Toilet thoughts: Important info in paragraph

[ConcubusBunny]

Hello guys, gals and enby pals
While reading a few minutes ago I began to wonder why do some author's put info or world building in a random paragraph.
For me I always use the anime view when writing; whatever I can show within a frame is what the reader gets, all other stuff like extra info or world building will be in exploration of the world or dialogue of the characters.
so for those that do this, why exactly? Do you never get to explore these things in the story but still want people to know of it or what?

 

[Cipiteca396]

If it's an omniscient narrator it's acceptable. Especially if they have a personality, and they're a bit of a spaz.

Otherwise, it only works as a summary of a flashback. MC just spent eight hours reading 'LORE' and here's a summary for the reader.

If it's literally a tangent in the middle of a paragraph, it's bad writing. Point it out so they can rearrange things to be more natural.

 

[killwrites]

Because most people forget that the glossary page where they can worldbuild to their hearts' content exists

 

[SailusGebel]

Cause people are not that smart.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Cuz I dunno where to shove it and it ended up sticking out like a poorly inserted anal bead.

Or i just purposely initiate a backdrop for infodump cuz without it, I as a writer also is lost in the words I churn.

 

[Jemini]

There are definitely very clever ways you can world-build without hitting your readers over the head with it.

In one of my recent (patreon only) chapters, I had this situation where the main cast met up with a nomadic tribe that go around living in tipis-style tents. Only, it's made very clear the tipis are only for the women and children, while the men sleep outside. At a later point, an aspect of their culture is made incredibly clear when the main cast wants to have a private conversation about an important issue, and so they try to go into the tent. All the tribes-men start hooting and hollering in obvious amusement, and it is made clear that the reason is because the men are going into the same tent that the women are also going into.

They all realize their blunder and decide to abandon this course of action and go off into the field a bit for their talk instead.

That's a rather stand-out point in world building that leaves an impression, but there are also many other smaller examples of little peculiar things that I have the people from the tribe doing that I describe in detail accompanied by the action as it's happening. In this way, I simultaneously progress the story while also building the daily practices of this tribal culture. And, in building the tribal culture, every practice is somehow related to the nature of the wider world as well. So, it also serves as building blocks for the world building too.

This is the advantage of proper in-depth world building. When you really stop to consider every single little detail about how one group of people interacts with the other, and how they interact with the wider world, and how they interact with the peculiar nature of the magic systems in the world itself, then you can start building your world one building block at a time. Every single chapter of your story can contain several lines of world building, with not a single word of it being exposition. Rather, just the standard description of your characters' actions becomes a small piece of world building, which adds up with several other similar actions to paint a wide and expansive tapestry of a thoroughly developed world.

 

[trinitys_gadget]

The practice your refering to is called the "infodump," and most "good" fantasy and sci-fi authors don't do it. However, reading a "good" sci-fi work is often like sitting in a camera obsura and studying the image illuminated by some guy on the outside waving around a dim flashlight. It tends to be a bit of a puzzle, and not every reader does well with that. The Infodump is a way to bring the reader up to speed and get on with the Plot.