Information not info dump

 This week I've finished the second draft of a science fiction novella which I plan on being the first in a series.  I'm now starting the edit of that draft, and. grappling with the usual question of how much information to put up front.

I always find it difficult getting the balance right between putting in enough information to allow the reader to understand what is going on versus overloading them.  I always have to have several attempts at this before I think I've got it right.

It was particularly important to get that balance right in this novella.  First, because I intend the book to be the first in a series. I know that the first five storylines will be built around finding five sisters and rescuing them.  Each sister has a different occupation, and they're scattered across the universe.  To complicate matters even more, I decided they'd all had a massive argument and weren't talk to each other.

This set up a quest structure for each novella.  Our heroes would discover a clue to the whereabouts of each sister and have to go on a long journey to find and rescue her

To add to the challenges, I made my main character a lion enhanced with machine intelligence.  She owes her freedom to one of the sisters, which provides the motivation for her going on all those long journeys to find them.  But my character isn't an ordinary lion.  She's been bioengineered to speak and she's been taught language.  And in the process they made her much smarter.

I needed to get this information up front in chapter one in order to get the story to work.  The reader needed to know that my lion character can speak before they encounter their first line of dialogue from her.  The other thing I need to add throughout the novella is her sense of smell.  I've decided that each emotion has a distinct  scent for her, so she knows how people are feeling according to what scent they're giving off.  

Getting all this information across up front while keeping the action of the story moving forward was definitely a challenge.  My first attempt had far too much information, and was definitely an info-dump.  That's rare for me, as I usually seriously underwrite and have to add in detail.

I'm on the third draft of that chapter now, and I think I'm approaching the point where I've got the balance between information-giving and info-dumping right.