I have several story ideas in the works, and one problem I keep running into is one character needing to explain a bunch of information without it sounding like a monologue. I've tried breaking it up by having the second character ask questions and react between bite-sized pieces, but it hasn't turned out well. Google keeps bringing up character development or sends me to sites that show how to write great monologues, but nothing about how to avoid that.
Can you offer an example, either of one of your actual ideas, or an idea close enough for the discussion to be worthwhile?
also don't assume it all needs to be conveyed at all... you need to give the reader the minimum ammount of information required for them to enjoy the story and to fill in the gaps... that doesn't mean description is bad, but limit it to the important stuff then convey some of it in exposition, some in a dialogue or character thought and dribble bits of it through the story don't put it all front and centre. and when dealing with dialogue at all costs avoid "as you know bob" scenes, where one character tells another stuff they both already know in order to show it to the reader
I agree with @big soft moose. A lot of writers err on the side of conveying too much information. It is expected that you will know a lot more about your world than the reader ever needs to find out.
also you may find its worth just writing it as an info dump to get the first draft done and then sorting it out on 1st self edit since once the story is complete you'l have a better picture of what info is needed
I actually like the idea of a conversation taking place between two (or more) characters that conveys outside information. However, there are a couple of pitfalls that are best avoided. One—the one everybody has probably heard before—is having your character telling stuff to another character that both characters already know. "As you know, Bob, our mother died a year ago today." Two is creating a boring infodump. Don't. Instead, use this as an opportunity to not only impart information to the reader, but also to develop character. Both of the characters. The WAY the information gets told, and the other character's reaction to it, can be hugely beneficial to the story. Don't be afraid to let this unfold slowly, if the context is appropriate. Think about the last time you had somebody tell you a bunch of stuff that happened to them. How did that go? What kinds of emotions did they seem to experience during the telling of it? What were your own reactions as the story unfolded? And how eager were you to hear the whole thing? Of course you can have the recipient ask a few questions during the course of the event, but be careful this scene doesn't turn into an emotionless infodump broken up by leading questions. Work hard at building both characters and the relationship between them. You want the information you're sliding in there to stick with the reader because of its emotional content—and perhaps elements of surprise—but you also want the delivery to be painless to the reader. You don't want the reader to get bored and start skipping important information in order to get to the next scene. So make this scene as emotional and relevant as you can, within the context. Don't concentrate on what the reader ought to know. Concentrate, instead, on delivering what the reader is dying to know. Make the reader WANT this information. Then your job will be easy done.
You want to bring out information through events, which may include dialogue, but basically it should be set-up in such a way that allows your characters to naturally talk about and/or think about relevant backstory things, if that makes sense. Infodump is when information is just jammed in willy-nilly. Exposition is when the information is relevant to the scene. So what makes your scene impossible to understand without X piece of information? For me personally, I love flashbacks. It's not exactly advised by the writing community at large, but my word I love them, and I'll use those to do exposition from time to time. However, these will tend to be character-centered.
If telling the information in dialogue try the other person's point of view. Having a different perspective on the same thing can add to character development by showing someone else's feelings. It can also provide a way to hide information until a later date. For example, I have a scene where my two main characters are talking. Female character is taking to male character about her abusive ex boyfriend, She lived through the abuse and talking about it might trigger painful memories (flashback possibly). But how does male character feel about her and how does he feel towards her abusive ex boyfriend? Both points of view (including internal thoughts) are different. Whose are more important to the scene depends on the rest of the story and how important each character is to the story. Whose point of view is more important for a particular scene could change depending on how your story develops. Could the character tell several people little bits or have several conversations with the same person? What about the failed conversation that never talks about the key subject? Sometimes we steer a conversation in a particular way either so we can avoid something or so we can say it. (The failed conversation(s) could just be referenced, they don't always need to be seen). Could that be as relevant as the conversation when they tell all? Or could you show the information as a journal entry or an email/text? Their reasons could be shown which then could show so about their personality.
I particularly like your suggestion about the 'failed conversation that never talks about the key subject.' If you can create enough interest in the reader, when the time comes for the character to spill the beans, the readers will be invested in the situation. In other words, tease the reader a bit ...let on there are some important things yet to be revealed, but don't reveal them immediately. (Don't drag this out too long either, or it will simply be annoying.) Instead of telling the reader what they need to know, tell the reader what they WANT to know. Slightly different emphasis, but hugely different impact.
A character who needs to be told things can be useful. Take the first Star Wars film: when Luke meets Ben Kenobi, we get an info dump on the Empire, Darth Vader, Luke's father, the Force and lightsabers. But it's fast and much is left unsaid in a fairly short scene and enjoyable. Frankly it does a far better job of telling that history than the prequel trilogy does.
Indirect dialog moves high speed. It's basically tell winning over show. You can use it to rocket through explanations. I spent the next hour explaining the fundamentals of a radiator, 50/50 mixes and brittle hoses and the importance of a sound water pump. "And never drink from here," I said, tapping the drain plug. So you can have a long conversation off-scene, as it were (perhaps built up a bit more than my example). Then you jump back in for the good parts. It builds an enormous dialog in the reader's mind rather than on the page. You can give an instant of something technical without sounding like an owner's manual leading up to it. There's lots of benefits.
I'd say don't tell the reader, let them find out! A good example are the gold coins in John Wick. No one stops to explain the economics of those things. The first time we see them, John Wick has just killed a bunch of people. He picks up a stack of coins and then hands them to his corpse cleanup crew. We see from how he uses them, and what value they hold, that each individual coin is quite valuable. And they drop us little hints throughout the movies about where the coins come from. Don't break the tension. Tell the truth, have your characters only do and say things that they would actually do. And drop in little circumstances that help show how these things work. The reader will figure it out.
I would agree with making the first draft a raw info dump, then worrying about coming back and refactoring it later.I would suspect that a lot of the info that you want to dump will have natural places to insert it in the next couple of pages of your story.
