Hiya!
- Alexa Mintah
- Alexandria, better known as Alex or Alexa, is a strange Christian-fangirl-YA-writer medley tucked away in an undisclosed location in Virginia. She loves creating worlds out of keystrokes, discovering adorable ships (platonic or romantic), and becoming besties with clever characters who wow her with love and brilliance. When only half spellbound by her many worlds of words, she can be found working amongst the stacks in her local library.
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I think super long descriptions of places that lasts about four pages is a bit too much if it doesn't fit in with the story or if it's a standalone. I feel that series might be able to pull of long descriptions more since the reader is going to visit the places again. Does that make sense? ._.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it does! Especially with a standalone, because you're only going to spend so long in that world. So if there's 4 pages of description, that description had better really matter. And, in my experience, it can almost always be said shorter and better. :P
DeleteI love it when authors just tie in the details throughout the first few chapters. The quick references to the place or to a certain character that the reader needs to know, the bits thrown into the dialogue. Of course, sometimes we need to know more, but if we don't, I don't want to be info-dumped. :)
ReplyDeleteteensliveforjesus.blogspot.com
:D Same! This is the kind of details and description that I think works best!
DeleteI personally just like when the author slips facts and details in small bits, and strung throughout the story. Long endless paragraphs about things kill me.
ReplyDeleteHaha, same. For the most part, unless the writing is really good, I don't remember the long paragraphs anyway. :p
DeleteIt's a hard call, but my test is to see how bored I become when I reread something I've written. Yes, I can even bore myself, and when I do, I settle down for some serious deleting and re-writing.
ReplyDeleteTMI is as bad or worse than too little. Personally, when I read a book, I prefer to have less and figure out the backstory from what the author gives me. That kind of writing is tricky and takes skill.
That's a good point! If you're boring yourself, chances aren't good that the reader is engaged. :p
DeleteDefinitely agree! And yeah, that kind of writing does take a lot of skill and feedback from others, too, I think. So that you know where you might be going a little too overboard.
I truly skilled writer can slip in enough information without infodumping.
ReplyDeletestoritorigrace.blogspot.com
True that. I guess that's where the skill comes in, figuring out exactly how much info to slip in.
DeleteI think that sharing only as many details as are relevant seems to be one way to go. It's possible that a writer might choose to even withhold details the readers might want to know! I don't know if I can think of any bookish examples, but I did recently watch a movie called The Lobster, in which we get very little explanation for why things are the way things are. We just know through the main character's lived experiences what the significant details are. It really worked for me!
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's a good point, that sometimes it's even good to withhold information. Give the reader only what they need to know in that moment and no more.
DeleteI think it depends largely on the genre. For most spec-fic novels, I would say up to a five page prologue/intro with some back story is a good limit for a true "dump", then just tie in other details as needed. In one book series I recently read, the author would include a couple paragraphs from a fictional history, diary, or fairy tale from the world of the book at the start of each chapter. It was a nice way to hide little hints or funny anecdotes in the story.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point, that spec-fic allows a little more space for dumping. I wasn't thinking of prologues, more paragraphs of description within the actual story, but that's definitely something to consider as well. :)
DeleteOooh, I like that! That sounds like a fun way to do it.
I think that the distribution of the information also matters--whether it's all in the first two chapters, or maybe distributed through the story with a few sentences to explain things as they come up, maybe with a bit more explanations in the first few chapters. That's what makes the difference between a 'dump' and a 'explaining what the heck's going on' which is something most readers actually want to know.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point. Because there are things the reader actually needs to know, but I guess it depends, like Heather and I were saying, on what is absolutely relevant to that moment. :)
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