When we hit those paragraphs that are just the author telling you stuff they want you to know about their world, we call them infodumps. We need to show readers what’s different about our world, but the truth is that we don’t think or speak about this stuff very often. Nobody gets on their commuter train every morning and thinks: “Once upon a time this would have been a steam train, but these days modern technology has advanced.” So why should our characters? How do we show our reader what’s different about our world without just dumping it in there? 

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