Writing Roots

Backstory is a wonderful thing that will help make your characters feel rich and developed. Authors need to at least know the important events that led a character to where they are when the story begins. Those pieces of history can help readers empathize with the plights of your characters. Too much of a good thing, though, is a terrible thing.

When it comes to backstory, introducing it in small doses is best. You don’t want to overwhelm the reader with paragraphs of flashbacks and reminiscence in middle of a story. More than likely, you probably think the reader needs to know more than they actually do in order to understand a character.

It’s also helpful to remember that sometimes the slow reveal of a character’s past is more interesting. It builds suspense and a sense of curiosity. We all like a little mystery, after all. Ley and Leigh discuss how best to share backstory without it becoming an information dump.

First aired June 23, 2022.

The post S33E7 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Backstory appeared first on Writing Roots.

One of the fastest ways to pull a reader out of the narrative flow of your story is to inundate them with descriptions. This is especially the case when you do paragraph descriptions of the point-of-view character. No one wants an info dump of what a character looks like. Not unless it’s attached to emotion in some way.

This is where showing becomes incredibly important. If you’re trying to introduce your character, how they look, and how they are, you do so best through actions. You do so best through giving bite-sized pieces at a time. You may like cheesecake, but you don’t eat a whole cheesecake in one sitting. When you introduce the important pieces of your character’s personality, it’s best to do it slowly and consistently. Show us who they are. Don’t tell us.

In this episode, Leigh and Ley break down the best techniques for getting people to fall in love with your characters without overwhelming them with needless breakdowns.

First aired June 20, 2022.

The post S33E6 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Personalities and Descriptions appeared first on Writing Roots.

Every character has skills. Every character learns new skills. The question is, how do we – as authors – show that? The reader needs to know that this character knows other languages, or can fight, or is the fastest crocheter in the west. Do we just give the fact a paragraph and move on?

Never. Instead, let it bleed into the character. Their words, their choices, their jokes, their enemies. Every facet of your character’s skills and growth are part of the journey, not something dropped into a paragraph we’ll soon forget. You must avoid the info dump.

Listen to this episode for advice and examples of how to best show the complexities and skills within the characters you’ve built.

First aired June 16, 2022.

The post S33E5 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Character Abilities appeared first on Writing Roots.

When you’ve spent time and effort creating a magic system for your story, you naturally want people to know just how awesome it really is. The magic is, after all, one of the major elements that draws people into their love of the fantasy genre. Even if we’ve spent hours and hours crafting each piece, each spell, each category, the chances that the reader needs to know everything is incredibly low. And the chance they need to know it all at once is simply zero.

If your plot requires the use of magic for the solution, you definitely need to explain the magic, how and why it works, and what limitations the characters have while using it. There are ways to go about that in a way that doesn’t overwhelm the reader with a mass of information they’ll inevitably forget. You must avoid the info dump.

Listen to this episode for advice and examples of how to best show the wonderful magic system you’ve built.

First aired June 13, 2022.

The post S33E4 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Magic Systems appeared first on Writing Roots.

It would be impossible to show every aspect of a culture within a story. Whether you’re representing a real culture or creating a fictional one, there are too many facets to fully display. You may be excited about it and want to show it to the world, but that leads you quickly into the trap of exposition and information dumping.

There are easy ways to show the beauty of your story’s cultures without boring the reader. It comes down to knowing what’s actually important. Hosts Leigh and Ley discuss the various tips and tricks in this episode.

First aired June 9, 2022.

The post S33E3 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Your World’s Culture appeared first on Writing Roots.

The history of a world, especially when you’re writing science fiction and fantasy, tends to play a large part in the story overall. It is, after all, the history of the world that put the characters where they are when the story begins. Much like when discussing the political balance in your world, discussing its history is a dangerous path. New authors tend to want to explain it all up front so the reader knows everything.

Learning everything in one go, though, means the reader remembers none of it. That’s only one of the many reasons to avoid the information dump of history. Leak it in as pieces become relevant to the plot.

In this episode, we discuss tricks to help you avoid giving your readers a barrage of unnecessary information while still keeping track of all of it yourself.

First aired June 6, 2022.

The post S33E2 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Your World’s History appeared first on Writing Roots.

Exposition – also known as information dumping – can drag a story down more effectively than any other form of bad writing. When you spend too much time explaining a detail to the reader, they are pulled from the story or lost in the mire of unnecessary details. It boils down to telling instead of showing the story.

One of the most common things to be explained in an info dump is the political structure of your world (especially if you’ve created your own world and politics tie into the story). It can be difficult to step back from this intricate thing you’ve created and really see what the reader needs to know. You may want them to know everything, but they don’t need all of that in order to understand the story.

There are tricks to explaining a political structure without needing to take paragraphs or pages of space to do it.

First aired June 2, 2022.

The post S33E1 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Your World’s Politics appeared first on Writing Roots.

Misunderstandings happen. Sometimes it’s the reader skimming too fast and missing a detail. Sometimes it’s the author who named two characters too similarly. There’s not much you can do about the first problem, but you can take steps to minimize the opportunity for misunderstandings.

In this episode, Ley and Leigh discuss some of the most common times for a reader to get confused in a story and what you can do to mitigate the problem.

First aired May 30, 2022.

The post S32E9 – Misunderstandings Between the Reader and the Story appeared first on Writing Roots.

Emotions are complicated, difficult things that tie humanity together or break them apart. Emotions are what keep readers invested in stories. Readers will care about the characters and what they experience. Good authors know how to tap into the right emotions to make that happen.

It is too easy to accidentally evoke the wrong emotions. That can happen in a variety of ways, from an unsympathetic main character to poor writing. To tap into the right emotions at the right time – anger when you want the reader to hate a character, sorrow when your character’s heart breaks – is a skill that will take your book from good to great.

In this bonus episode, we break down the four main emotions: anger, happiness, sadness, and fear. Then we dig into how to convey these emotions in a way which your reader will feel them as they devour your books.

First aired May 28, 2022.

The post S23 Bonus – Evoking the Right Emotions in the Reader appeared first on Writing Roots.

Content and trigger warnings are becoming increasingly obvious throughout our daily lives. Warnings in the form of ratings have been around for a while on movies, shows, and video games. They’re becoming increasingly popular to include in fanfiction and online writing forums. We even use them on our podcast when we’re going to be discussing more sensitive issues. However, there’s a strong debate in the writing world about whether or not they should be included in published novels.

There are uses to trigger warnings. After all, they help people avoid encountering situations which may bring back unwanted emotions. It’s important to remember that your readers live vicariously through your works, and each one has a unique and varied history they bring with them. However, there’s a strong debate that fiction – especially in literary form – is a launching point for confronting the difficult aspects of the world and our lives. There’s also the possibility that some warnings may act instead as spoilers.

In the end, it’s up to you. But you’ll want to make an informed decision. We discuss the whys and why nots in this debate episode.

First aired May 26, 2022.

The post S32E8 – The Debate About Trigger Warnings appeared first on Writing Roots.