Discworld and avoiding Information Dumps

A vital storytelling lesson from Terry Pratchett's fantasy series

I’ve made no secret that the late fantasy author Terry Pratchett is in my personal Mount Rushmore of authors (Isaac Asimov, Grant Morrison and Christopher Priest are the others). I always enjoy reading his immersive Discworld series of novels, for their funny and poignant views on traditional fantasy tropes and the world in general. One of the things I enjoy about the books are the antec dotal information the Pratchett includes in the plethora of footnotes that permeate each book. with each foot note, he takers the time to explain or comment on something within the story that may or may not need explanation. One example is when the villains of his book Guards! Guards! take an oath and use the word “Figgin” like it was a swear word, when the footnotes reveal it as just a common pastry that people eat at lunchtime. while being hilarious, these footnotes also add to the lore, mythos and worldbuilding of the Discworld, and give you vital information about the story and the world without overloading you with what I call an “information dump.”

To me, an information dump is any large chunk of exposition or explanatory text that does not actually move the story forward. It’s that huge paragraph explaining how some fantastic dohickey works, or that whole page of text explaining the history behind the setting the story is in. You can find this in just about any story, but it’s most likely to be found in stories that has elements that need to be explained, like science fiction, high fantasy or historical fiction. The problem with an information dump is that is grinds the flow of the story to a halt (or in my colleague’s case, prevents the story from even starting) so that you can explain whatever necessary tidbit of information you think is essential for the story.

While critiquing a fantasy novel written by a colleague of mine, I made the observation that the vast majority of her first chapter was exposition explaining the world and its backstory. Nothing actually happened until Chapter 2 when the story REALLY began. In my book, that’s a no-no. I’ve explained in a previous post that using chapter one to focus on worldbuilding was a possible way to start off a novel, but it must be done with great care and precision to be able to get pulled off successfully, and I don’t think just any writer can do it. But this also speaks to a larger point, which is having large chunks of exposition in a story.

Granted, When writing Sci-fi or fantasy, or any story where there is technical information that must be explained, certain exposition scenarios are unavoidable. If you have a piece of futuretech to be used in story, you HAVE to explain how it works. But even in those instances, there are ways to make that work that will not slow down or stop the flow of your story. Here are a few options to consider:

1. Sprinkle details of your exposition throughout your story.
I think this is effective because it adds extra depth to your story and doesn’t reveal everything at once. I used this method when setting up the world and science of Godmode. As Elijah explores his environment, the reader learns and experiences things as he does. The key is to have the information you want to deliver be relevant to whatever situation your protagonist is in at the time.

2. Break your info dump up with actions and dialogue.
This is an option when you have an active narrator, like in a first-person perspective story. While your perspective character is explaining your world’s history, or that complex technical detail that is vital to the story, also show your character actually doing something and interacting with his or her environment at the time. This serves the purpose of moving the story forward while also explaining that vital information that the reader needs to know.

3. Make an appendix.
You also have the option of taking that technical information and backstory and placing it in the back of your book as an extra bonus. This also adds a layer of depth to your story. A story with an appendix has a different feel than a story that doesn’t. It adds an extra gravitas to the story, because if it was major enough to need its own appendix, then it must be VERY major, right? Footnotes and annotations also count. As mentioned before, Terry Pratchett used footnotes masterfully in his Discworld series. in some instances, he would use multiple footnotes for a single item, or in some rare instances, the footnotes even had their own footnotes.

These are just a few options you can utilize to get all of that pertinent information into your story smoothly. Give them a try and see what works for you.