them with everyone else.
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