How much info to give/How much is needed?

Tremors, meds, seizures - all can be shown through story.

Which part of the brain, neurotransmitters involved, etc... probably not necessary. If your characters had a legitimate reason to discuss that, sure - but otherwise, it feels like a science lecture from author to reader disguised (poorly) as dialogue.

Don't forget that it's perfectly okay - and often preferable - to put a piece of information in narrative instead of dialogue. I'd much rather have the 1st person narrator drop a brief explanation in when it's needed than force it into a conversation. Telling is not always bad, but bad telling is

It's really impossible to tell without more info. How important is this condition to the rest of the story? Is it the main conflict? Secondary? Third? Just one of the other twenty obstacles the MC needs to get over? The more important it is to your story the more you need to elaborate on it.

It also depends on why the other character is asking about the MC's condition. Are they friends? Family? Lovers? Mortal enemies evil) ? Just met? Did your MC just have an episode and the other character witnessed/helped? For someone I just met I probably wouldn't give too much info about my medical condition. For someone who I've known longer/ more intimately I would say more. For a mortal enemy I would give false info.

And I don't think it necessarily has to be done through dialogue. Your character can be reflecting on the illness, or going to see the doctor, or just had an episode. I would have no problem with the character just narrating the condition, as long as it was done well. (But I guess that's true for any writing, it just needs to be done well. )

Info dumps are not bad, per se. I think most stories (especially novel lengths) need some back story. Just make sure it's interesting.

Personally, I don't care too much for exact names of medical conditions in my stories, especially when I feel I might not be able to write them correctly and it might discredit my storytelling. I prefer to just focus on the symptoms that actually affect the story. But this is also because the medical conditions in my stories are not directly related to the main conflicts. YMMV.

This will have to be a judgement call on your part. Sorry if this all seems extremely unhelpful.

-alex- said:

For example, I was thinking of a conversation a little like this:
“So tell me about it.”
“It’s this stupid condition I have. The part of my brain that controls my motor functions sometimes gets messed up. The signals in my brain, the neurotransmitters, don’t connect, and I end up not being able to control my movements. I have these tremors. If I take my meds, they go away after about an hour or so. But sometimes they don’t, and sometimes I’ll have seizure too – which normally only lasts for a few minutes. It’s a hereditary thing; a mix of bad genes. My mom had it, and so did my sister.”

Something along those lines. I realise that’s a bit of a information dump, and I’d spread out the conversation more, but I just quickly threw it together for the sake of this post.

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I think that would work just fine, it's just one of those areas where you have to be really careful how you do it. Making up an illness would be fine for an alien species. I think the closer it comes to a human condition, the easier it will be for the reader to relate to and accept as fact. Of course, you can go completely off the wall too. One thing that I always find neat is when writers really dig into the tough parts of living with something like that... making it raw and inconvenient rather than just another characteristic.

I would leave off the "So tell me about it" line and wait until the condition first becomes critical to the plot. Then only explain a bit in snippets rather than all at once. In fact, if the MC can see something is "off" for a few chapters without knowing what, sometimes that builds interest, at least for me. Having it revealed only a bit at a time is one way to keep it fresh and not risk it will be taken as an info dump. Good luck!

-alex- said:

Anyway! My point… I was wondering how much information I need to give the readers? For example do I need to give facts, and what the condition is called etc in the first person narration? Or is the character just explaining to another character what happens to her (in dialogue) enough info to give?

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Only as much information as is needed for the purposes of the story, plus a few bits of color to spice things up. Like maybe, an arm grows from a victim's head or something.

A lot can be induced in a reader's imagination by a few details. A reader might want to know (but only what's needed for the purposes of the story):

• nature of disease? infection, parasitic, malnutrition, hereditary, bones, blood, muscle, etc.
• well known, rare, or never seen before?
• how painful is it?
• relevant symptoms?
• disfiguring? or other social aspects, like an STD?
• fatal?crippling?
• contagious? (how contagous?) inherited? random?
• how long does the victim have to live, or how long to wait to recover?

-alex- said:

Yes, I was wondering if I should reference it via narration, instead of dialogue, but to do that, would more factual info be required as the the MC would be explaining to the readers, and not to another character, if you get me?

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It depends on how your MC views her own condition. If she's angry and bitter about it I wouldn't mind if she went off on a bit of a tangent. If she's accepted it and just deals with it as it comes, then probably a little less angst, just a "well, this happens sometimes..." Again, this will depend on how important the condition is to your plot and your character.

The symptoms suggest an epileptic seizure. Can you go with that?

I very, very rarely think about my conditions by name. If you are writing in 1st or Close 3rd, I could totally see having the internal thoughts/narrative be vague.

Mine (IRL) are kind of like 'Oh, my stupid back' or 'damn, it's doing that nerve thing again'. I call one hand 'dodgy' and things like that. I know all about the conditions, btw. There's just no need to think in technical terms while just going through the day, for me.

-alex- said:

I wasn’t going to elaborate much, as I didn’t want to bog down my post, but maybe I should have done. The situation is, the MC’s does have an episode, yes, and the other character – who is a friend, whom she’s known for a few weeks, witnesses the episode and helps out. He has some knowledge on the condition, and is trying to keep her calm and relaxed while she’s experiencing the episode.

Yes, I was wondering if I should reference it via narration, instead of dialogue, but to do that, would more factual info be required as the the MC would be explaining to the readers, and not to another character, if you get me?

The MC’s medical condition isn’t that important to the overall story, as such. It’s some conflict I thought would be different, and because of her stature in society, it’s hard for her to deal with sometimes. Plus it gets her into a sticky situation at one point; she is having an episode, when she should be running from the bad guys, as it were.

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If the narrator is the one experiencing the condition, then I think it would be fairly easy to sneak in a little information by having her explain just enough to the other character, then have a sentence or two that draws in her earlier experiences or feelings about it. The key is to make it relevant to her (like her annoyance with it, or whatever) and not just a statement of facts. Your original response from her (which I understand is rough because you just whipped it up on the spot) came across as pretty dry. If she's really so matter-of-fact about it, then I would question why it's relevant that it be shared. What would interest me more is if there was some emotion tied to it, like if she said one thing and was thinking another.

Just make sure once the audience knows about the condition you don't have a scene later on where you have to explain it again to another character.

Hi, I read a lot of the advice you got, and it was good. The simplest axiom I have heard is 'show, don't tell". What this means , I think, is to not give information through straight dialogue, but show the effects of whatever it is you are trying to communicate and the effect it has on the MC. Have your MC suffer the effects of her mutation (?) and if you need to involve a sympathetic/apathetic character, having them present when something bad happens to the MC might work.

I think you have a good idea from just the little bit I read. And I like the voice of the character talking. Make the MC hurt some and I will identify more with him/her as a reader.