You’re Writing Exposition All Wrong
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Far too often writers think of exposition as the enemy, something to be avoided at all costs–but this isn't the case at all. In fact, some amount of exposition is necessary to immerse the reader in your story and provide them the contextual information they need to register what's at stake for the characters.
As a developmental book editor, writing exposition is something I frequently discuss with the authors I work with. So, today I wanted to demystify exposition and talk about some tactical strategies you can use to effectively convey exposition in your story.
Do: Clarify When and Where Your Story Takes Place
The fear of too much exposition often leads writers to be overly vague in the opening scenes of the story, so much so that the reader can't tell where they are. It leads to the story feeling placeless and even disorienting, especially when the setting isn’t revealed until deep into the novel.
So, in the first 20 or so pages, make sure you answer the following questions:
Is the story taking place now, in the past, or in the future?
Roughly what year is it?
Where are we geographically?
Is this a real or fantasy world?
These answers are going to help the reader gauge how the story's world is the same as and different from our actual world. That way, the readers can better register the rules of the story's world and how they influence the characters’ circumstances.
Don’t: Info-dump
Although you might want to get the ball rolling on establishing your world from the start of the story, it’s not great to open your story with a long passage of exposition. This could read something like:
It's the year 1912 and the city of London is reeling from the sinking of the Titanic.
Writing exposition that reads like a textbook comes across like the narrator is spoon-feeding the reader information. This kind of writing is why exposition gets a bad reputation, as this type of info-dumping takes us out of the narrative and is just not engaging.
A good trick to use to recognize info-dumping in your own work is to take out the exposition paragraphs or sentences and see if they can stand on their own. If you can interpret your expository passage out of the context of the main narrative, then you are likely info-dumping. Instead of being baked into the narrative, it’s an add-on. You are pausing or departing from the main narrative to provide a sidebar.
Anytime you feel like you're putting on your narrator cap to divulge information to the reader, think twice and take a look at if you're actually info-dumping.
Do: Weave in Context
Writing exposition effectively requires you to weave in contextual information as it becomes relevant in the story. Rather than info-dumping, you want to reveal expository information through the narrative itself.
So go ahead and kickstart the plot action or describe your main character and their experiences, but within those descriptions, weave in mentions of the setting and other expository details. For instance, you could say something like:
Walking down Hyde Street, Anna noticed a headline on a newspaper under her feet: Titanic Wrecked by Iceberg!
With this style of exposition, the reader learns that the story is set in 1912, specifically in downtown London, but without departing from the narrative. The story is still moving forward, and we are still immersed in the action of the scene.
By maintaining plot momentum while incorporating expository information, you can subtly build up your world around the characters, rather than hitting the reader over the head with it.
Don’t: Include Extraneous Details
Whether your setting is real or fantastical, you do not want to include expository information that isn't relevant or pertinent to plot events. You only want to deliver the exposition the reader needs in order to follow the story—no more and no less.
In the case of a sci-fi or fantasy novel, for instance, you might have a complex political structure and social hierarchy for your world. However, if the details of the social and political systems don't actually manifest in the story itself, don't tell us. You don't want to overload the reader with information that doesn't end up becoming relevant in the story, because again this distracts from the main narrative.
The same goes for a real-world setting. Following the example of 1912 London, you don't need to go into the details about the members of Parliament and what types of laws they're considering passing unless they are directly relevant to what happens in the story. If you incorporate extraneous exposition, it will slow down the novel’s pacing and distract us from the main plot action.
Do: Illuminate the Protagonist’s Backstory
While I've mostly been talking about establishing setting so far, another critical component of writing exposition is illuminating the main character's circumstances.
The reader needs to understand what has led the main character(s) to the present moment of the narrative, because that's going to be what allows us to register the stakes of the story through that deeper connection with the character(s). Think about questions like:
What events have led them to their current situation in life?
What does their life look like at this particular moment?
Where are they from and where are they living now?
What are their goals and what is stopping them from achieving them?
Without these details, the reader isn’t going to extend empathy to your protagonist and likely isn't going to get invested enough to continue reading the story.
Don’t: Overshadow the Main Narrative
At the end of the day, all of the problems with writing exposition boil down to this single point: the exposition overshadows the main narrative.
This is when the exposition takes the reader out of the main narrative action, therefore slowing down the pace of the story and making it less engaging. Ideally, the reader should be getting bits and pieces of exposition as the plot progresses, learning more about the characters through their interactions with their environment.
If it ever feels like you're abruptly pausing or halting the narrative action to provide a deluge of expository information, that's a sign to rethink how you are delivering that information and if you can instead break it up and weave it in in bits and pieces throughout the scenes.
I hope this article helped you rethink your approach to writing exposition and understand what is effective and what is ineffective info-dumping. Because exposition is a necessary component of your storytelling, it is not something to fear or to avoid!
Thank you for reading, and happy writing!