Keep Content Relevant

The first book of a series can be a pretty tedious read. Most of the time, that happens because of exposition dumps. What are exposition dumps? Well, that is what this blog post is partially about. It’s also partially about how to avoid that and why it can be bad for a series if you start off the first book like that.

Especially in the fantasy and science-fiction genre — in genres which are not set in our world and our time where the reader is aware of how things work —, first books in a series or first chapters in a book might be filled more with worldbuilding topics than with the actual characters who should be introduced.
Naturally, the author wants to tell the readers about that cool new world or spaceship or other thing they invented and are going to place the story in. Worldbuilding is a long and tedious process and requires a lot of work from the author. It’s only logical to try and put as much of it as possible into the story so the audience can appreciate it properly.
Unfortunately, the best way of making the audience appreciate the hard work is not to cram it all into the first few chapters or have it take over the first book. Exposition dumps are not the best way to communicate the information the reader will eventually need.

First of all, it is the author who has put a lot of time, research, building, and rebuilding into the world they’ve created. They have focused very much on all the things, be they new monsters or animals, a whole map of the world, cultures, technologies, or other things. They have gotten very invested in that new world and have done a lot to make it three-dimensional and lived in.
The reader, on the other hand, has not gone through that long process. The reader has bought this book in the hopes of having a good time with it. They’re expecting to read a riveting and interesting story with twists and turns and great characters they can grow attached to (or, in case of the antagonist, hate with glee). The world is important to them, too, as a setting, and they can grow to love it almost as much as the characters (or even more), but the world is not why they’ve bought the book.
Because of that difference, the author might find themselves starting the book with a long chapter or two about the world they’ve created, telling the audience about the inhabitants or the history or both. The reader, on the other hand, is waiting for the story to start and wants to meet the main characters and get a glimpse at the stakes.
What to do in that case?

The easiest way to avoid exposition dumps is to be aware that they are bad and that, while you as the author really, really, really want to tell everyone about that cool world you’ve built, it’s not a good idea to do it all at once. Do it as it becomes important. Give readers the information about the world they need to understand where the plot is going. Introduce cultures as they appear. Explain gender conventions as they become important. Give the reader a run-down on the monsters in the woods as the main character travels through one and gets attacked.
Content is relevant when it is connected to the plot, no matter whether that plot is internal or external. Rules of behaviour which the main character detests and ignores, much to their disadvantage in court, can be introduced when they’re first ignored, explaining to the audience that everyone else does X while the main character does Y. The big monster in the lake becomes relevant when the main character goes for a swim in the lake or is hired by the local fishermen to kill it. There’s no need to mention it in the first chapter before the main character is even introduced.

There’s another negative aspect to an information or exposition dump, though. If you dump all information on the reader in chapter one, two, or three, that information might not become relevant at all until chapter thirty-four. Especially fantasy novels tend to be long and it might take the average reader a long time to finish them. Information that is dropped in an early chapter and hasn’t been used before will be forgotten or mostly forgotten by the time it comes up as relevant in a chapter towards the end of the book. This is not good — readers shouldn’t have to sheave through the book to chapter two to understand what is going on in the chapter right before the climax.
The best solution to this problem is to give information if and when it becomes relevant. Before the characters have to climb down into the tomb of the lich, give the reader the reason why they do it and what they hope to accomplish there. Do not talk about the tomb of the lich in chapter one, but in the chapter leading up to the descent.
This is even worse when you’re setting up information about the world which will not even be relevant until book number four of a series comes out. It usually takes years for book number four to be released and by then, the reader will have forgotten most of that information or they might remember things wrongly. They will have built up a lot of expectations about that bit of information and in the end, most will be disappointed this way or that with how you use it. Those who do not remember it will be flustered by the story at the point at which it becomes relevant because they don’t understand what is happening.

Instead of using an exposition dump at some point in the early story, keep the information back until it becomes relevant. Yes, you worked long and hard to create your world and fill it with cool things. Yes, it sucks to have to wait until you can tell people about it. Your readers, though, come for the story, not for the worldbuilding. Give them what they want and draw them in, rest assured they will also grow fond of the world you have created and will appreciate it in time.