S33E6 - Avoiding the Info Dump: Personalities and Descriptions

One of the fastest ways to pull a reader out of the narrative flow of your story is to inundate them with descriptions. This is especially the case when you do paragraph descriptions of the point-of-view character. No one wants an info dump of what a character looks like. Not unless it's attached to emotion in some way.

This is where showing becomes incredibly important. If you're trying to introduce your character, how they look, and how they are, you do so best through actions. You do so best through giving bite-sized pieces at a time. You may like cheesecake, but you don't eat a whole cheesecake in one sitting. When you introduce the important pieces of your character's personality, it's best to do it slowly and consistently. Show us who they are. Don't tell us.

In this episode, Leigh and Ley break down the best techniques for getting people to fall in love with your characters without overwhelming them with needless breakdowns.

First aired June 20, 2022.