Hello fellow writers! Wow I haven't said anything here in forever! Some would know that my novel is about mainly a medieval setting with a few fantasy attributes, even though they don't have the classic dragon, elf, and sorcery elements. I made sure to set this story pretty different than other popular medieval-fantasy novels by giving characters elements (fire, water, ice, light, dark, etc) as a sense of classification rather than fighting purposes, replacing dragons with a species I created called Dralams, and many new concepts. I've had a bit of a hard time trying to include information about the concepts in this novel. Sometimes I include so much info that it's considered an info dump and it doesn't fit the scene very well, and other times I don't describe enough for readers to understand. From what I know, this is a common mistake. I want to include some new information that I had forgotten to write into the novel, and since I'm about thirty pages into this novel's rough draft, I'm confused on how I should write this info. This information explains the overall setting and why things exist in this setting and referencing some other more extensive information while not expressing too much. The very beginning of my novel jumps right into action and doesn't explain much of the setting which can be difficult to include this kind of information. I think the easiest way to explain the setting were to be the very first paragraph so I can explain more without the worry of writing too much info dumps. The only problem I have with this is because I have always had difficulty transitioning sudden scenes or moments without creating a whole new chapter. The harder way would be to explain the setting in the most appropriate place in the first chapter. I would have to try to fit the mention clearly without it being abrupt or sudden. Thanks in advance for your responses If you were wondering what Dralams were, I have a thorough "documentary" narrated by one of the characters in my novel. You may check it out, but you don't need to. external link removed by mod
I read your passage and you really need to rewrite it. The grammar is rather bad and not all of the sentences make sense. "From the dawn of time, these majestic creatures have little known about them, at least in the public world" "My countless experiences with them have taught me a thing or two. For one, I often find them majestic" Just two examples, I wish you well with the story. NC
"From a very long time ago, I knew the creatures Dralams very well" "Their only purpose is to make dralams appear bigger, hypothetically" "Their bodies are slim, appearing to be malnutritioned. Though their weight doesn’t seem to affect their behavior like other animals" These are fine as notes for you to describe these creatures, but I really don't think these sentences belong in a novel.
If you feel that the backstory to your world is really important for the reader to know, and you can't figure out how to add it without info-dumping, why not try writing a prologue? At least then you'll have the information written down, which can be very helpful in the second draft if you decide to try weaving the necessary information into the story. You don't have to let the readers know everything about your world, and you don't have to give all of the information at the start of the story. Many fantasy readers love to learn about the story's world as they read through the book, figuring stuff out and having the world slowly revealed to them. That's part of what makes reading through the book a second time fun; this time you know everything.
Actually the dralam documentary wasn't going to be added to the novel, it's just a description for those who want to learn what a dralam is. I just wrote it as a short narrative so it would fit with the story.
You're welcome to post it here but we don't allow off site document links Mod hat off: if it requires an explanation it may not be clear to your reader either - my advice would be to find an easy way to explain it (and if its basically a dragon, call it a dragon)