: I could be wrong but if you're going to avoid telling the audience in an aggravating info-dump you can't introduce a rich complex setting in one chapter, you have to bring in specific details

I could be wrong but if you're going to avoid telling the audience in an aggravating info-dump you can't introduce a rich complex setting in one chapter, you have to bring in specific details when they become relevant to the characters. The city is a mess after a major attack, so where do your characters live? A bombed out apartment building. The city is sealed off, mention the lack of [insert goods here] when the characters need something. They go down to the harbour for a change of scenery, the menace of the navy blockade spoils the mood. Little details, added regularly, build up the setting and give the reader a complete vision of the characters' life and situation, this is a process that can't be rushed.

You should have a list of the details you need in the setting or a clear sketch, if only in your head, of the scene you want to set, check your actual written work against this regularly, it's easy to get off track. You may find that where you went when you do get off on a tangent is better, be aware of that possibility too.

The answers to this question about avoiding info-dumps may also be of use to you.

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: I could be wrong but if you're going to avoid telling the audience in an aggravating info-dump you can't introduce a rich complex setting in one chapter, you have to bring in specific details

More posts by @Kevin153

: How alien can my aliens be if I want them to demonstrate how alien a human character is? Using non-humans to show human failings is a mainstay of Science Fiction but is there a limit to

: The role of inexplicable events in hard science fiction The modern world has few true mysteries, among them the fate of the Roanoke colonists and the crew of the Mary Celeste but do such happenings

: What are some examples of an inciting incident that would force a character to go on a quest or adventure? I've noticed that my novel is missing a really strong inciting incident and I can't

: Scrivener is the writer's go to tool. I use it for my writing, and it stores everything about my worlds, from characters, to maps, to the things in the world, their descriptions, etc. I

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