[LJ Story] Part 7 & mad plot bunnies?

[thorarosebird.livejournal.com]

I've posted part 7 of my story on my journal and would be very grateful if people could take a look... it's an conversation that reveals some backstory that will be important later on. But I tend to be heavy-handed with dialogue so if anyone could tell me how to improve and how to make this sound more natural... well, I will love you forever!

http://thorarosebird.livejournal.com/5534.html

Rating: PG
Genre: Fantasy
Length: approx 2000 words

And to make this more than an advertisement, I've been struggling to keep to one project for years, and it's even cropped up now. My question is, how do you deal with multiple, tantalising plot bunnies when you should be concentrating on one? Share your experiences and techniques with the pesky things. ^_^

thorarosebird

Comments

[katherineokelly.livejournal.com]

it's an info-dump conversation that reveals some backstory that will be important later on.

Don't be surprised if your wording above scares people off from clicking or commenting. "Info-dump" is typically a bad thing, meaning too much info piled on the reader all at once instead of weaving it smoothly into the story. Ditto on the "backstory that will be important later on"--it seems to make chronological sense to put backstory early on, but you've got to hook readers with the present and tantalize them with present circumstances enough to make them want to read pages of backstory. If it's not important now, it'll probably come across as boring, possibly make your reader put the book down before she gets to the later section and goes, "Ohhh, that's why!"

Avoid all info-dumping. Trickle relevant past informations throughout your story in tiny sips. Use foreshadowing instead of a block of info that "will be important later." Tease your readers with current intrigue to make them want to hear that backstory that lead to it.
Otherwise a huge chunk of info-dump in the past is really more like an author's notes to herself to include in the future, and that wouldn't be something polished enough to share and ask for criticism.

[thorarosebird.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'll take another look at this and see if I can work some of it in later on.