S33E2 - Avoiding the Info Dump: Your World's History

The history of a world, especially when you're writing science fiction and fantasy, tends to play a large part in the story overall. It is, after all, the history of the world that put the characters where they are when the story begins. Much like when discussing the political balance in your world, discussing its history is a dangerous path. New authors tend to want to explain it all up front so the reader knows everything.

Learning everything in one go, though, means the reader remembers none of it. That's only one of the many reasons to avoid the information dump of history. Leak it in as pieces become relevant to the plot.

In this episode, we discuss tricks to help you avoid giving your readers a barrage of unnecessary information while still keeping track of all of it yourself.

First aired June 6, 2022.