Readers love to see characters wrestle with the world of the story. If the expositional information doesn’t affect the character’s pursuit of his/her goal, then it doesn’t matter. This is a tough pill to swallow, but it is an important pill nonetheless. If it takes a short history lesson to explain why Bob’s choice was so risky, then do it.īut not until Bob is beginning to make the choice or facing consequences of it. However, most of them wait until these history lessons matter.Īnd when I say they matter, I mean they matter to the characters – more specifically, to the characters’ goals, the stakes they are putting up for it, and the consequences of their choices. Of course, many books include history lessons that detail their settings and cultures. Remember that readers are interested in dialogue, action, and relevant information – not a lengthy history lesson. That’s what your early drafts are for – to weed out the rambling, devolving fluff and identify the 1-2 key details that are necessary. My wife admitted to doing this while reading my novel, so I begged her to flag the pages for me so I could break the “mega” paragraphs up.Įxposition needs to be delivered in short, controlled bursts. Most great writers learn how.Ī page-long block of blatant exposition is an excuse for the reader to skip ahead. You can still be artful while getting to the point. Odds are you are trying to climb up the Amazon rankings and you’re going to need a killer beginning to get people to buy your book.
But we judge these works with a biased scale and they gain new readers on the basis of “classic” status and Hollywood films. Some classics don’t follow this rule and get away with it ( Lord of the Rings comes to mind). Try not to let “classic” books be your guide here. The story starts because characters make choices to pursue their goals. So many authors fill their first 1-10 pages (or more, God help them) with background information because they think it’s “necessary” for the story to start. Here is some Exposition Ninja training that will sharpen your skills as you deal with this terribly tricky aspect of story-telling. Stakes.Īnd if you don’t begin with the things that matter, your reader won’t stick around. One of the biggest mistakes that authors make is beginning their story or novel by “setting the scene.”Īnd while setting is important, it’s not essential. The Purpose of Exposition is to enhance three things: The characters’ goals, stakes, and consequences.Īny “backstory” that doesn’t provide depth for these three elements (character goals, stakes, consequences) is fluff that should be cut immediately.
Effective stories always handle exposition purposefully. To pave a smooth road for our readers – and to become proper Exposition Ninjas – we need to understand the purpose of exposition, otherwise we won’t know why we’re using it. Yet our readers often have much different experiences than we expect, and this is horribly frustrating. We, the writers, have assumptions about what the reader should understand, or “get.” This is why so many conversations with early readers or critique partners can drift toward the defensive. To you, the writer, it feels necessary to share everything that you’ve dreamt up about a character and his/her world.īut to the reader, there may be mass confusion about things you never dreamed would be unclear. Perhaps this is because the rules aren’t written in stone. Safford, elements of our craft vex us more than exposition.
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