I’m currently working on a game and the first chapter is nearing 50k words.
I’ve done all the basics introductions to what I can consider the ‘main cast’ and the Main character, however it feels robotic in a way.
Since the story is told from a first person perspective, most of the information given to the reader is from the main character.
The problem comes in with personality, the character would never just speak about something they already know of, so when they are used as a vessel for world building, it feels forced and like a info dump.
My question being what are some methods used to get information across to the reader in a way that doesn’t disturb the natural flow of the story?
Personally when I have my MC in the first person know something the reader does not, they explain it without dialogue. Some people would call it info-dumping, but if you spread the information out it can feel natural.
I’ll sometimes sprinkle in the character’s thoughts on the subject too.
Example from my WIP
My thoughts shift back to the unity between the gangs.
The rumors are now confirmed that they are uniting but it is hard to tell whether it is under one banner when they still have their individual markings. The City of Ryker is a unique place to have a lot of smaller gangs mixed in with larger ones. There already seems to be a degree of understanding between them.
As far as I know, all gang wars between the different factions have ended, and now there are only rare small conflicts. Most smaller gangs should absorb into larger ones, but this is different. They are actively helping each other. It does not seem to be a business arrangement; it looks like cooperation.
I’d recommend joining our monthly discussions in the future. It’s a great place for feedback IMO.
The easiest way is to just have a character who doesn’t know the things that the MC does, and have MC explain the most pertinent information to them. The inverse of the “newbie MC” trope, you might say. You could even add several different pieces of information as different dialogue options, since the reader will see all of them even if MC doesn’t actually say them. I suppose an experienced ChoiceScript player may interpret that as the player setting those facts in a meta way, however.
Possibly complementing the above, you could also straight-up change POV to a different character who doesn’t know those things. For this, I’d say keep it short and tight; I’ve seen a fair few readers who really don’t like extended POV changes (I’m sort of one of them), although it may help if the reader still “controls” the MC even during the POV shift.
Depending on what exactly the exposition is about, you might also have characters debate the facts or interpretations of those facts, which can let you do some character work simultaneously. Of course, this requires that the topic be contentious.
Story elements can be worked into descriptive passages as well, including the MC’s attitude to noticing such details: compare “a wall of missing persons posters” versus “the usual wall of missing persons posters”. I’d advise caution in using this method, though, since readers often skim descriptions to focus on dialogue or character-relevant prose.
Those are the kinds of things I’ve experienced, at least. Obligatory Not A Writer, of course.
Dialogue dialogue dialogue. Readers skim over description but they’re less likely to skim over dialogue. The only way you can guarantee that a reader will remember something is if a character says it out loud three times across three scenes.
If I’m really in a bind where I know the information needs to get out to the reader, but it just doesn’t work, then…well, I won’t say I have one neat trick. I’ve been doing this long enough I probably have a bunch I’ve picked up over time. But one that I really like, if you can fit it in, is to have something out of the ordinary. Have a character bring up a topic they normally wouldn’t, or in a tone or manner they usually wouldn’t, and then have the POV character take note of that, and compare it to what they think of as “the norm.” Gets you character interaction, possibly tension, and you get the information across in one fell swoop.
If you want a worldbuilding element to stick in someone’s mind and feel natural, you can use choices to do it.
Say, if you want to establish that the city the PC grew up in has a lot of canals that people use to get around, you could have something like:
[description of how the canal look today in this weather]
I remember I used to be scared of the water when I was little
I love watching the boat races in the summer
Oof, that time I fell in the canal was horrible
Last winter my friends and I went ice-skating on the canals
Or whatever kind of commentary suits your PC and the genre/world they’re in. That kind of descriptive/self-expressive choice gives the player a moment of breathing room to take it in and absorb what the PC knows.
i get exactly what you mean, and that’s what I’ve been doing mostly.
My problem is how does a character give information on something they aren’t interested in.
normally you get a character that likes or dislikes the subject, but how about someone who just has no interest?
Someone who hates football is much more likely to have a stronger opinion on it in contrast to someone who’s never engaged with it.
