Information Exposure Done Right?

[AncestorDuck]

My favorite genre is reincarnation. Having read hundreds of works in this category, I have detected one major flaw.

And that is, as the title already states, information exposure.

Most authors don’t know when to reveal what, how much to reveal, and end up info-dumping everything rather than letting us discover things naturally as the novel progresses.

As an author myself, I struggle with this in my own work. Thus, I want to ask seasoned veteran seniors for advice.

 

[Valmond]

My favorite genre is reincarnation. Having read hundreds of works in this category, I have detected one major flaw.

And that is, as the title already states, information exposure.

Most authors don’t know when to reveal what, how much to reveal, and end up info-dumping everything rather than letting us discover things naturally as the novel progresses.

As an author myself, I struggle with this in my own work. Thus, I want to ask seasoned veteran seniors for advice.

Information exposure like that is a tactic used in the eastern part of the world due to the search engine. I believe this was for Korean novels?

Don’t quite remember, anyway. To help boost their exposure, putting as much in the title as possible was a way to grab people.

Given that they were competing in a sea, they needed a better way to get readers to just look at the blurb.

As a result, you got the insanely long title.

 

[AncestorDuck]

Information exposure like that is a tactic used in the eastern part of the world due to the search engine. I believe this was for Korean novels?

Don’t quite remember, anyway. To help boost their exposure, putting as much in the title as possible was a way to grab people.

Given that they were competing in a sea, they needed a better way to get readers to just look at the blurb.

As a result, you got the insanely long title.

That wasnt my question though... I was talking about the novel itself, not the title. But thanks, I the Duck learned something new.

 

[Valmond]

That wasnt my question though... I was talking about the novel itself, not the title. But thanks, I the Duck learned something new.

Oh right, anyway. I can’t say how to do exposure right, since there are many ways. Though, story wise. What I did for my reincarnation.

It follows two timelines. The main story timeline comes first, and the in between chapters cover the past timeline.

The point of this is to link up right before the finale. What I can recommend, which a lot of readers liked Vita et Mors.

Is to try and pin down a secondary timeline that is important to the story itself. In short, I steadily revealed more over time.

 

[Daydreamers]

I'm nowhere near a veteran or a senior, but I'd say you should reveal only what's necessary to follow the story
everything else shouldn't be revealed until you're deep into said arc or so .
in other words, discovering the world with the protagonist as the narrator is the best choice.

 

[BigBadBoi]

I prefer when the author's slowly reveal lore and worldbuilding either from idle thoughts or through conversation. Infodumps are acceptable when the MC is learning either from a book, a teacher, their parents, in a school setting, etc.

 

[sbdrag]

I think some of it is just from a serialization standpoint - a lot of authors think they need to introduce everything for the story to be understandable, and once it's far enough in, it can be difficult to go back and be like "actually, this could wait until later" like you can with a traditional novel. I noticed the same thing when I went to check out the web novel version of Tsukimichi: A Moonlit Fantasy. The web novel is front loaded with a lot of information that the anime adaptation doesn't introduce until later - when it's more relevant to the plot.

It might also just be a preference of audiences in their home country? Like, playing to genre expectations. I can't speak on that for certain, though.

That said, I personally try to sprinkle lore throughout the story and let the world grow with the story, and use conversations and situations to introduce new bits of lore. While "don't introduce it until you need it" is one way, you can also use lore dumps as nice pieces of foreshadowing for later plot. (I also like Tolkien and Hugo's long-windedness, so my tolerance for lore dumps that aren't strictly necessary to the story might be higher than most.)

 

[Valmond]

I think some of it is just from a serialization standpoint - a lot of authors think they need to introduce everything for the story to be understandable, and once it's far enough in, it can be difficult to go back and be like "actually, this could wait until later" like you can with a traditional novel. I noticed the same thing when I went to check out the web novel version of Tskumichi: A Moonlit Fantasy. The web novel is front loaded with a lot of information that the anime adaptation doesn't introduce until later - when it's more relevant to the plot.

It might also just be a preference of audiences in their home country? Like, playing to genre expectations. I can't speak on that for certain, though.

That said, I personally try to sprinkle lore throughout the story and let the world grow with the story, and use conversations and situations to introduce new bits of lore. While "don't introduce it until you need it" is one way, you can also use lore dumps as nice pieces of foreshadowing for later plot. (I also like Tolkien and Hugo's long-windedness, so my tolerance for lore dumps that aren't strictly necessary to the story might be higher than most.)

Pretty much, people this generation are very impatient. They want everything up front. It is less about playing to genre expectation, and more that it is following the trend on how readers interact currently.

Given that reading level is down in the U.S for instance, you’d see why in the U.S, the earlier something is introduced, the better for them.

This as a result leads to a trend, and more people do the same thing to be able to compete in today’s time.

Last I checked, the U.S fell to a 6th grade level. It was an 8th before.

 

[AncestorDuck]

Pretty much, people this generation are very impatient. They want everything up front. It is less about playing to genre expectation, and more that it is following the trend on how readers interact currently.

Given that reading level is down in the U.S for instance, you’d see why in the U.S, the earlier something is introduced, the better for them.

This as a result leads to a trend, and more people do the same thing to be able to compete in today’s time.

Last I checked, the U.S fell to a 6th grade level. It was an 8th before.

Yeah. Its because we get everything fast now. Years ago, you needed to go to your local shop to get the news. Now, you tip a few words in your browser and get everything.

 

[Nolff]

Pretty much, people this generation are very impatient. They want everything up front. It is less about playing to genre expectation, and more that it is following the trend on how readers interact currently.

Given that reading level is down in the U.S for instance, you’d see why in the U.S, the earlier something is introduced, the better for them.

This as a result leads to a trend, and more people do the same thing to be able to compete in today’s time.

People's attention span this year:

 

[Valmond]

Yeah. Its because we get everything fast now. Years ago, you needed to go to your local shop to get the news. Now, you tip a few words in your browser and get everything.

Pretty much. The issue isn’t that we’ve enormously grown since the turn of the century. It is that we haven’t taken measures to properly grow with the development.

As a result, in lack of some better terms. Despite so much knowledge in our hands, people got dumber.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Last I checked, the U.S fell to a 6th grade level. It was an 8th before.

If I remember the story I heard last night correctly, that was for math. Reading is worse.

 

[Valmond]

If I remember the story I heard last night correctly, that was for math. Reading is worse.

Oh really, what is reading then? Since all I can find is sixth grade as well.

Edit:

Ah, Americans read roughly at a 6th grade level, with a significant portion below that level.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

I typically only reveal pieces related to what's in front of the characters. The readers can make guesses based off things being described. If I'm placing myself in an old western, I'd only describe the buildings around Envy as she walks. If I want to paint a picture of eerie scenery in the same town, I'd describe an empty saloon. I rarely ever do long descriptions, and anyone who read my stories can attest to that.

I'm not saying to do my writing style. I'm more of an entertainer who's better at dialogue and characters than descriptions, but I don't ever really have info dumping problems often.

 

[Valmond]

I typically only reveal pieces related to what's in front of the characters. The readers can make guesses based off things being described. If I'm placing myself in an old western, I'd only describe the buildings around Envy as she walks. If I want to paint a picture of eerie scenery in the same town, I'd describe an empty saloon. I rarely ever do long descriptions, and anyone who read my stories can attest to that.

I'm not saying to do my writing style. I'm more of an entertainer who's better at dialogue and characters than descriptions, but I don't ever really have info dumping problems often.

 

[beast_regards]

Indecent exposure? That's call for some pictures, though I am afraid it wouldn't be allowed.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Put out just enough information to set the stage, and have the characters discuss anything that the reader needs to know. If you need more of an info dump, have a few scenes where the characters research something and either share their discoveries direction (in first person) or through conversation with each other.

 

[beast_regards]

My advice is: Ignore it.

Only situation in which you would have to be forced to obey the literary conventions is when you are submitting the manuscript to some traditional large publishing house. If it is the case, your bar for entry is entirely under the control of the single editor, usually someone formally educated on the subject of some prestigious university, with have absolute and total control over what is or what isn't admittable. Those editors are usually the authors of the various "writing advises" (which cover among other things what is or what isn't infodumping) and if you want to get through them, you absolutely have to submit and tow the line.

However, if you post web novel on the Internet, literally none of it would apply.

Web novels is 90% Internet psychology and 10% literary conventions.

You would deal with the random Internet crowd which in most cases does not have any formal education on the matter, and doesn't know what is right or wrong....

They were told that infodumping is wrong, usually at school, but don't know what infudumping is.

Is there a prologue?

Infodumping!

Is there the text they have to read?

Infodumping.

Is there a letter "B" anywhere in the text?

Infodumping.

Are there images?

Infodumping!

Are there no images?

Infodumping!

Did their cat died and are they sad?

Hmmm.... of course it is Infodumping!

They are thirty alternate accounts in down voting the novel down before you could say "information exposure" let alone explain it.

Your best chance is not to follow the advice of some privileged editor's ted talk, but to do whatever annoys the generic Internet audience the least.

 

[wordsmith12008]

Speaking for myself, I like stories where the setting is explored along the way. Make your protagonist just as inexperienced as the reader and take the reader on a journey of exploration along with the protagonist. Let the reader discover the details as the protagonist slowly discovers the details along the way.

 

[soupsabaw]

For me, it depends on the situation and the storytelling. Sometimes, I info dump when it becomes relevant. One of the stories I'm working on has a pair pretending to be married. A smart and attentive journalist quickly finds them out. She corners one of the two and manages to get him to spill the truth. After the truth is revealed in her eyes and the main character is surprised she was extremely investigative to have noticed such small details, I go on to explain her thought process and how she got from point A to point B.

Other times, I wait for a POV switch to a character who does know what's happening. In my current uploading book, there's a character, Yuri, who is quite knowledgeable of all things, personally gifted by the deity of the book, meanwhile, one of the other main characters, Malaya, is kind of an air head. This book has a lot of characters, so there are quite a bit of POV changes. Whenever it gets to Yuri, a lot of things are casually explained because they're through his thoughts, but when it's Malaya, some things are left in the dust for the reader to try and figure out on their own.