Get to the Point, Already!

There is a fine line between giving your readers enough information to know what’s going on, but not telling so much that they don’t need to keep reading, or as its known, the dreaded info-dump. On the one hand, your story has to make sense and not leave your readers floundering to understand, but you also have to engage your readers by drawing out the details in an organized but tempting way.

One way to drop enough hints about your story is through engaging dialogue. No one wants to read page after page of lecture notes, so why would they read as much content of one character telling you everything you ever needed to know about her life?

Beyond that, ask yourself how much the readers really need to know. Do they need to know the type of brick used to make up the house? Do they really need to know the color of your main character’s car? It might be relevant to the story…maybe your MC is a muscle-bound thug who drives a pink Volkswagon. That’s pretty significant. But if he drives a regular car, is the color all that important?

It can be hard to watch your word count fall apart as you whittle away at the unnecessary parts of your story, but your readers will thank you for it, probably by wanting to read the next piece you write!