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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40221
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40221
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

You want to spend as little time as possible on "setup". Even one page of nothing but setup is too much.

The reason for that is that the reader is not yet invested in your story. You'd be forcing a reader to read something akin to a fantasy-encyclopedia about something he has no reason to care for. That's boring, readers aren't going to do that.

Instead, you can introduce elements of worldbuilding organically, as the story demands them. Introduce a character (not necessarily the protagonist, but someone for the reader to follow) straight away, and through him introduce the world bit by bit.

One example, and the reason I mentioned the character we follow in the first chapter doesn't need to be the protagonist, is _Harry Potter_:

> Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much, They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense. (J.K. Rowling, _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone_, chapter 1 - The Boy Who Lived)

Following Mr. Dursley through his day, we are introduced to various strange occurrences. By the end of the first chapter, we know there's "our world", there's magic, which is hidden from the "normal people", and that's pretty much it. Much later, throughout seven novels, we continue to discover the structure of the magical education system, legal system, what magic can and can't do, etc. It isn't dumped on us all at once, before we even learn there's a boy named Harry. Instead, once we have a character we enjoy following, we experience the wonder of the magic world through the character.

Another example, _The Hobbit_:

> In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.  
> It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. (J.R.R. Tolkien, _The Hobbit_, chapter 1 - An Unexpected Party)

Tolkien needs to introduce a worldbuilding element straight away - what are hobbits, what kind of place does the story start in. So he does that, in a way that's engaging, and creates a vivid image in the reader's mind. But that's pretty much the only element Tolkien introduces straight away. We are not treated to the whole History of Middle Earth before the start of the story. Indeed, even Gandalf is introduced as "a wizard" - we do not learn of his role in the world until much much later.

In _The Left Hand of Darkness_, Ursula Le Guin needs to introduce that's even stranger to us than Middle-earth.

> It starts on the 44th diurnal of Year 1491, which on the planet Winter in the nation Karhide was Odharhahad Tuwa or the twenty-second day of the third month of spring in the Year One. It is always the Year One here. Only the dating of every past and future year changes each New Year's Day, as one counts backwards or forwards from the unitary Now. So it was spring of the Year One in Erhenrang, capital city of Karhide, and I was in peril of my life, and did not know it. (Ursula K. Le Guin, _The Left Hand of Darkness_, chapter 1 - A Parade in Erhenrang)

What Le Guin told us here is "we're in a different world, take nothing for granted". Actual worldbuilding elements come later, when they become relevant to what's going on _right now_. And already early on, she placed a hook - "I was in peril of my life, and did not know it." Now there's already a character, we're already invested (we want to find out what's endangering the character's life), in any exposition that comes next we'd be looking for clues. Even the whole _kemmer_ element, so crucial to the novel, is not introduced until later.

**tl;dr** : Don't infodump. Get your reader invested in a character quickly, and always introduce only the worldbuilding elements that are needed to understand what's going on here and now. If the information doesn't become relevant until later, introduce it later. Introduce elements in a way that's engaging - never make the reader feel they're reading an encyclopedia.

Original score: 39