How to avoid info dump in fantasy world

Hi, I'm currently working on this fantasy story, and is having trouble describing some things without giving too much info in a single chapter.

The 'world' I'm trying to describe has these extra elements that needs to be told as soon as possible, because the story has an RPG style, everything and everyone advances at the same time.

I've read some other fantasy fiction stories, but the kind of stories that have a world completely different with the real world is quiet rare.

I've tried several start points to help the reader understand the situation, so they can get on with the actual story earlier, but most of these 'beginnings' I've tried fails.

So to sum it up, I'm having problem starting a fantasy world.

Help appreciated!

I don't really have any experience with this sort of thing, but why not have a prologue where you describe the world, and then introduce your characters and story in chapter 1? I've seen in done before, and it works quite well. Or you could try to add things in during the story, like when the reader needs to know or through dialogue?

Hope it helped!

A prologue is an option, but a bad one. If a prologue seems info-dumpy people tend to skip straight to the first chapter.

Is it really necessary for the reader to know everything there is to know about this world from the outset. As far as I can see, you only need to include anything that's significant to that scene, and bring in the other elements as you need them.

If your planned beggining involves too many intricacies of your fantasy world, perhaps consider a different beggining. Too much information at the start can be confusing and scary. You need to ease the reader into your world.

Fantasy is also about discovering the alternate world. If we know everything at the beggining, the reader won't be discovering more about the world as they read. Feed us only the critical information as we need it.

A prologue or just give us the info when we first see (read) the element don't dump it all in one place. I don't think tha you will dump all the different elements into the same chapter. That would be bad even if you wouldn't make it an info dump.

Combine the info with the story. If your reader needs to understand the intricacies of your alternate world within the first ten pages, you need to back up. You should probably keep many of the sem things, such as food animals, trees, and familiar races. Even if they don't know how your dragons are unique, they will likely have a rough image of dragons in general. you should not have more than a paragraph devoted entirely to lecturing the reader. Introduce them to the world while setting up your plot in the story. And dont tell them everything about anything unless you have to.

My main suggestion is that, in a very different world, start with the world as it is normal for the characters. In genres dealing with real-life situations, it is often advisable to start with the change in the plot, because no-one really wants to hear how the main character got to the scene where the plot starts/got dressed the day before/what their "normal" life is like (because it's likely similar to the reader's life).

In sci-fi/fantasy, however, as a reader I feel fine with a few scenes of "normality" for the character, providing they're sufficiently interesting to read, to set the scene and show what is usual in the fantasy world. Then, when the plot begins, the reader understands the world and why the problem is... well, a problem!

EDIT: Examples! (from YA authors specifically)

At the beginning of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series there is a scene in which, although the MC meets a pivotal character, there is no real sense of a major problem. Sure, the MC's friend is being a little distant, but other than that, everything seems fine, so we can get a sense of the futuristic world in usual mode before it dissolves into chaos (well, before the MC dissolves it into chaos, more accurately). This also uses the minor problem/subplot of the character's relationship with her friend to ease into the world before the major plot begins. Actually, I realised I've done this myself in a story!

In Ally Carter's first Gallagher Girls book, there are some initial scenes in which everything is normal (although it's not strictly fantasy, the setting is very cool) for that setting, before the actual complication begins. In this case, the reader is kept occupied with the cool setting and some new characters, minor subplots etc, to get used to the "world" before it changes. Again, very effective.

So in short, if you're trying to start at the exact beginning of the conflict, in majorly exotic settings sometimes it is better to step back and show the normal lives of the characters before beginning to shake things up.

An option is that you could make the introduction to this "fantasy world" apart of the story. Like saying your main character " looked out into the purple horizon" if it's purple, or saying things briefly like "the world we live in is flat, literally" if they're 2d or 3-bits. Just include it. Show and not tell. Dont' say "the pizza was yummy". Describe what makes it so, and thus, you have an image.

Also, try to make it brief. Don't go through all the rules and make it long and pointless, because no one will read that >< They want it summed up. If your main character explains their world as if it were something normal, that could work too. Just say things are the way they are just because. You don't describe earth in a book do you? Do we really describe the mechanics of our planet? No, because its ours. If the main character is from a different world, he wouldn't be speaking to humans now would he? Just tell us the jist of it.;

-Shina

Info-dumps should be broken up by need-to-know segments. Other observations, the differences between the world and its settings, should be typical descriptions. Once you establish the nature of the world, then you can probe deeper into its workings if you wish.

I tend to have complex worlds which never get really dealt with, but it is used for consistancy of distances, places and times. Though I must admit, I try to assemble maps like a military wargame with movement records and key events which happen in other parts of the world which later affect the main characters.

The Wheel of Time is an example.