How Much Background Info is Enough? A Checklist.

By Mar Preston, @YesMarPreston

My Dave Mason police procedural series is about the Santa Monica Police Department and the city itself, a tourist destination with a colorful background, present, and future.

I love Santa Monica, but will others care that much? What is critical information for me, the story teller, and a historical aside to someone else? This checklist is for me as well as you:

* What’s your main story? Think of it a as smooth, linear narrative and then think of a python with a big expository lump coming through.

* Can you fix it so something happens while the data dump is coming through?

* Is this a section in which nothing happens but a lot of expository information is set in to bring the reader up to date?

* How can you rewrite this until you can get across that information—and make the story progress at the same time?

* Can your character have a good reason to explain all this to someone else?

* Can your character read this info in a report, see it on TV, do an internet search?

* Can you do this in dialogue while something exciting is taking place?

* How can you show this rather than telling it?

* How can you reveal the critical information a little at a time by creating tantalizing hints?

* Ask yourself. Could I leave this out? Is this important? Are you sure?

* If it’s important, ask yourself whether it needs to be told now? Can it wait?

* Is this much description of the setting necessary? Why?

* Is this a personal rant? Some passionate opinion you just have to get in somehow?

* Is your reader an idiot? If not, how hard do you want a reader to have to work?

Mar Preston is the author of No Dice and Rip-Off, both set in Santa Monica and featuring Detective Dave Mason of the SMPD and his community activist girlfriend.