Ok so I did a little world-building and now I think i ruined it. In my story during the month of their 13th birthday, all children have to go on a retreat called PATH. This retreat is a series of tests that are used to assign them to their jobs. In the end, most go back home with their memory wiped and now take classes for their jobs. Except those who are chosen they don't have their memory wiped and they don't go home. My main character is chosen.
I wrote ut her and her brother getting onto the bus and I can't figure out how to world build. Before I wasn't going to do the retreat and I wrote like a chapter and a half of her normal life. It explained the world and just how things work. That seemed way too out of place now that I added the retreat so I just started it with her waiting for the bus to show up. Now I have to figure out how to explain how things work without just having an info dump.
Another problem I have is that I don't know if I should write out the whole retreat. In the end, after it's revealed that she's chosen and her brother isn't, they get into a huge fight that's really important. She could just wake up in the bed and then get like flashbacks of the retreat but Idk. Does anyone have any ideas for any of this?
Sometimes the best way to exposition is to have dialogue between characters, or even a character monologue-ing to themselves. Your protag could be talking about whether they are nervous or excited with other characters or her brother, or even just remembering her past few days of life compared to how that's going to change. That way you drop the information in a way that furthers the plot rather than pausing it. If you do the first one it also gives you a a chance to build your protag a bit with her thoughts on it all. You don't necessarily need to spell out the exact process, readers are very good at seeing between the lines and putting the story together.
As for whether or not she remembers, if she doesn't have her memory wiped then there is no reason not to write the retreat, unless they are chosen because they have the ability to remember the retreat in flashbacks or smth? that's something you would have to mess around with because I don't know the full details. I hope this helps :)
Thank you that really was helpful! I think I'm going to write the retreat but as like snip bits. I was thinking of having each chapter be a different day with a few weeks in between anyway so this should work out. Thanks again!
I'm glad I was able to help! Good luck with your story :)
