Joined: 7/18/2011
Posts: 8
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I just panned a sci-fi novel that had a terrific premise and nice character predicament, oodles of potential.
What went wrong was endless exposition of setting, appurtenances, futuristic guff, and lengthy explanations of the obvious. Dialogue was loaded with exposition.
World building is just a backdrop, folks. Character is always downstage front and center.
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Joined: 8/10/2013
Posts: 5
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Setting is a character in its own right. I've been working lately on trying to build the setting into the story as it unfolds, in a more organic way than info dumping, which everyone hates. A hint here and there, bits of description here and there, gradually revealing the world through the eyes of the MC. It's hard work and usually doesn't start to come through until a second or third revision. But this is how I see it being done in writers I really enjoy, so I think its worth the effort to figure out how to do it.
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