I was working on the first chapter of a new novel project the other day. (Yes, another new novel project. Let’s not talk about it.) I needed to explain some backstory for my main character, so I started writing. And writing. And writing some more. Four paragraphs later, I stopped and realized what I’d done: I’d info-dumped all over my manuscript. Oh no.
It’s a cardinal rule of spec-fic writing that Info Dumps Are Bad!!! And honestly, for good reason. They stop the action cold, drag readers through details they don’t need right then (and possibly never will), and make world-building feel blatant and jarring. So we should never, ever Info Dump, right?
Well, not so fast.
Sure, you don’t want Info Dumps in your completed manuscript. By the time an editor sees your work, you’ve carefully deconstructed those dumps, scattered the important bits into dialogue and shorter descriptions, and jettisoned everything that wasn’t absolutely necessary for the story. That’s the polish your finished work deserves.
But this is the First Draft we’re talking about, and the rules are different here. You know you’re going to do a second draft. And a third. Possibly a fourth. So it’s okay—maybe even necessary—to break the rules of “good writing” and just let your fingers fly.
Sometimes an Info Dump in the First Draft is how you explore a concept that matters to the novel but hasn’t been fully examined yet. Sometimes it’s everything you want to say about a subject condensed into one set of paragraphs that you already know will be taken apart and sprinkled throughout the rest of your manuscript. And sometimes it’s just stuff you think might work in the story, and you’re giving it a test run. Regardless, it’s not final. You know it’s going to change. And that’s perfectly fine.
Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes the rules of “good writing” get in the way of my creative process. I find it helpful to stop occasionally and remind myself: First Drafts are allowed to have… well, whatever rule was stopping me from putting the words on paper. (Or in the word processor. Or on the stone tablets. Hey, I don’t know your process.)
When I catch myself being stopped by one of these rules, I like to blog about it—partly to remind myself that First Drafts operate on different rules, and partly to share these startling insights with all of you. Because if the struggle to silence the inner editor helps me get words on the page, maybe it’ll help you too.
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