quote:
The vast rolling plains of the Kingdom lay spread across the easternmost aspect of the land and continue for hundreds of leagues beyond the King’s border. The mighty Antir River separates Kallistan from the lesser nations and the vast unclaimed territories of the eastern wilds where great nomadic tribes have roamed for ages. In the southern regions the timeless meandering of the great river has left hundreds of slices of marshy islands, habitable by droves of long-legged white birds and enormous crocodiles. Nearer the estuary where the Antir flows into the Boslin Sea, the breadth of the great river is an enormous expanse of slow moving watery plains.Great flotillas of massive trade ships travel north up the Antir as far as the city of Belts Pass and south into the churning...
Not meaning to beat the proverbial dead horse... this section has the feel of an info dump, but where it falls in the story (at 6500 words in) makes sense. However, it continues as a bit of geographic exposition for two more paragraphs of similar portion, laying out the Kingdom's borders and giving clue to the 'personality' of the Kingdom.
What I desire from you folks here is not so much a grammatical analysis, but your initial reaction to the 'info dump' question. I am really trying to unravel the 'way to do this correctly' for sections of descriptive info. This section begins at a chapter break after a thorough introduction of the MC and her buddies. Thanks for the help.
So in one case I wound up with
quote:
NN years ago [paragraph of Major History] happened, leading to [one or two sentences about the subsequent ongoing State Of Things], and now [a couple sentences regarding what Minor Character recently did to Upset the State of Things].Our Hero, on reading about the Upset on the news, decides to go off and join up with Minor Character.
Over time this has developed into a sort of Style, so if you encounter a small infodump in my writing, you know you need to pay attention because it's going to directly affect the POV character within the next page or so. Or at least I hope it works that way
As to what lives where, ask yourself why we need to know that if we're not on the spot? When your folks travel through there is probably soon enough to know about crocodiles and long-leggeddy birds.
Also, it now occurs to me... why is it this late in the work that we finally need to know this?
As to the location in the book, this is the first time the MC goes out from a tiny village to travel across the whole of the kingdom. I enjoy the maps in fantasy books, but rarely employ them while reading. CJ Cherryh for example includes maps, but offers full rendering of the land in the text, sometimes taking a full page to describe. I am feeling the tendancy to avoid cutting every single word that does not move the story in the exact footsteps of the MC. Description is important, a slower exposition rather than action, action, action... jumping from one fire to the next with little or no coloring.
Then you can refer to any of the places in your description without having to go into geography teacher mode.
Plus, maps are fun! 
More thinkin' ...
Do you have a lot of such points? If so you might want to consider using them as chapter headers, rather than inserting them into the storyline.
The most remarkable job I've seen of that was Neal Asher's Skinner, where the chapter headers served to illustrate the life cycle of the planet, and came full-circle as of the last one. Meanwhile, the story wasn't interrupted by a biology lecture.
[This message has been edited by Reziac (edited January 21, 2011).]
quote:
are you pulling away and becoming an omniscient narrator...
Also, consider why you have so much separated from your MC's POV. Will this be consistently done throughout? If this is your book's style, I don't see too much of a problem with it as long as there's not too much information given at one time.
I remember reading somewhere that you can treat the setting much as if it is another character, and use many of the same rules of characterization. Also, don’t forget to “use what you know.” When do you stop and notice the scenery around you? What do you notice? Have you ever wished that you paid more attention to your surroundings? What makes you not notice your surroundings? Routine? Crisis? Do you sometimes have family/friends draw your attention to a beautiful sunset, or garden? Do you look for landmarks to help keep you from getting lost?
What a character notices can also tell you a great deal about who they are. What a cop notices is different from what a farmer notices. A male character is unlikely to notice shoes, a city dweller is unlikely to notice animal tracks, and a child may not notice the storm on the horizon but might be fascinated by the insect life. When you describe a setting apart from your characters you might be missing the chance to let your audience get to know them better.