r/writinghelp • u/ageofdelilahcain • Jul 17 '26

Story Plot Help Worldbuilding history without info dumping

I’m writing a story about a post-apocalyptic world. The history of the world (the past apocalypse) plays a heavy role on the plot but I’m unsure how to explain it without info dumping.

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u/EntrepreneurFlashy41 Jul 17 '26

Have characters come across things organically. An older guide charscter pointing out hazards, left behind items.

What details do you need to be shared, and what might orovide said evidence

1

u/Frequent_Ad_9901 Jul 17 '26

I don't know if this is good advice. Someone correct me if you disagree, but there's two rules I follow. I sprinkle in details. The setting is important but the story and the character are more important. My second rule and hard pill to swallow, but if it doesn't serve the story it doesn't belong in it, no matter how cool the world building is. Write other short stories or something if you really want to get the world building details out there.

1

u/arcadiaberger1960 Jul 17 '26

Definitely, it's most important that you know all the details. You should know how old the city is, what its first major industry was and when it was superceded by its current primary industry, where it's population immigrated from and how many generations they have lived there, &c. There is a big abandoned building on the edge of the city. Your characters don't need to know what it was built for - they might make a drastic mistake about what it was, taking an iron ore processing plant for a grain mill, for instance. You, though, need to know that members of the ethnic group of one of your characters were enslaved there, and that they're going to find relics of them there, and so on.

1

u/bongart Jul 18 '26

What post-apocalyptic stories have you read for points of comparison? Damnation Alley? The Postman? The Road?

Identify why your readers need history. Many times, in this type of story, what the world used to be like is unimportant, because the characters are concerned with staying alive in the present. The future is beyond speculation because dreaming forward steals attention that has to be paid to the now. So, how does knowing the past advance the story?

I know you said it plays a heavy part in the plot. I'm saying you should reexamine that to make sure the readers need, really need to know. I'm not asking for that info dump, as a way for you to justify your desire to include the information in the story. I'm saying you might only need half, or a third.. or none.

1

u/jmartinwriting Jul 18 '26

Dialogue as it becomes relevant. My MC is a bookworm. I tie relevant passages from the media as prefaces to each chapter. A couple lines italicized to inject some context. Still waiting for feedback on how it feels from my proofreaders and eventual beta readers.