cornerofmadness

Now that I have the internet back, I can get back to this. I have three ideas and I'm likely to forget them if I don't get at least one done.

But before I get into it, my friend ES sent me this link and another friend, Hoss, said the site in general is a great resource. I'm inclined to agree and should probably bookmark it. 25 Steps To Edit The Unmerciful Suck Out Of Your Story It's funny and helpful. (I tend to do #1 and forget to ever go back). It's also written as if I would, so you know, it has swears. I fail routinely at editing so I should print this out and tack it next to the computer.

So onto my writerly ways. I recently read The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson. I highly recommend it but that's not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to use it to illustrate one of my biggest problems. Fantasy world info dump. I admit it, I sort of suck at this some times. I AM getting better at it and even as a reader, I almost want the info dump even if I know it'll be boring because I'm SO impatient.

In The Rithmatist, Sanderson does a great job of delivering information on his fantasy (actually alternative Earth) world so much so I didn't realize the point in the brackets until down the road a little. It's not an easy thing to deliver info in little digestible packets. There is this urge for many of us to write it all down and get the reader immersed in the world. I call it 'my uncle's method of getting into the pool.' He'd knock you into the cold-assed deep end ready or not (He was a jerk). You're in it up to your eyeballs but your system is also shocked by the cold.

Usually the reader isn't shocked so much as bogged down. Info dumps can be difficult to get through and then the reader does one of three things and none of them are things you want 1. grits their teeth, bear it but come away annoyed at having to have to make the effort. 2. tosses the book back onto the TBR or get it the hell out of here piles. 3. Skims until something exciting happens.

The other bad way of dealing with it is not giving enough for the circumstances surrounding the characters at that moment. It doesn't do to confuse the reader. They tend not to like it and go through steps similar to the ones listed above for dealing with the info dump.

The The Rithmatist handles it in a way I would like to emulate. Little spoon fulls, just a taste of the world a little at a time. it's enough to not leave the reader going 'what in the hell is going on?' but not so much they're mired to their eyeballs in blatant world building.

I confess to being a dumper. I think one of the best ways to help yourself get over this is to find books in your genre, in my class like The Rithmatist, and study them. See how a successful novelist does it. From what I've seen, being like an onion, peel back one layer at a time is the best way to go about this.

Thoughts?

STILL waiting on my edits. I'm beginning to wonder what's going on even though I KNOW it takes time to do this and I'm not the only thing they got going on. SO impatient.

Yearly Word count (Upped for the second time) -