Info dump vs Show don't tell vs charater's thoughts

[Marc]

Hello everyone!

Writing my first novel, and I could use some advice. I am trying to strike a balance between giving the reader enough information vs overexplaining (i.e. info dump) I'm not keen on doing too much with what a character is thinking. I'd prefer to show it in action, but sometimes that's not so easy to do.

My genre is SF, so there's often a bit of explaining that happens. Any rules of the road you can suggest?

Thank you all for your help!

[J.R.]

This isn't something with an easy answer, unfortunately, and it varies from writer to writer and story to story. Some things to think about:

- You should always assume your reader is smart, but not a mindreader.
- It's called story TELLING, not story SHOWING. You're writing a novel, not a screenplay, and it's perfectly fine to do some telling. You can use showing and telling to control the story's pace or to skim over the boring parts. If your characters are traveling and the traveling isn't important, it's perfectly fine to summarize that. When you want to slow the pace, show. When you want to pick up the pace, tell.
- You're writing in a world-building genre, so there will necessarily need to be some explaining. There are several ways you can explain including dialogue and exposition. Try to avoid multiple long paragraphs of exposition where you can. When conveying details via dialogue, be careful to avoid "as you know, Bob..."
- Reveal details only as they are needed and try to weave them into the story.

One thing I'll add -- most writers either underwrite or overwrite their first draft. Underwrite means you write the story's barebones and come back later to fill in the scenes. Overwrite means you overinclude and you go back later to trim away what's not needed. Either way, for your first draft, try to just focus on telling the story. It's the later drafts where you can refine things or add as needed.

[Marc]

J.R. wrote: "This isn't something with an easy answer, unfortunately, and it varies from writer to writer and story to story. Some things to think about:

- You should always assume your reader is smart, but no..."

Thanks for your comments. I was just hoping to see what some of the opinions might be, yours are very helpful!