Tag: writingtips

Avoiding Information Dumps

Quan

While critiquing a fantasy novel written by a colleague of mine, I made the observation that the vast majority of her first chapter was exposition explaining the world and its backstory. Nothing actually happened until Chapter 2 when the story REALLY began. In my book, that’s a no-no. I’ve explained in a previous post that using chapter one to focus on worldbuilding was a possible way to start off a novel, but it must be done with great care and precision to be able to get pulled off successfully, and I don’t think just any writer can do it. But this also speaks to a larger point, which is having large chunks of exposition and what I call “Information dumps” in a story. The problem with an information dump is that is grinds the flow of the story to a halt (or in my colleague’s case, prevents the story from even starting) so that you can explain whatever necessary tidbit of information you think is essential for the story.

Granted, When writing Sci-fi or fantasy, or any story where there is technical information that must be explained, certain exposition scenarios are unavoidable. If you have a piece of futuretech to be used in story, you HAVE to explain how it works. But even in those instances, there are ways to make that work that will not slow down or stop the flow of your story. Here are a few options to consider:

1. Sprinkle details of your exposition throughout your story.
I think this is effective because it adds extra depth to your story and doesn’t reveal everything at once. I used this method when Setting up the world and science of Godmode. As Elijah explores his environment, the reader learns and experiences things as he does. The key is to have the information you want to deliver be relevant to whatever situation your protagonist is in at the time.

2. Break your info dump up with actions and dialogue.
This is an option when you have an active narrator, like in a first-person perspective story. While your perspective character is explaining your world’s history, or that complex technical detail that is vital to the story, also show your character actually doing something and interacting with his or her environment at the time. This serves the purpose of moving the story forward while also explaining that vital information tht the reader needs to know.

3. Make an appendix.
You also have the option of taking that technical information and backstory and placing it in the back of your book as an extra bonus. This also adds a layer of depth to your story. A story with an appendix has a different feel than a story that doesn’t. It adds an extra gravitas to the story, because if it was major enough to need its own appendix, then it must be VERY major, right? Footnotes and annotations also count. Terry Pratchett used footnotes masterfully in his Discworld series.

These are just a few options you can utilize to get all of that pertinent information into your story smoothly. Give them a try and see what works for you.

As mentioned, Pratchett was an absolute master of adding to his world via footnotes and annotations. And they were also hilarious. Here is one of my favorites from his Discworld series of books.

Picking Through the Remnants of Unused Stories

Quan

Like most writers, I have gotten a lot of story ideas. We get bombarded daily by “what if” questions that are begging to be answered in our own particular style, with our own particular voices. It would be foolish not to record these ideas. Even if you cannot utilize an idea now, it is something you very well might want to revisit at a later date.

Sometimes, that “later date” actually arrives. I was in the midst of promoting my sci-fi horror novel Godmode and I had gotten the itch to start writing a new story. Problem was, I didn’t have any new ideas to explore at the time, not that I wanted the hassle of building on an idea from scratch anyway. So I picked up my old archive of unused ideas and undeveloped concepts and thumbed through them to see if there was anything that struck me at the time. It is always good to keep some kind of record of your unused ideas, whether it be some kind of database, or a journal, or a folder of notes, or something. I have folders of unfinished comic books in storage, as well as CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs full of stored ideas and unfinished manuscripts. It was my unfinished comics that game me inspiration this time, and I decided to adapt one of them into a series of novels.

Some of my best projects have come from recycled ideas. All of my webcomics were continuations of ideas I had come up with back in my college days, and the current stories I am working on now are ideas I had ten years ago but never did anything with.

Sometimes an idea you come up with can be literally ahead of its time, so it might need to sit and percolate for a while as you mature as a writer and as a person. Once you’ve built up skill and confidence in your craft, and acquired more knowledge and wisdom, then perhaps you might be ready to tackle that idea and give it the attention it deserves. This was the case with the manuscript I’m seeking representation for as of this post, an urban high fantasy epic with very deep political and socioeconomic themes. When I first drew up this story as a four-issue comic book series back in the year 2000, I was only scratching the surface of what I could do with this story. But 14 years later, I’ve grown a lot, learned a lot and seen a lot, and now I’m more prepared to plumb the depths necessary to truly tell this story.

So when sifting through your pile of lost ideas, how do you choose which one to dust off? It’s not an exact science. You can go by feel. Which of your old ideas is speaking most to you at that moment? Writers have a mysterious intuition for stories, where one idea or concept burrows its way into your mind and won’t leave you alone until you do something with it. Does one of your old unfinished stories do that to you? Is it begging you to come finish it and won’t get out of your head until you do? Then that is obviously the story you need to be picking up. Or your motivation could be purely financial. Which of your story ideas is the most marketable? Compare your ideas to what is popular now, or what might be popular in the future, around the time you finish your story. As of this writing, there’s a big surge in popularity for Young Adult adventure books starring white, teenage females. Before that the hot thing was Young Adult high fantasy starring white, teenage boys. If your idea fits what’s popular now and you can crank a book or three out of your idea within the window of that genre’s popularity, then go for it. Otherwise, think about the future and try to gauge what the next trend will be, and see which of your book ideas fit. Of course, some concepts are timeless (re: anything that can be easily adapted to a movie). So if that’s the way you want to go, then you might want to consider that.

Okay, so now you’ve picked your story to rehash…now what? You need to look your idea over and figure out what it was that made you abandon the story in the first place. Maybe the subject matter was too personal, or maybe the story has a character in it you can’t quite figure out. Maybe the concept was too big to wrap your head around at the time. I have one story idea in mothballs because it would involve extensive worldbuilding and research into a foreign culture – in my case, feudal China. I also would have to delve into a myriad of different kung-fu fighting techniques, and figure out how to portray them properly in prose. And that’s in addition to the usual character and plot development stuff – involving nine different protagonists (yeah, my story idea is a little on the ambitious side). I’m not ready to do all of that…not yet, at least. Regardless, once you figure out what stopped you the first time, you need to attack that issue head on and figure out a solution. Or work around it, and develop all of the other aspects of the story you are more comfortable with. For instance, if one important character is an enigma to you, then develop everybody else first. Sometimes, working on another aspect of the story will actually present you the solution to the aspect that is bothering you.

Once you open your mind and focus on that story, you will be surprised at the things you notice around you that will help you develop it. Information in the news, or in conversations with your colleagues, or stuff you see in other media, will feed your idea. There were stories I’ve found on the internet that I otherwise couldn’t have cared less about, but now that I’m in tune with my new/old story idea, those articles particularly stand out. When you think like a hammer, everything becomes a nail. So start hammering away! 

BTW, One of the best examples of successfully rehashing an unfinished story is M. Knight Shaymalan’s Unbreakable/Split/Glass trilogy. check out the Wiki on how Glass was made. It’s absolutely fascinating.

Writing Your Batman Story

Quan

I’ve been told that every halfway decent writer has at least one good Batman story in them. I agree. Batman is a beloved character, and can be placed effectively in almost any type of story.

For instance: I wrote an alternate universe treatment with the bat family as counterterrorist agents instead of superheroes. Also, I want to write a trippy, futuristic Batman story, starring a grown-up Damien Wayne (Batman’s biological son and the current Robin) wearing the cape and cowl,  based entirely on Prince’s Batman soundtrack. Have you read his lyrics? Wow. It would be Damien going up against the Sadistic, hedonistic PARTYMAN to stop him from flooding Gotham with the deadly psychadelic drug “Lemon Crush.” I probably won’t ever actually write it, but it would be pretty darned cool.

I have a few more doozies in the vault. I would divulge what my treatments are, but I’m saving them in case DC ever comes calling.

Now, I wonder what YOUR Batman story would look like…

You might wonder just exactly how you can make a Batman story if you don’t normally write superheroes. This is where Batman’s versatility comes into play. So, beyond the usual superhero fare, Batman is also the World’s Greatest Detective and a master specialist in hand-to-hand combat. So if your writing forte leans toward Crime, Detective stories or procedurals, and even thrillers, Batman is a perfect character to build a story around, even without the superhero baggage.

Is steamy romance your thing?  Batman has gone through numerous relationships. He has been romantically involved with Vicki Vale, he has a love child by his arch-enemy Talia Al Ghul (instant baby mama drama!) and was recently left at the altar when he tried to marry Catwoman. There are even stories that have him hooking up with Wonder Woman, and one particularly creepy (for all the wrong reasons) tryst with Batgirl. You can play into the conflict between Batman’s mission and his need for intimacy.

Are you a Sci-Fi or fantasy writer? Batman’s gadgets and futuretech should be right up your alley, and Bats has even thrived in fantasy settings. He has literally fought Demons, Vampires, Zombies, and Sorcerers, and has been portrayed as a literal “Dark Knight” on multiple occasions.

Wanna do Horror? What can be more terrifying for a criminal than a being stalked by a man-sized bat in the darkness? You can also play into the mental illnesses of the bad guys (Hannibal Lecter has NOTHING on Batman’s rogues gallery) or how scary it can be for victims of the bad guys. One of the Bat villains LITERALLY specializes in inducing fear, in fact.

If family drama is your thing, you can’t get more dramatic than the Batman family. He is an orphan himself, and has raised no less than four young men who all have quirky personalities and issues with each other. Everyone connected to Batman has dealt with personal and even familial trauma, from Commissioner Gordon with his vigilante daughter and sociopathic son, to Harley Quinn’s abusive relationship with The Joker, to the complicated family tree of Ras Al Ghul, Talia and Damien Wayne.

Batman is also a master of disguise and an expert intel gatherer/saboteur, so espionage and political thrillers would also be a good fit for him. You can also cover political drama and conspiracy theories via The Court of Owls, or personal stories of trauma and recovery like when Batman’s protegee Dick Grayson (Nightwing) got shot in the head and went through a total personality change in his recovery from that. And Batman’s dry wit and gallows humor could lend themselves well to comedy writing. He was even put into a Japanese Samurai story to great effect. You can put Batman into literally any story scenario and have a basis for a compelling story.

A good Batman story is no different than a good Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple story. It’s just a good detective/crime/superhero/horror/thriller story, starring Bruce Wayne. Even if you don’t ever intend on approaching DC with your Batman story, you can still make one. Just replace Batman with an original character that has similar traits, or grab one in the public domain, and voila! Instant original story you don’t have to worry about getting sued over.

A simple way to get started is to take a story or trope within a genre you enjoy writing about, and simply ask yourself what would happen if it were Batman starring in the story instead of your usual protagonist. What would be different? What can and would Batman do differently than your usual protagonist in handling the situation? How would the circumstances of the situation react to him? Would any of is allies and enemies be involved? And then you just build from there.

Just to illustrate my point, here is a story where an evil, twisted version of Batman shows the real Bats different versions of himself in other lives, where his story plays out quite differently.