12-02-2016, 12:14 PM
One technique you might use to provide your reader with background information (who the players are, why the conflict is going on, etc.) is to use a 'fake book'. Basically, the entire OA setting is more or less built on this via the EG (although this technique is used in many other SF stories, including the Polity Universe by Neal Asher (his How It Is excerpts, for example). In fact, some OA stories will use EG entries (either already existing, or created especially for the story) to provide background or introductory information at the start of a story or even at the start of each section/chapter/whatever.
For your story you might make up something like 'A Brief History of the Terran-Jovian War' or whatever sounds catchy and provides a title that would tie in with the backstory you want to inform your reader about. Then, at the start of the story, or maybe at the start of each section, you have a brief excerpt from the 'book'.
You can have a fair number of these 'excerpts' in your story, thereby providing background info, without having characters give long speeches, or generating lots and lots of 'in story' infodumps. Ok, it technically is in the 'story' but also a bit outside of it.
Hope this helps,
Todd
For your story you might make up something like 'A Brief History of the Terran-Jovian War' or whatever sounds catchy and provides a title that would tie in with the backstory you want to inform your reader about. Then, at the start of the story, or maybe at the start of each section, you have a brief excerpt from the 'book'.
You can have a fair number of these 'excerpts' in your story, thereby providing background info, without having characters give long speeches, or generating lots and lots of 'in story' infodumps. Ok, it technically is in the 'story' but also a bit outside of it.
Hope this helps,
Todd