The devil is in the details

I love world-building. I hate being bogged down in lengthy explanations. Those two ideas seem to contradict each other, but they don't. Constructing a whole reality idea by idea doesn't have to mean burying the reader in excess information. It's successful if it's real. It works if it works.I've been thinking a lot about how that gets done lately, and here's the stream-of-consciousness result.I like a sausage-making metaphor: massive quantities of information has to be smooshed into a compact, spicy form that looks, feels, and tastes nothing like the disparate ugly ingredients of its origin. I also like a phrase stolen from role-playing. "When in doubt, roll and shout."Research is critically important, but it isn't narrative-friendly.  If I haven't considered all the implications of every idea that I dream up, then I will write something idiotic or miss obvious contradictions. But if I don't provide all that background I made up when I write about things that don't exist, then the reader will drown in unfamiliar vocabulary and concepts.It's a tricky balance. Part of the problem is the difference between real life and narrative life.None of us notice everything about everything in our daily lives. We take reality for granted. Most of us don't ponder the intricacies of electrical power generation and distribution when we turn on a lamp. We don't discuss historical origins and socio-political underpinnings of every news event. In conversation we don't provide definitions to each other for nouns we use every day.But stories are condensed life. Dialogue is more than conversation. Writers can make every interaction and description a springboard for adding information to the mix. But does can mean should? (NO)  How much of the sausage-making needs to be shown?When I come up with some clever new idea, the first thing I must decide is, does it work? Do all the imaginary events, objects, people, histories, actions, and places I want to include in my world make sense together?  Then I have to decide does that idea need to be in this story? The last tricky hurdle: when I describe these ideas, do my descriptions feel plausible?  That isn't the same as the descriptions being precise.  Far from it. There's an art to achieving realism.  What's the right amount of information to make a world feel real without boring the reader to tears?  Alas, the answer is it depends. There's a spectrum of tolerance for raw information. Pleasing every reader is impossible. I wish there was a formula or even a rule of thumb, or an easy middle road, but there isn't.There are tricks & tropes to ease data delivery into a story: the newbie; the research montage; the fish out of water, the amazing discovery--there's a whole kit of craft tools. (A new one I've learned: slotting critical facts around cliffhanger action.) But those still only cover the how, not the which or the  how much.Texts thick with numbers, vocabulary, and dates leave me cold, so they aren't what I write. I use the technique I like best as a reader: immersion. I describe my worlds the way someone living in them would experience them. Then I add the minimal explanatory material to that framework.Enough and only enough: that's my descriptive mantra.  Brevity entices the reader's imagination and sets it roaming free.  If I've done the does it work part of my world-build properly I don't need to show much at all. My readers don't nee a treatise on economics with every passing place name reference.  I can even leave details vague in my own mind until I need to write about that place.A last phrase I keep in mind when dealing with world backgrounds is one attributed to several classic showmen, "Always leave them wanting more."  If I build my world in broad strokes and use sharp wordcraft on the little I let into my story, readers will know there is more and come back for seconds.If the devil is in the details, then get thee behind me, details.