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Tips with mitigating infodumps in Sci-Fi?
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I think 2-3 pages of exposition is acceptable, as long as they're used minimally. I would do my best to make the discovery or presentation of said information as natural as possible (embedded in a conversation, textbook the character reads, class/lecture etc.) and not just the narrator flat out describing it in plain text. The only other thing I'd advise is to try to assess each piece of information and ask whether or not it could be revealed earlier or later (possibly a surprise) in order to distribute the length throughout the book more but it seems like you may have already considered that. Good luck.
Definitely make it interesting. If it's just 2-3 pages of listing facts or a description you're going to lose readers. Is there a way to make it a memory?
Exposition is sometimes unavoidable, especially in world-building genres like historical, sci-fi, fantasy, etc.I write historical fiction. I agree with Dana about doing your best to make it natural. I wrote a novel about the heart-lung machine. Pediatric heart surgery isn't exactly the most accessible topic. I needed the reader to have a basic understanding 1) of how the human heart works and what a ventricular septal defect is, and 2) how a heart-lung machine works. For the heart and the VSD, I had my main character, a heart surgeon, explaining to his 11-year-old patient how the heart works and what is wrong with her heart. The information gets across to the reader, and I have a scene that reveals character, both the girl and the MC.
For explaining the machine itself, I had my MC have to seek approval to use the machine from his bosses; he has to take them thru the basics of how it works. I tried to interject some tension into the scene & discussion - my MC really wants to use what he's built, but it doesn't look like much, and his bosses aren't exactly impressed. The scene serves to explain the heart-lung machine, but it also serves to advance the plot: the MC, it turns out, is going to have to prove his machine is safe and works.
Sometimes, though, I do just simply jump in and provide the plain exposition. For example, at one point, a child develops heart block; I simply provided a paragraph or two of exposition explaining what heart block is and why, in 1956, this condition would be a disaster. But I always try to limit explanatory exposition to a paragraph or two. My thought is: what's absolutely necessary, get it in and get out and back to the story as quickly as possible. Straight-up plain exposition generally doesn't just slow your story - it brings your pacing to a dead stop. For what you're describing, I'd try to find a creative way to present the information so as not to bore the reader. I'm not familiar with sci-fi specifically, but at least as a historical fiction reader, 2-3 pages of straight-up plain exposition would feel like a lot, and I would try to avoid doing that if you can.
One other thing I'd add - I don't know your writing process or where you are with your manuscript. Sometimes it is better to just do the information dump in your first draft and not lose your momentum versus wracking your brain looking for a creative solution RIGHT NOW to how to get the information across more naturally. Sometimes as we write, the solution comes. That's what happened with my story with how I ultimately decided to handle explaining how the heart works and what a VSD is - it was only in rewrites that I came up with having my MC explain it to a patient.
I do a lot of info dumps and so far no one has complained, but I'm not a very highly read author so... My main trick is to make it interesting.- write what is really exciting about something in a lot of geeky detail, not just checking boxes
- use what I call pseudo-dialogue. Basically, keep alternating paras from the info-dump with something else (not crap like "hmm" said the other person). So character may be thinking about info dump while doing something else. One para info, one para action. Rinse, repeat.
- juxtapose TWO info dumps. Problem with this plane he's building and its physics vs background on inventors how they contributed to the history of that plane. Wing designed by this fellow who wanted his son to fly, fuel efficiency was increased from blah to bleh when that fellow did.... background story and it resulted in...
- Split out into a format. A brochure about something that is its own scene/section. Sign on a door.
- Break it up. Some info dump happens, then fellow bangs his head on something accidentally. Gets back to the rest in a bit when he has an idle moment.
- Turn info dump into narration. 5 detailed rules of sneezing is boring. The story of how they came to be could be interesting.
Even pure exposition can be dramatized. Can you structure it in a way that leads to a climax? If it's a machine, how it will work until it fails. Same with a physiological function.
If you have another character there, or even an AI like a ship's computer, you could break some of it up with dialogue. Have your MC and another talk about parts of it. If this is about discovery for the MC, you could have the ship's computer answering some of his questions about it, thereby filling in the reader's knowledge of it at the same time.
Doctor Who started out with the companion concept so that the Doctor would have someone to explain things to that they already know but the audience doesn't
If the person is "discovering" something on their own, maybe mix some internal monologue to expose their thought process along with bits of exposition to vary things a bit?I'm thinking of how The Davinci Code ended, for example, where Langdon in mentally realizing what's beneath the pyramid at the Louvre.
Mod
Many if these are good tips. The hardest part is when all characters in a scene know the info, which must be understood to move on, but the reader does not. I've tried the dialogue trick, before, but have learned it should only be used sparingly.
embellish the scene. meaning, stretch it out with exposition sprinkled in. rather than these two or three pages alone, turn it into a whole chapter. think of it as the comedic relief episode, or the bottle episode, or something.if you really want the reader to know, just explaining it isn't going to work anyways unless that person regularly reads non-fiction, maybe. so the characters might have different understandings or opinions on the thing and as the talk slightly above the reader's knowledge level little bits and pieces of exposition will be revealed.
Are there ever times where you just have to go on for 2-3 pages of exposition? This information has to be clear to the reader before the story goes further, but I'm worried about the amount of telling it involves.
Thoughts?