I'm not sure I've ever headdesked so hard over a story in my life.

[agilebrit]

So, I've had my Epic Bear Battle. The villains are vanquished, my good guys saved the day, huzzah!

And I have now realized that the Falling Action going down to the Conclusion consists of a ginormous friggin' infodump.

I hate infodumps.

Someone just shoot me.

Comments

[kensieg.livejournal.com]

David Weber does/did info dumps and he's a best selling author.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

And, you know, maybe he does them in a way that doesn't feel info-dumpy and I'm just bad at it. This is a possibility I'm willing to explore. But I loathe writing exposition. I'm writing a story, not an essay.

I guess I should just write it and then fix it in editing. But I am so, so, so very tired of this thing. I don't remember being this sick of Won His Soul, and the lengths are similar and that one was more emotionally draining. This one has different stresses.

[kensieg.livejournal.com]

Definitely just write it and fix it in edit. You have overcome other obstacles in writing this story. If it's stressing you so bad that you can't sleep or eat, then put it aside.

From a reader's pov Weber's infodumps aren't very 'dumpy, they're just conversational. Only experience makes exposition better. Compare his first book with his latest.

[sunnyd-lite.livejournal.com]

write the info dump - it gets it out of your brain and somewhere you can play with it But you know this! Was undecided between my "It's all right I have more scotch" and this icon.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Well, I think I've avoided the dumpy stuff, anyway. Good GOD I am so happy that's out of the way.