Info dumps happen when a large amount of information is given all at once in a story. Typically, these dumps are about worldbuilding or character backstory. As the writers, we know all these fun details about our characters and setting, and we want to share them with the world. However, most of this information is more fun for us as the creator than for readers. Many people think of worldbuilding and character development as an iceberg. You see a small sliver above the surface, but there is a huge chunk of ice below the water that no one will ever see.
Now if you make it big like Tolkien, maybe you can write a book all about those details and readers will enjoy it. But more likely than not, nobody but you will ever know about them. Writers need to include in their stories only the details readers need to follow the plot and character arcs. Any more, and you risk boring readers into putting the book down. Let’s look at some tips for identifying info dumps, breaking them up, and presenting the information in an effective manner.
Why Do Info Dumps Happen?
When an info dump appears in a story, the author is trying to explain something to the reader. While not all of it is important enough to be in the story, some of that information will probably need to be there. If it’s necessary but readers are still pointing out info dumps, there is one thing going wrong. Book coach Stuart Wakefield summed the problem up beautifully with one concept:
Info dumps occur when writers summarize instead of reveal.
What do we mean by that? Summarizing means that facts are being reported to pass along information. Revealing means that facts are given when someone really needs to know them. I know that sounds pretty similar, but let’s look at an example to clarify the concept. Just a forewarning, I used the panic of drowning in the example so if that makes you uncomfortable, please skip ahead.
Example
I’m going to lay out the example in two versions so we can compare summarizing verses revealing. Here is version one.
Swane was thrown into the lake, his body flailing to reach the surface the moment the cold rush of water enveloped his face. Though he had just taken a deep breath of air a moment ago, his lungs burned at just the thought of not being able to breathe.
His fear of being underwater all started when he was seven years old, and he’d caught his brother behind the barn with their ma’s blackberry pie that was supposed to be entered in the fair’s pie competition the next day. Swane tried to convince his brother to put it back, but his brother refused. When Swane said he’d get in trouble, his brother had pinned him to the ground and nearly choked him to death until Swane agreed not to tell. For good measure though, his brother grabbed him by the back of the neck and smashed his face into the pie, holding him down until Swane was forced to take a breath of blackberry filling. Laughing, his brother left him covered in evidence of the theft. It didn’t take long for his ma to find Swane and punish him for ruining her chance to win the pie contest for the third year in a row.
Breaking the lake’s surface, Swane gasped in air and kicked desperately to stay above the water.
Now, let’s look at version two of this example.
Swane was thrown into the lake, his body flailing to reach the surface the moment the cold rush of water enveloped his face. Though he had just taken a deep breath of air a moment ago, his lungs burned at just the thought of not being able to breathe. The liquid around him seemed to turn thick and stink of blackberries though he knew he’d couldn’t smell underwater. Suddenly he was seven again, his older brother smashing his face in their ma’s pie until he was forced to take a breath of blackberry filling.
Breaking the lake’s surface, Swane gasped in air and kicked desperately to stay above the water.
Can you see the difference between the two versions? The first example has something happen, then it feels like we pause the story to explain the character’s past trauma before we continue with the story. In the second example, we just give one sentence that highlights the most important parts of the memory that impact the present. Readers didn’t need to know about the fair to understand why the man was panicking, just the part about his brother smashing his face into the pie.
Also, the second version gives hints of the memory before it gives answers. The water around the man turns thick and smells of blackberries, which is very odd for someone panicking under water. What I did was get the reader interested in knowing facts, and then I supplied them. In the first version, I just launched into a backstory without making the reader curious first. And there lies the secret of avoiding info dumps. An info dump happens when readers don’t care and don’t want to know. Good exposition occurs when readers are eager for more and want you to explain things.
Back to our motto when it comes to info dumps, we need to reveal instead of summarize. Summarizing has no urgency and no emotional connection. It’s boring. On the other hand, revealing happens when it’s earned and in high emotional moments. Revealing has urgency and emotional connection. If you want readers to want to learn more about your world and characters, you have to reveal and not summarize.
How Do You Evaluate Info Dumps?
Now that we can recognize an info dump, let’s look at how to evaluate it so we can fix it. There are two questions you need to ask about each piece of information in an info dump.
Why is this fact needed?
If you see a fact about your world or character and you can’t explain why it’s important to the story, it doesn’t need to be there. Every detail must affect plot and character. If it doesn’t steer the plot or show character growth, then you don’t need it.
Looking back at my first example earlier, let’s zoom in on the second paragraph that’s an info dump. There are a lot of facts: Swane was seven, his older brother was a rule breaker, the fair was the next day, his mother made a great blackberry pie that won the fair prize two years in a row, his brother traumatized him, etc. Now, are all those facts important to the overall story? Since I made up a snippet and not a whole story, we can’t do this in real time. However, unless this story is happening on the farm and is about Swane reconciling with his brother, I’m going to say we don’t need to know most of those details.
Does it need to be revealed in this scene?
Now, you may have many facts you need in the story for it to work. However, do they all need to be known up front? No. So, when you see an info dump, ask if you need it to understand this scene? If the answer is no, then move it to where it is needed. If you can’t find that scene, then you may have lied to yourself on the first question and don’t need that fact on the page.
Back to my example of an info dump above, what in that memory needed to be there to understand the present scene of Swane panicking underwater? Well, basically just that he once felt like he was drowning in a blackberry pie and is traumatized by it. Everything else doesn’t need to be there.
How Do You Fix Info Dumps?
We’ve identified info dumps and evaluated them, now how do you fix them? You break them up and make them flow with the story.
Break Up The Information
Let’s start with how to break up info dumps so they don’t overwhelm readers. I really like Kat Caldwell’s advice on how to divide up information dumps. She suggests:
Move three details earlier.
Move three details later.
Cut three details.
Depending on how big your info dump is, you may need to adjust the numbers. The idea is that you should divide the facts you dump into quarters: leave, delete, move earlier, and move later. However, make sure you genuinely ask yourself if all the facts need to be there. If you can delete half of them, I’d recommend doing that rather than just moving them around. Remember, if they don’t serve the plot or character arcs, don’t keep them.
Example
Let me pull our info dump example from above down here so we can divide the facts into these categories. For the sake of practice, I’ll say our book is a thriller about Swane getting tangled in his older brother’s crime circle. I’ll bold the facts that should be kept in this scene, *put asterisks around those that should be moved earlier,* and underline those that can appear later in the story. Anything left in regular font can be deleted.
His fear of being underwater all started when he was seven years old, and he’d caught his older brother *behind the barn* with their ma’s blackberry pie that was supposed to be entered in the fair’s pie competition the next day. *Swane tried to convince his brother to put it back,* but his brother refused. *When Swane said he’d get in trouble, his brother had pinned him to the ground and nearly choked him to death until Swane agreed not to tell.* For good measure though, his brother grabbed him by the back of the neck and smashed his face into the pie, holding him down until Swane was forced to take a breath of blackberry filling. Laughing, his brother left him covered in evidence of the theft. It didn’t take long for his ma to find Swane and punish him for ruining her chance to win the pie contest for the third year in a row.
There were only three details in this paragraph that would make an impact in the current scene (of him in the lake). Obviously, the fact that he felt like he was drowning in blackberry pie is important for understanding Swane’s panic. Then I added two facts to increase the emotional impact of the trauma. First, that Swane was seven when it happened. An elementary child experiencing this is a lot more traumatic than an adult going through it. Second, I included that his brother was the one to inflict the trauma. Having a family member do it shows a huge betray of trust that will set the tone for the character arc in this book and also the relationship arc with his brother.
In our pretend novel, I marked three things to reveal earlier in the book: his brother hid his misdeeds behind the barn, Swane always tried to get his brother to do the right thing, and his brother reacted violently when threatened with punishment. These are all things we can reveal earlier to set up a pattern for Swane and his brother’s relationship. We don’t have to use this incident, but these facts should come early in the story.
I only identified one fact to use later, and that’s how his brother left Swane to take the blame. This could happen in present day to the adult Swane, and then we can refer back to how his brother always did this as a kid too.
Everything else in the paragraph isn’t needed for the story. The part about this mother is nice, but the book isn’t about his mom. Readers won’t care she makes great pies or that she loves competing in the fair’s pie contest. None of that has to be revealed to make the story work.
Make The Information Flow
After dissecting the info dump and only keeping the facts we need for the current scene, we need to figure out how to feed the information to the readers without pausing the story. It has to flow. The best way to do this is make the facts pertinent to what is happening.
There are three steps to tie in your facts with the scene. First, bring up an external trigger. Something happening around the point of view character must trigger the memory or the need to know a fact. Second, you drop in only what needs to be known in that moment. Third, bring the scene back to the present and show how that fact affects what is happening now.
Example
I did this in the second version of my example so let’s pull that down here and look at it more closely.
Swane was thrown into the lake, the cold rush of water enveloping his face. Though he had just taken a deep breath of air a moment ago, his lungs burned at just the thought of not being able to breathe. The liquid around him seemed to turn thick and stink of blackberries though he knew he’d couldn’t smell underwater. Suddenly he was seven again, his older brother smashing his face in their ma’s pie until he was forced to take a breath of blackberry filling.
Breaking the lake’s surface, Swane gasped in air and kicked desperately to stay above the water.
Our trigger is being thrown into the lake and not being able to breathe. The facts are put in one sentence about the childhood memory. Then we have an image showing him gasping for air and desperately kicking. He couldn’t have been under the water long, yet he’s clearly freaking out. Why? Because of the info we dumped in the middle for readers to understand the man’s reaction to being thrown in a lake. Without it, Swane feels a bit dramatic. Hence, the info was needed, but only the essential bits.
Final Thoughts
I dumped a lot on you in this post (pun intended), and I hope it all makes sense. Info dumps are hard to grasp when you are first learning to write, but it becomes easier with these few tips on how to handle them. Not all info dumps are bad, but most can be cut down and made to flow seamlessly with the story. So remember: find the boring parts, identify what has to stay, break those facts up, and weave them into your story by making them pertinent to the current scene. If you can accomplish that, you’ll have readers begging for more.
Thanks for reading!
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