I suppose this is why outsider POVs (as in the Harry Potter books) are so very common; if the viewpoint character is unfamiliar with the world, it's a perfect excuse for explaining to the reader. An immersive POV is a lot harder. In this case, I suppose I'm doing a combination, since I have several viewpoint characters -- and they do spend an awful lot of time explaining things to each other. Hmm.
I agree that an infodump when a character is introduced is absolutely to be avoided. Those are rarely anything but annoying -- a short paragraph, maybe, but I've read a lot of books that went to ridiculous lengths to fill me in on a character that I'd only just met.
What's giving me a lot more trouble is figuring out how much explanation the reader actually needs when we're 200 pages into the novel. "Write what the reader needs to know" is actually quite good advice, because a lot of the material I'm considering whether to throw out is interesting history on the world, but I suppose it's really not vital for the reader to know the entire history of the war in order to understand why these people are trying to kill each other now.
no subject
I agree that an infodump when a character is introduced is absolutely to be avoided. Those are rarely anything but annoying -- a short paragraph, maybe, but I've read a lot of books that went to ridiculous lengths to fill me in on a character that I'd only just met.
What's giving me a lot more trouble is figuring out how much explanation the reader actually needs when we're 200 pages into the novel. "Write what the reader needs to know" is actually quite good advice, because a lot of the material I'm considering whether to throw out is interesting history on the world, but I suppose it's really not vital for the reader to know the entire history of the war in order to understand why these people are trying to kill each other now.