I need more caffeine before I can write, so in the meantime, here's a thread about a SFF writer's great bane: info dumps!

You need to convey so much information to the reader in SFF, and you need to do it in a seemingly effortless way that doesn't disrupt the story. HOW?!

When you can, I'm in favor of conveying stuff like worldbuilding implicitly. Show us characters moving through the world and living in it, and let the sensory details and daily life habits and such speak for themselves rather than pasting your worldbuilding notes into the book.

But sometimes you just need to tell your readers a thing. Important history or backstory, plot-relevant details about how the magic system works, critical offscreen actions or developments. And you have to do it without the story's momentum grinding to a halt while you explain.

First: consider WHERE you put your info dumps. This is so crucial. The temptation is to dump info on your readers early, so they have context--But early on, your readers are still trying to get a grip on story & character, and too much info is overwhelming and often meaningless.

Similarly, watch out for clumping too much info together. It can be tempting to be like okay, you're sitting down with the Knowledgable Character, so I'm going to take advantage of this to tell you ALL THE THINGS. But readers can only absorb so much at once.

When I'm editing, I often wind up asking myself okay...When do the readers really *need* to know this? Can I move this info later, to get it away from the beginning or to avoid dumping too much in one scene? When will they have the story context for it to have the best impact?

There are also a bunch of very different strategies for conveying info, all of which can work quite well (or not).

One is to pepper it casually through the book over time. A little line here, a clarifying thought there, until the readers have the whole picture.

The key for this method is to find ways to work it naturally into thoughts and conversation, so people aren't just suddenly spouting random facts about a thing that they have no reason to be talking or thinking about.

Another tactic that can work well is when you have some big important cool piece of lore, sometimes you can build mystery around it until the reader is really hungry to learn about it. Then they'll be EAGER to read a longer info dump when you finally give it to them.

Another tactic that's great for making an info dump interesting is to inject high stakes. If you're playing a deadly game with a wraith who tells you a truth for each good move & kills you if you lose, your readers are more riveted than if a friendly wizard is expounding at you.

Sometimes you can get really creative. Like, I loved the footnotes in JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL! So much!!! But that wouldn't work for every book, of course.

One thing that's key is to respect the flow of the scene & story. Sometimes you can get away with just having a character tell the story over a fire or whatever, and sometimes that will be super contrived and awkward and grind everything to a halt. Trust your instincts here.

I often work info into dialogue, where multiple parties have different bits of info/clues and they're putting it together. In these scenes, I find I almost ALWAYS have to go back and trim them down afterward.

My rule for info dumps: ramble in drafts, cut ruthlessly in edits!

However you do it, general things to keep in mind:

* Pacing - Will the story hit this info dump like a brick wall?

* Need to know - Is it actually relevant to the story or do you just like this piece of random worldbuilding?

* Buildup - Are the readers anticipating this info?

* Implicit/Explicit - Do you actually need to state this info, or can you deliver it implicitly?

* Emotional Impact - Can you deliver this info in a way/time that will give a character Feelings?

* Tension - Is there dramatic tension in the info scene? Can you up the stakes?

* Minimalism - If you're trying to get past the info quickly to not interrupt the flow of the story, have you made it compact &/or snappy? Can you cut/condense?

* Voice - If you decided to go big and make this a storytelling moment, is it compelling? Does it enhance the mood?

* Seamlessness - Does the info fit smoothly into the scene, blending in and flowing well, arising naturally from what characters are seeing/saying/thinking?

* Timing - Is this the best place to put the info? Would it mean more to the readers earlier or later?

It's okay if you have to just spill the info on the page in a first draft! I know I spend a LOT of time in edits moving info around, changing how I convey it, cutting stuff readers don't need, clarifying, upping the stakes & making characters learn things more actively, etc.