Not necessarily Ed Wood bad, but something like "The Thing From Another World" or "Invasion of the Saucer People". Those movies were always shot on the cheap, and made with the sole purpose of giving American teenagers the weekly dose of invading aliens that they demanded. The writers weren't skilled, the actors had never even heard of Stanislavski (not that you can blame them, what with Communism and all) and the special effects crew had to make things happen with a lick and a promise.
I ask because those movies were almost always guilty of obvious infodumps. They frequently had two scientists talking, and then decided that it was a good place to give the audience a bunch of information. What makes these infodumps so bad it that apparently the two people talking both had the information the audience lacked. Because of this the films almost always began their infodumps with a line that went something like "Well, as you know Bob..."
If you write that line today, William Shakespeare will personally rise from the grave and devote his undeath to making you watch a continuous loop of The Room, Zombies vs Vampires, and Are You Scared 2. There is simply no excuse for that kind of a clunker any more. There wasn't an excuse then, either, but really it could be argued that they didn't know any better.
Last night I wrote the first 1961 words of Eastgate. Story advanced a little bit, but I'm genuinely afraid that I did way too much infodumping. I didn't just insert paragraphs from the Encyclopedia Britanica article on Eastgate (cause I have a TARDIS, and Grant Morrisons penchant for getting pulled into alternate dimensions... and if you don't get those jokes, you have some reading and watching to do), I dribbled here and there during a chase sequence. But in the end, I can't help but wonder if, when someone gets their hands on this manuscript, the reader will go "I don't care... make with the action."
This invariably leads me back to the problem of establishing a world. How much information does a reader need to immerse themselves in this other world. Do they need to see the peeling paint and feel the rusting metal under their feet? Does population density matter? Should you even bother naming streets?
I'd argue that, strangely the second question has to at least be answered with a vague yes. This is a story that deals with a ghetto that's got twice the population density of Manhattan, but without the fancy skyscrapers to hold it all.
I'd love for people to feel the rusting metal, but how often to I need to mention or or to talk about why things are rusting, or how the city's layout impacts these things? If I name the streets, will it give the reader the ability to map the story in their mind, or will the names just confuse them?
I don't want to wave a pamphlet called "Every fact ever about Eastgate" in the face of the reader and demand that the wade through it to get to the story. I mean, ideally I'd love to give them every fact, but I know they don't need everything. I also know I have to trickle it all out, but that leads to the worry of "What do they need NOW, and what can I save for later?"
I guess I should look on the bright side. This is the Zero Draft. The Vomit Draft. This is where I just dump everything on the page and then come back and put it all together like legos, right?
Zero Drafts suck.
Tally ho.
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