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Working Writers is a podcast about the craft, tools, publishing, and business of writing, hosted by Pete Aldin and Bryan Chaffin.
Pete Aldin and Bryan Chaffin talk about trusting your readers, revealing worldbuilding through your characters, and resisting the urge to explain everything you’ve created. They look at examples from science fiction and fantasy, discuss when backstory actually belongs on the page, and explain why it’s perfectly fine—even desirable—for readers not to understand everything right away.
Chapters:
00:00 Introductions
01:10 Why Info Dumps Hurt Your Story
06:58 Trust Your Reader
11:10 Worldbuilding Without Explaining Everything
20:06 Write for Your Character, Not Your Reader
25:48 What to Do With All That Extra Worldbuilding
31:15 When Research Becomes an Info Dump
37:32 Beware the Prologue
41:40 Outro
Links from This Episode:
Note: Some links below are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.
- Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
- The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
- The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Dune, by Frank Herbert
- The Abominable, by Dan Simmons
[…] Episode 2, Bryan and Pete unpacked the issues caused by “info dumping” (clunky expositions that […]