I’m sure you’re familiar with the dreaded info dump: that ocean of background and setup which causes even the most talented swimmers to drown beneath waves of irrelevance and get swept away by tides of boredom. If you’ll just throw me a life preserver — a tidbit of conflict that makes the information more meaningful, I might survive.
But perhaps you have never heard of the info hunt. This is more of a jungle setting, filled with insects that buzz and bite, and if you drink the water, you may end up suffering from dysentery. This would be more obnoxious than boring, except that you suddenly realize you’re lost, and can’t find your way out. You’re not sure where you are, and in the worst cases, you may not even know who you are.
The info hunt is sometimes a fear reaction to the info dump, in which a writer is so determined not to dump any information that he or she holds it all back, simply writing the story as if the reader already knows what’s going on. Unfortunately, we don’t.
Other times, the info hunt is more intentional — an attempt to be mysterious, to entice the reader with tidbits without filling in the big picture in hopes that the reader will turn page after page, looking for answers. And perhaps some people will, but I’m not one of them. Confusion drives me crazy. Obviously, you can’t tell me everything at once, but you can give me a starting point, and build from there.
Learning to write a good beginning, especially in science fiction and fantasy, is a balancing act between these two extremes. Often, the only way to know for sure which way you’re going is to give it to readers and ask: Are you bored? Are you confused?
But generally speaking, you can avoid both the hunt and the dump with one, simple concept: relevance.
If we need to know it, tell us about it. That’s our roadmap out of the jungle. As long as you’ve thrown us a life preserver (or a hook, if you prefer), don’t worry about the ocean. If the waves aren’t too high and the tide isn’t too strong, it’s just water. The waves are formed from irrelevance. The tide from boredom, which is less likely to be a risk with relevant information.