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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40220
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Explain what needs to be explained as it becomes relevant rather than trying to present all the information in one go. This has certain advantages:

- it avoids dumping all the information on the audience in one indigestible lump.

- it actually makes the world feel bigger.

Info-dumps tend to bore readers to tears so avoid them: instead tell your readers the rules of magic that have bearing on a casting in progress, or describe a particular world only when the protagonist reviews the data files on it. Explaining your world one piece at a time tells the audience without actually saying it that the universe is too big and too complex for any one person to know all about it, or indeed all about any part of it. The example that came to mind when I saw this question was the _[Night's Dawn Trilogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night%27s_Dawn_Trilogy)_, in almost every section of the story we're presented with information about the universe, but very few if any sections of the narrative are pure exposition.

Original score: 50