Hello,writers.
We’ve talked before about As-You-Know-Bobs, those pernicious info-dumps
that get dropped into dialogue with all the grace of a… of a very graceless thing.
This sort of thing:
“Well, as king of Multibecca, I certainly know howtough it can be to fight off the Gorgons. Having the whole army turned to stone was a real setback.”
“But we did fight them off, sire. In 1273 and again in 1279, thanks to the heroism of that boy with the mirror.”
“Ah yes, the boy with the mirror. What did we execute him for, again?”
You see the problems.
1. People don’t really talk like this.
2. The info being dumped is largely unnecessary.
3. What is necessary could be inserted gracefully in other ways, eg:
“The Gorgons again?”
“Yes, my lord king.”
“Bummer. Get the boy with the mirror.”
“We executed him, sire.”
“
Unnecessary: what the Gorgons do, and the name of the country. Both are
sure to come into the story later. Also unnecessary: the exact dates on
which the Gorgons last attacked. Who cares? The word “again” conveys
that it’s a recurring problem.
(Infodumps are necessary sometimes. The trick is to perform them
without making them look like infodumps, and while something
interesting is going on. To learn more about this, study the Harry
Potter books assiduously. Then get yourself a Pensieve, a Daily
Prophet, some owls, a Snape, and a Hermione.)
Let’s go back to the story we’ve worked on a bit in the last few weeks:
A callow youth (male or female) is the Chosen One who must obtain the sacred jewel of Togwogmagog in order to save the kingdom.
Tonight’s challenge is to communicate some information in a dialogue
without performing an obvious info dump.
The dialogue is between the callow youth and a person who can tell him/her where the damn jewel is hidden and what it will take to get it.
However!
In order to avoid this being a straight infodump, the person who has the info has to be either
1. reluctant to provide the info
2. unsure the C.Y. is worthy of receiving the info
3. not in full possession of the info
4. incapable of communicating the info
5. unsure what the info actually is or means
or
6. all of the above
The dialogue should leave the C.Y. with more information but also more questions.
Give each character an individual voice. Leave out any unnecessary details, including anything that, in a novel, would most likely have been communicated somewhere else.
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