As I was reviewing my first chapter, I realized that it was bogged down with background information. Large chunks interrupted the flow and completely ruined the rhythm of my manuscript. Yet, if I took these sentences out my readers wouldn’t be grounded in my science fiction world. I was stumped. How can I get that information in without boring my readers? I hauled out my mentor texts and started analyzing how the pros make this magic happen.
In this article, I will be analyzing the first chapter of Veronica Roth’s Divergent. Divergent’s first chapter is roughly comprised of 120 sentences. Only 20 of these sentences convey the necessary information that a reader needs to understand the story world. By this I mean those 20 sentences didn’t have any emotional context or descriptive or narrative purposes. For example: “Candor values honesty, but our faction, Abnegation, values selflessness.”
So what background information does a reader need to know to understand the Divergent world? Well first off we need to know that Divergent is set in dystopian chicago where there are 5 different factions. We need to know the names of the factions, what each faction believes, and the political atmosphere between the factions. So how did Roth manage to convey all of that when only 17% of her sentences were comprised purely of background information. Roth uses uniforms, her setting and actions to sneak all of this information in.
Roth created each faction's uniform to clearly define each faction’s beliefs. Abnegation only wear gray drab colors so as to not draw attention to themselves. Candor wears black and white colors because they believe the truth is black and white.
Roth also uses her setting to push the faction ideologies through to the readers. Dauntless dare each other to climb sculptures to prove their bravery. Abnegation don’t have paved roads because they are so selfless that none of them have cars.
Perhaps the most poignant way Roth delivers her background information is by how the different factions treat Beatrice. Most ignore her, but at one point a Erudite boy slams into her in the school hallway. Not only does this boy say rude things to her as he knocks her down, but no one else at the school helps Beatrice up from the floor. This key moment highlights the tension between Abnegation and the rest of the factions.
All of these clever techniques allow Roth to cut out those boring sentences devoted to background information. I am looking forward to trying some of these techniques in my own writing.
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