description and overkill
Writing by Jana on Friday, 16 of May , 2008 at 3:01 pm
I don’t like anything that pulls me out of a story, and prologues/flashbacks can do that quite often as they usually take the form of a huge infodump where multiple names and dates and gods and events are thrown at the bewildered reader with reckless abandon.
And until I care about the characters and their plight; all that infodumping just reads BORING and my eye skips ahead until there’s something actually happening.
There are of course exceptions and blah blah blah — standard disclaimer and all that — but when the prologue/flashback fails, as it does often, it sticks out more memorably then when it works.
I’m writing about this because I’m struggling with this in my current WIP.
These people have a history, a religion, rituals, ceremonies, styles of dress, symbolism etc. and so do the other people and cultures living within their society and I want that to come across in the story without it slamming anyone across the head.
How does the writer accomplish this? What’s the fine line between being descriptive and just plain reciting facts like a text book?
One thing I do know for sure, is that I don’t like having every detail or foreign thing explained to me when I’m reading a fantasy novel. I like being ignorant in that respect, and figuring out the foreign thing on my own and being shown its meaning and function through story and action, not expository essay.
The same goes for setting. With a foreign world or city it’s easy to want to explain every nuance, but I’d rather get a sense of the world through my own mind’s eye and not read it in excruciating detail.
I suppose this is why first drafts and red pens go so well together.
Category: 2YN, Fantasy, writing
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Comment by pauleen/wolfsfury
Made Friday, 16 of May , 2008 at 4:57 pm
Yeah, this sort of things are always puzzling.
I prefer a mix of the writer describing something, through a characters eye or not, and learning things about the world through the characters daily/weekly actions like going to a temple for example.
But to write such things yourself is different, but I am sure you will find your own solutiun.
In the mean time: Good Luck!
Comment by Hanesya
Made Saturday, 17 of May , 2008 at 2:08 am
I like ‘Blood & Rhetoric’.
I think, when anyone opens a book and enters a world an cultures they haven’t seen before, it is up to the author to embed them in that world. For that, you need to show them, teach them, but I agree, you also don’t want to be infodumping. I think through dialogue and action everything can be made clear as things happen.
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Made Saturday, 17 of May , 2008 at 2:25 am
[...] description and overkill9 hours past by Jana There are of instruction exceptions and blah blah blah — accepted denial and every that — but when the prologue/flashback fails, as it does often, it sticks discover more memorably then when it works. I’m composition most this because I’m … [...]
Comment by Vivi
Made Monday, 19 of May , 2008 at 3:03 pm
I agree! My brain goes into snooze mode when I hit infodumping flashbacks. I also detest mountains of description. A little bit is okay, but it shouldn’t take someone three pages to describe a button. Just give me the basic idea, and let me fill in the rest.
Comment by Soleil Noir
Made Monday, 19 of May , 2008 at 5:26 pm
I got nothing in the means of helpfulness, Jana, as I’m suffering with this in another story. Everyone always just tells you not to infodump but I haven’t seen anything that actually explains how not to do it. And even then, not every method will work for every writer. I’m still looking for a way to shut off my internal editor from babbling about things that really don’t need to be explained yet. *grin* sometimes I think I’m explainning it more for myself than the reader.
Comment by Jana
Made Tuesday, 20 of May , 2008 at 7:39 am
I get the weirdest pingbacks : /
Uh, anyways; thanks for your comments guys and gals. I know this is a common problem that crops up, and that we’re all trying to find that same balance; unless of course it happens to come naturally (if it does — I despise you!)
I suppose a big part of the problem is constantly hearing that we’re supposed to “Show NOT tell!” and that can make the sanest writer (oxymoron?) somewhat paranoid.
Ah well.
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