How to Reveal Your World Without Info-Dumping
Instead of dumping information your readers like this truck, shovel it out, a little bit at a time.
You’ve spent weeks—maybe months—designing the world of your story. Now, it’s finally time to take everything you’ve built and bring it to life on the page. You have the right motivation: you know how much you love good worldbuilding in the books you read and you can’t wait to introduce your future readers to the beautiful world that you’ve built for them.
There’s just one little problem. You have SO MANY DETAILS to work in and so little space on the page to work with.
You’ve probably heard of info dumping—the dreaded moment when an author dumps pages and pages of information on readers all at once—and you’re afraid of falling into that trap.
But how do you find the sweet spot between two little and too much information?
Unfortunately, there’s no magic rule or worldbuilding word count to hit, but there are some guiding principles that you can use as a starting point.
Here are my four best tips on making your worldbuilding clear on the page without overwhelming readers with details:
Tip #1: Write in scenes and focus on the information that’s relevant to your character in the present moment
Writing in scenes is the untold hero of fiction writing. In my humble opinion, it’s the #1 tool you can use to master “show, don’t tell” in your writing (you can read about why in this blog post) and it’s your best defense against info-dumping. When you write in scenes, you’re forced to focus on your story in terms of concrete events. Specific, meaningful things that happen to your protagonist or other POV characters.
How can that help you avoid info-dumping?
Simple. It pushes you to focus on the world information that is important to the specific, meaningful event that is happening on the page and cut out everything else.
But what about details that are going to become important later even if they aren’t 100% relevant right now?
First, you have to ask yourself if the detail is truly going to matter in the future. Examples that make the cut: crucial aspects of the magic system that will be used to save the day, a historical controversy that’s going to erupt into present-day conflict, a crucial design flaw in the castle that is going to be exploited in the turning point of the final battle.
These are all great elements to front load so that readers are aware of them before they become essential to the plot. Actually, you should front load that information, especially if it’s helpful to your characters—otherwise it might end up feeling like a cheap trick. The key is to make sure that each of these details feels purposeful when it’s revealed and in the future.
Instead of just explaining the magic system, have it play a crucial part in an unrelated situation so that we see its full power before the MC uses it to save the day. Show us the lingering prejudices through a scene in which characters trade barbs. Then, we’ll be ready when that conflict boils over into violence. Have someone mention the structural flaw in that castle early on and have someone else shut them down or wave it off. Those moments can all happen quickly or become plot points in their own right. Either way, make that reveal make sense in context and readers will be more likely to remember that information when it becomes important later in the story.
Tip #2: Put descriptions in the context of actions
It’s easy to slip into lecture mode as a writer. After all, you’re the god of the world you’ve created. You know everything about everybody all the time. But rather than expostulating on and on about the history, magic, or geography, try to reveal the world as your characters interact with it.
Don’t tell us that the region is known for cooking the best lamb. Show your main character salivating as they stop at an inn and are blown away by the succulent meat stew.
Don’t tell us that the green aliens hate the blue aliens. Show them fighting or trading nasty insults.
The same is true when describing settings. Instead of just telling us what the inside of the castle looks like from your god-like, distant point of view. Tell us what it looks like to your wide-eyed protagonist when they’re invited to the king’s banquet for the first time. Or, describe what it looks like to your grizzled, war-hardened general when he comes back from fighting on the king’s behalf to find him drinking and carousing all day.
Each of those descriptions will be tinged by your POV character’s experiences and emotions, making for a more engaging read that also pulls double-duty by helping readers get to know your characters at the same time.
Instead of having Steve tell Bob information he already knows, have Steve and Bob argue about the fine details and develop the world in a way that engages readers instead of making them roll their eyes.
Tip #3: When using dialogue to reveal information, make your characters argue over the details
This is an important corollary to point #2. Dialogue is a form of action, so sometimes writers are tempted to stuff all of their worldbuilding into conversations between their characters.
That can work, but only if there is a legitimate reason for your characters to have that conversation in the first place. Otherwise, you end up with “As You Know, Bob” dialogue.
Here’s an example:
Steve: As you know, Bob. We are conscripted soldiers and we’ve been sent here to fight off some purple aliens that showed up on earth two years ago.
Bob: We sure are, Steve. Boy has it been a wild ride!
There are two big problems with this dialogue. First, it sounds completely unnatural. Second, there is no legitimate reason for Bob and Steve to talk about this issue in this way.
The solution? Make it a disagreement.
Let’s try this revision:
Steve: Two effin’ years fighting those purple shits and we’re still here, still losing. What’s the point?
Bob (shrugs): You want us to surrender? Let them take us up in their space ships and probe us.
Steve: This ain’t a Scooby-Doo movie. What would they want to probe us for? Sometimes I wish I’d run straight into the woods and disappeared the day they landed.
Bob: You’d be dead.
Steve: And this is better?
Version two tells us a lot more, doesn’t it? Even better, in this version we’re learning about the world and the characters. The difference isn’t just that Steve and Bob are arguing. They’re also speaking in their own voices. We’re getting information about their attitudes and their motivations. Even more importantly, they’re saying things that they might actually say to each other in this situation.
In the end, the best way to reveal your world is to let those details come out in the voices of your characters whether that’s through internal or external dialogue.
Tip #4: Identify your MCD or minimum clear description and stop there
At this point, you might be looking back at your manuscript, wondering how you can cut out every bit of exposition and narrative description you’ve added.
Don’t do that.
Having too little description is equally problematic—particularly for your readers. We want them getting lost as in immersed in the world, not lost as in baffled by it.
Telling is sometimes made out to be a dirty word in fiction, but sometimes you just have to tell your reader things.
And that is perfectly fine. As long as you know what to tell and how much to include.
When it comes to your worldbuilding, try to find your personal MCD—the minimum amount of description that you can provide while still creating clarity for your readers. The MCD could shift depending on what you’re describing or where you are in the story. There isn’t one set target that you’re aiming for. It’s something you’ll have to test and refine and adjust throughout the revision process.
Which brings us to the final and most important tip…
Tip #5: Get feedback!
I’m not a big fan of writing rules, but there is one unassailable truth that I stand by: you need to get feedback on your work.
It could be from a friend, a family member, a critique partner, a beta reader, an editor, or a combination of those options, but you need external feedback to truly understand whether you’ve hit the mark or not.
Why? Because you know too much and you can’t unlearn all of the worldbuilding details you’ve created.
In writing, we make logical leaps. It happens when we make an implicit connection between two pieces of information without realizing it. Because we have more context and information about the world, it takes less for us to get from point A to point B. As a result, we often leave out critical information that our readers need to fully understand what is happening.
Those logical leaps don’t make you a bad writer, just a human one, and unfortunately those leaps are pretty much unavoidable.
At some point in the process, you need to have someone read your work so that they can tell you where they get confused. They can also tell you where they’ve gotten bored by the information or where the details become overwhelming.
The good news is that there are plenty of people out there who are willing to help (myself included!). And once you know where you’ve made logical leaps, you can step in and fix the problem.
I hope these tips help you avoid the dreaded info-dump so that you can write better, more engaging worlds.
Happy Writing!
