Most Common Writing Errors (ONGOING)

Worldbuilding

Read the disclaimer if you haven't already.

This chapter will cover worldbuilding in a more detailed way.

Earlier in this book I covered worldbuilding pet peeves and gave a basic rundown of what I dislike in worldbuilding. Now I'd like to expand on it and give some worldbuilding advice, starting with...

1) Info Dumping

I mentioned in my pet peeves chapter that you shouldn't drop a bunch of information in the audience's lap all at once.

Obviously, every story needs exposition (in most cases, especially in genre fic). Every story does telling over showing in certain areas and that's fine as long as it isn't overused or dropped on the audience all at once.

Typically, depending on the story, I start to notice exposition when there are multiple paragraphs in a row of just exposition and nothing else. I'm fine with a paragraph or two of exposition, or maybe even a little more depending on the story. However, when it starts to get to five, six, seven, or even more, it becomes hard to follow, especially if it's early in the story and/or done in long paragraphs.

I don't like reading walls of text. I took a 20th century Korean literature class. Korean writing is relatively new, and back in the 20th century they were just figuring out how to write, and they had the added obstacle of being colonized by an oppressive Japan that forced them to write in a way that wouldn't put down the government. Korean writers had to get creative and hide anti-government messages behind stories and fancy wording. I bring that up because back then, a lot of Korean writing was walls of text and descriptions. It was like taking two pages to describe a sunset.

I took an entire semester of that. While the stories ended up being fine and very educational about the time period Korea was living in, I would still recommend not using walls of text, whether it be for description or exposition.

I don't mind long paragraphs (standard paragraphs in the US are 5-8 sentences long, so when I say long paragraphs, I'm talking 10+ sentences or 8-10 long sentences), but overusing them can become hard to read.

The reason is because us readers don't have the longest of attention spans. That's why blurbs are typically short and to the point so readers can decide if they're interested as quickly as possible. There's nothing wrong with long sentences/paragraphs and exposition, but overusing them can wear on a reader's attention span and make them want to drop the story.

Now, let's move into exposition early in the story.

Early in the story, you want to hook the reader in. You don't want to give them a gazillion paragraphs of exposition. The reason is because readers will absolutely leave your story if the first chapter doesn't grip them. If you're spending too much time explaining things, readers will get bored and leave. Give them what's necessary to understand the first chapter, but otherwise, I would recommend saving the rest for later.

Even later in the story you don't want to bore your readers by including a crap ton of exposition. Try using different methods to get exposition across instead of just info dumping. For example, try spacing it out more. Ask yourself if the exposition you're writing is necessary for the readers to understand what's going on in that moment. If not, consider cutting it and using it later. You can also give exposition through dialogue (I'll talk more about this later). Lastly, you can try giving exposition in bite-sized chunks. By that I mean, give exposition in a few short sentences, then cut back to what's going on, then give a little bit more exposition. That way it feels like the plot is still moving while you're explaining what's going on.