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I’m trying to open up the second book with the impact of the last book on my MC, but it looks more like an info dump.

I was slowly beginning to cope with the fact that my world was completely shattered, I had no way back home, and my brother was dead. It isn’t easy. Every morning when I get out of bed, I have to remind myself I’m doing this for a reason. The reason?

So everyone else never has to feel the pain that I felt now.

A nearly impossible goal, but I’d quickly learned that nothing, and I mean nothing is impossible here. Besides my personal issues, I still had one major problem. More like two, actually. I’m supposed to lead a rebellion and kill a millennia old psycho who can’t even be killed.

I was still working on figuring out how that was going to work. I was sitting in my chair in the Hall of Ancestors,(stupid name, I know. I’m working on it.) starring blankly at the ceiling, torchlight dancing across the walls.

names and faces of the dead crossed my mind as I fingered the white bandanna securing my braid. It was the only possession I had left of my home. I thought of my dead parents, my brother Matt, Lleaud, Christy, Lua... and the hundreds of others who had given their lives in the battle of Blood-Field. That is what we’d decided to name it, because more than half of us had died in the fight. There were scarcely a hundred rebels living within these trees. You might be asking what we’re rebelling against.

All of Epslan. The entire planet.

We don’t have a choice. All of us were forced from our homes, ruthlessly pursued and slaughtered by the one who calls herself The Huntress. The one who destroyed everything. She came to power on the wings of death, forcing people to obey her will. And if not? She killed them, slowly gaining control over everything and everyone. During the last thousand years, Epslan has become a horrible, violent, bloodthirsty kingdom.

And somehow, me and my friends were supposed to bring it back from the brink of destruction. But I feared we had only made it worse. And that it was my fault.

Is this an info dump, or does it make you feel stressed out, insignificant and sad, because that’s exactly what I’m going for. It’s how my characters feel.

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  • I’m finding that starting the second book is a lot harder for me then writing the first one was, because now I have rules and stuff that I can’t change so my options are more limited. Commented Dec 3, 2020 at 23:33
  • Can I please read this book? I'm already interested. Yes, info dump but in a good way, it's exciting and catches the reader up on what has happened in the first book (or at least helps us to draw some ideas of what may have happened in the first book) It's also short enough (Like maybe a page long) that it won't take a reader long to get through it all Commented Dec 4, 2020 at 15:53
  • I’m planning on publishing this series. I think I will have published the first one by March. I’m calling the series The Forest, and the first book The Blade of Bone if you want to keep an eye out for it. I am a really young author (under sixteen) and have never done this before though, so I’m still figuring everything out. Commented Dec 4, 2020 at 16:42
  • Probably info dump, but you are heading in the right direction. It's short, exciting, and engaging! I will be looking forward to reading your book! I also wanted to wish you congratulations! Not many people set foot on this ambition! Commented Dec 4, 2020 at 17:06

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Technically, yes it is an info dump. But, you did it well, kept it pretty short, and I didn't feel like I was reading the instruction manual to my (insert appliance here) at all. In fact, you could probably get away with 2-3 times more information and call it a prologue if you needed to add more information. You also did really good on evoking the feeling you wanted, stressed out, insignificant and sad. I mean, I wasn't frozen with fear and bawling on the floor, but I felt it from the passage.

I like the spacing in the paragraphs too, where you put more emphasis on certain bits of information.

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