Good Exposition vs. Bad Exposition

Facebook Pin LinkedIn Email

Note: this post originally appeared on MetaStellar’s Writing Advice of the Week. You can find the YouTube video at the end of the article.

When it comes to exposition, there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about it. On the one hand, proper exposition introduces the right information at the right time and also keeps your readers from getting confused about the way your story is developing. On the other hand, exposition can be handled incorrectly. Writers risk info-dumping all their information at once or just telling the reader information. Good exposition not only moves the story forward, but it also allows your readers to interact with the story in a way that engages them.

So how do you keep from falling into bad exposition? I’ll start by explaining what bad exposition is, and then explain how to avoid it with good, authentic exposition. Let’s get started.

What Is Bad Exposition?

First of all, bad exposition takes the reader out of the story. It does this in more ways than one. For one, if you info-dump everything at once, that throws off the development of the story and also takes the reader out of their reading flow. Second, it keeps the reader from hunting for answers to the questions the exposition should raise and keeps them from wanting to explore the story further.

I’ve provided some examples of both of these things to help you better understand what bad exposition looks like.

Info-dumping everything – imagine you have an epic fantasy, and you want to introduce a cataclysmic event that took place a thousand years ago. For the sake of clarity, let’s just call it “the Event.” Bad exposition takes all the information about “the Event” and dumps it all in front of the reader all at once. Not only does this detract from the pacing of the story, but it also keeps readers from wanting to learn more about “the Event.” You just told them everything they need to know! But at the same time, why should they care? Info-dumping means bad exposition since you’re giving everything away ahead of time.
Telling readers information – second, like I mentioned before, bad exposition keeps readers from being able to hunt for any clues in your story. Let’s go back to “the Event.” You might have a character or your protagonist mention “the Event” in passing. When you do, readers will question what it is. Bad exposition tells your readers directly. Good exposition will drop more and more information about “the Event” over time in natural ways, while bad exposition does the opposite. So when you introduce a concept that requires exposition, don’t tell readers the information. Instead, keep your readers engaged by introducing more clues as they read. That way, readers will consistently be invested in your story.

How to Avoid Bad Exposition

We talked about what bad exposition is; now I’m going to talk about how to avoid it. How do you keep from falling into bad exposition? Here are a few tips:

First, drop your clues throughout your story when you introduce a concept. You want to be subtle about it, even if the information you’re going to present is vitally important to the story. However, you also want to make sure that the information comes across in a clear manner. How do you do this? There are a couple of methods.

Have one of your characters introduce the concept. Let’s get back to “the Event” once again. Then pick a character who would have information about this event. In this case, this character will, in turn, provide information about “the Event” to your protagonist, who also functions as a mode for your character to learn this info. Readers need to learn just as much as the protagonist. The character who provides the information could introduce it by telling a story, casually bring it up in conversation, or simply bring it up since the protagonist needs to know this info.
Have your protagonist experience the consequences of the thing you’re explaining. Imagine “the Event” causes a ton of earthquakes randomly. Your protagonist might experience one of these, and someone with more knowledge of “the Event” that causes them can better explain the concept. This helps build up authentic questions from your readers and also provides suitable answers.

However, don’t use these two methods to dump all the information all at once! Introduce some of the concept, enough to get your readers interested, then drop more hints whenever it’s relevant throughout the next few scenes. Your readers will thank you.

Tips for Good Exposition

Now that you know how to avoid bad exposition, here are a few other tips for creating good exposition every time. Here are a few tips on how to do that and save yourself the stress of going back and correcting what you’ve written.

Don’t get ahead of yourself! It might be tempting to dump all your information all at once and give all the clues to your readers right away. I personally find it tempting to get all the information down simply because I want to keep track of all of it and make sure that readers have everything in front of them. But don’t give in to that temptation. Concepts will develop over scenes and chapters. You just need to be patient.
Take notes. If you find yourself concerned that not all the information is going to come through clearly, or you’re afraid that you missed something readers might miss, then take notes. Write down what you’ve already introduced to readers, then take notes of what else the reader needs to know. It’ll help if you locate the specific scenes where the rest of the information works best. Then you have everything figured out.

Exposition comes in many forms, but there’s a huge difference between good exposition and bad. Get back into your story knowing what to do next.

Happy writing!

Check out the YouTube video I made on this article below!

…

You can get a FREE LIST of 100+ science fiction and fantasy literary journals to submit to when you subscribe!

I have a freelance editing service now! Contact me about book editing, beta reading, and brainstorming book titles. Use the contact form below to ask for a free 15-minute consultation.