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Hello Parimis!

 

One of the things that I gleaned out of the last lesson was that something I need to look at is when to release key information.

Often in writing, the character’s backstory is really important to the plot. Maybe the fact that Johnny spent seven years in prison is why he plans to betray the main character. Maybe Amy’s obsession with keeping things clean is to do with her sister getting badly hurt by tripping over something that was carelessly lying about.

 

But guess what? Most of the time, readers will find you just dumping in a huge pile of the characters talking about their past pretty boring. So, there are a few things here that will help you to avoid info dumps, and help you to not slow down your story by making these key points flow in naturally and make the readers want to hear them.

 

Let’s look at Johnny who spent a long time in prison again quickly. Maybe through the whole story, Johnny’s been moody and quiet. No real explanation, but you’ve already hinted that there could be a traumatic reason behind his way of living. Maybe everytime someone grabs his wrist he pulls away quickly or tenses. This will make your readers curious as to what is going on with him. Keep teasing them with little snippets of information, but not giving them all of it <b>until the point that it is key to.</b> Which seems more dramatic: Johnny starting off by telling the MC that he spent years in prison, or, Johnny tells the MC that he spent years in prison under the order of their father as he hands them over to the people who want to kill them? I think we know which is more effective.

 

How can you weave it in? A few methods:

 

1. Hint with body language. (Johnny’s flinching with wrist touching etc)
2. Make the major detail relate to their personality. (eg. Johnny was moody and quiet.)
3. Let the character hint at their past. (eg. Johnny mentions off handedly that he met a guy a while back, thinks he was behind bars at the time.)
4. Don’t tell the readers from the word, ‘GO’ (eg. The reveal at the time it matters most.)

There are more ways, and I’m thinking of going into them next lesson if you guys want to look at this some more!

 

Your task is to write a snippet that is less than 500 words that uses at least one of the four methods that I’ve suggested above to reveal or hint at some vital information.

 

Good luck!

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