Source Material for the show & examples



What is Exposition

“Exposition is a literary device used to introduce background information about events, settings, characters, or other elements of a work to the audience or readers. The word comes from the Latin language, and its literal meaning is ‘a showing forth.’ Exposition is crucial to any story, for without it nothing makes sense.” —Literary Devices.net

“Exposition means facts—the information about setting, biography, and characterization that the audience needs to know to follow and comprehend the events of the story.” —Robert McKee, Story (p. 334).

Narrative Drive

Exposition & Memory Slots

This specific example comes from Story Grid

Our memories only hold 4-5 items at a time. We can expand this by chunking information. Try and recall this string of letters

M D P H D R S V P C E O I H O P

If you break it into chunks, it’s easier to recall

MD Ph.D. RSVP CEO and IHOP

But if I asked to recall this tomorrow or next week, you’re not likely to retain it. The point of all this is to identify the amount of brain energy and focus it takes to recalls this information. Your goal as a writer is to make this process as smooth as possible.

But if you’ll notice each story level makes it easier to consume and remember.

“The MD and the Ph.D. RSVP’d to the CEO of IHOP.”

Finally, we get:

“A couple of doctors met with an executive for pancakes.”

That is the journey your exposition needs. The first string of letters is like the infodump, hard to consume, recall, and understand, moving it into the narrative is like the last sentence.

Big Info Dumps Mid Action

Here’s a purely made-up example of the Big Block of Explanation: (from Story Grid)

“Let’s go to the mall,” Heather said.

Imani thought back to the last time she had been to the mall. The terror she had felt at the sound of the first shot fired, the screams of people fleeing for their lives, the crash of displays falling over as customers dove under racks and counters for cover. It had been the worst day of her life.

“I don’t want to go,” Imani replied.

Here’s what happens in your brain:

  • You expend energy time-jumping to Imani’s past.

  • You process terror; shots fired, screams, crashes, and people diving under racks. By the time you get to Imani’s response, all your memory slots are engaged, and you’ve lost sight of what Heather said.

  • So you expend more brainpower backtracking in the text to remind yourself of Heather’s initial suggestion.

The Cliffhanger/Middle Action and The Infodump

Once again, this is about memory slots; the readers are clinging to the cliffhanger. It filled some or all of their memory slots so it’s hard for them to absorb exposition. If you're going to give exposition, and you need to, then clean the slate for the reader, tie things in a chapter.

That is going to keep the reader going is the narrative drive, big questions they know they won’t get the answer to until much later, but they still want to be answered.

I think the best way to sum up narrative is by looking at the best selling book genres: Romance and Murder Mystery. The reason I think these genres sell the most book is that they have a narrative drive built into them. What is the narrative drive of a Romance? Who will fall in love and how?  What is the narrative drive a murder mystery? Who is the killer and how will they be stopped. Writing in these two genres, an author can’t mess up one of the most important elements of the story, narrative drive.

Exposition, Character Development & Emotion:

Johnston notes: In John Updike’s A&P, there is a lot of exposition, but every time it is delivered, it’s not just information. It is not just information in dialogue. The character complains and makes snarky comments about the town, it’s history, and it’s people. Every point of exposition tells us about the character as well, how they feel about this information, and the kind of person they are.

Johnston also notices that a lot of exposition by acclaimed writers comes through interior monologue or character thoughts. This isn’t because it’s the best place for it, but rather an optimal place for it to be filtered through the character.

This can take a physical dimension as well, such shivering, becoming flush with anger, any physical or visceral action can be added to strengthen their emotional reaction to the information.

Exposition and Story Drive

Robert McKee, the author of Story, recommends that we turn exposition into ammunition. What he means is that facts about the world, history, backstory are all used currently by characters to further their own goals.

Compare his two examples:

example: Jack says, “Harry, how the hell long have we known one another? What? About twenty years, huh? Ever since we were at college together. That’s a long time, isn’t it, Harry? Well, how the hell are ya this morning?” Those lines have no purpose except to tell the eavesdropping audience that Jack and Harry are friends, went to school together twenty years ago,

McKee, Robert. Story (pp. 334-335). HarperCollins e-books. Kindle Edition. 

Jack, reacting to Harry’s stifled yawn and bloodshot eyes, says, “Harry, look at you. The same hippie haircut, still stoned by noon, the same juvenile stunts that got you kicked out of school twenty years ago. Are you ever gonna wake up and smell the coffee?” The audience’s eye jumps across the screen to see Harry’s reaction and

McKee, Robert. Story, (p. 335). HarperCollins e-books. Kindle Edition. 

Now, I’m going to add one more detail to this Jack and Harry exchange. Jack is walking through a large beautiful home, clean and pristine. He exists his back door, and we see the pool house, surrounded in trash, and in poor repair. A disgusted look on his face. He pounds on the door and Harry answers. Now, we see the motive behind the ammunition. Jack is using exposition, friends, went to school together etc...to get something he wants now. The exposition is part of the driving force of the story at that moment.

Stars War’s Best Moment…is Exposition

Backstory, setting, factual information all of it is exposition, and most editors and general advice about writing exposition is to cut it, but if you did that in Star Wars, you would lose one of the best moments, “Luke, I am Your father.” That is backstory. That is exposition, used as ammunition by Darth Vader to try and get what he wants at the moment, Luke to join the dark side.

If this exposition were handled in biblical terms, we would have gotten this, “The midi-chlorins begat Anacin, and Anacin begat Luke, and Lucke begat…” And every reader and editor would tell you to cut it.

The Expanse

Early & Beginning exposition:

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A hundred and fifty years before, when the parochial disagreements between Earth and Mars had been on the verge of war, the Belt had been a far horizon of tremendous mineral wealth beyond viable economic reach, and the outer planets had been beyond even the most unrealistic corporate dream. Then Solomon Epstein had built his little modified fusion drive, popped it on the back of his three-person yacht, and turned it on. With a good scope, you could still see his ship going at a marginal percentage of the speed of light, heading out into the big empty. The best, longest funeral in the history of mankind. Fortunately, he’d left the plans on his home computer. The Epstein Drive hadn’t given humanity the stars, but it had delivered the planets.

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This is the opening of chapter one in The Expanse. While it’s not a hook, it does leverage memory slots. It’s designed to come early in the story. It’s dense so it’s going to take up a lot of memory slots, so you need those slots to be free. Two things free it up, one is the beginning of the story and two is coming after some sort of small resolution like set pieces of sequence coming to an end.

Sw 108 Exposition: Part 2

Dialogue Exposition & As Needed Exposition

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“What have you found?” she asked, but her gaze was on the wall behind him. This wasn’t a pop quiz; she was just making conversation. 

“Golden Bough’s looking the same as Sohiro’s crew and the Loca Greiga. Still on station, but… distracted, I guess I’d call it. They’re letting little things slide. Fewer thugs on the ground, less enforcement. I’ve got half a dozen mid-level guys who’ve gone dark.” He’d caught her attention. 

“Killed?” she asked. “An OPA advance?” An advance by the Outer Planets Alliance was the constant bogeyman of Ceres security. Living in the tradition of Al Capone and Hamas, the IRA and the Red Martials, the OPA was beloved by the people it helped and feared by the ones who got in its way. Part social movement, part wannabe nation, and part terrorist network, it totally lacked an institutional conscience. Captain Shaddid might not like Havelock because he was from down a gravity well, but she’d work with him. The OPA would have put him in an airlock. People like Miller would only rate getting a bullet in the skull, and a nice plastic one at that. Nothing that might get shrapnel in the ductwork.

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At the mention of OPA by the author is so deep in character that the audience can’t follow the conversation. They needed exposition to know what’s going on. If it hasn’t come earlier, it needs to come now. You’ll also see this in Michael Connely’s work when he uses a lot of police jargon.

Tool Tips

Another tactic allowed exclusively for ebooks is the tooltip. This started with video games. They wanted to immerse players in the world, but at the same time exposition was needed. So, the tooltip was invented. When the player was having a conversation with someone and they referred to place or history or used a word the player was unfamiliar with, the player could hold their mouse and a little box of exposition would appear. It allowed for both immersion and exposition. 

Recently ebooks introduced a feature where the reader can click and hold their finger on a single word, and it will look up the definition, or if it’s a historical character or place it can look up the history. Writers can create their own link for created worlds and words such as for their fantasy or sci books. In printed books, this would still be a glossary at the back, and few readers would see it.

Exposition With Description & Character Emotion

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“Everything going well with your partner?” “Havelock’s all right,” Miller said. “Having him around makes people like me better by contrast. That’s nice.” Her smile’s only change was to become half a degree more genuine. Nothing like a little shared racism to build ties with the boss. 

Miller nodded respectfully and headed out. His hole was on the eighth level, off a residential tunnel a hundred meters wide with fifty meters of carefully cultivated green park running down the center. The main corridor’s vaulted ceiling was lit by recessed lights and painted a blue that Havelock assured him matched the Earth’s summer sky. Living on the surface of a planet, mass sucking at every bone and muscle, and nothing but gravity to keep your air close, seemed like a fast path to crazy. The blue was nice, though.

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The scene ends, so we clear the memory slots, then we get a description of the new setting, and it bleeds right into the exposition,  followed by the character’s emotions about that exposition.

From A&P by John Updike: Character & Emotion

I’ve added this additional piece from a short story by John Updike because Bonnie Johnston mentioned it in her article but didn’t give specifics

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As I say, we’re right in the middle of town, and if you stand at our front doors you can see two banks and the Congregational church and the newspaper store and three real - estate offices and about twenty - seven old freeloaders tearing up Central Street because the sewer broke again. It’s not as if we’re on the Cape; we’re north of Boston and there’s people in this town haven’t seen the ocean for twenty years.

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It’s the freeloader line that makes this all character and emotion and not just exposition.

As needed Exposition & With Character Exposition

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He poured a glass of moss whiskey, a native Ceres liquor made from engineered yeast, then took off his shoes and settled onto the foam bed. He could still see Candace’s disapproving scowl and hear her sigh. He shrugged apology to her memory and turned back to work. Juliette Andromeda Mao. He read through her work history, her academic records. Talented pinnace pilot. There was a picture of her at eighteen in a tailored vac suit with the helmet off: pretty girl with a thin, lunar citizen’s frame and long black hair. She was grinning like the universe had given her a kiss. The linked text said she’d won first place in something called the Parrish/Dorn 500K. He searched briefly. Some kind of race only really rich people could afford to fly in. Her pinnace—the Razorback—had beaten the previous record and held it for two years.

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With the whiskey we get a single line of exposition to add clarity to the scene, but I don’t think it’s needed here.

In the second part, Miller is reading a file on Juliette Moa, and we get a summary of important events as he reads them. It’s a very immersive moment so it doesn’t feel out of place, or like the writer forced it in.

Direct Exposition

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the big, burly Earther mechanic was carrying a gun, it would make him feel better too, but better not to say it. Let them think the guy in charge felt confident. Holden used his officer’s key to open the weapon locker, and Amos took a high-caliber automatic that fired self-propelled rounds, recoilless and designed for use in zero g. Old-fashioned slug throwers were more reliable, but in null gravity they were also maneuvering thrusters. A traditional handgun would impart enough thrust to achieve escape velocity from a rock the size of CA-2216862.’

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I think this exposition is rough and could have been smoother. Maybe a dialogue moment: Amos says to Holden, “I knew a guy who shot himself off an asteroid using an old fashioned gun-power-slug-thrower. The momentum from the recoil launched him right out into space. I don’t think we ever found him.”

Exposition in Dialogue:

Avoiding the As-You-Know-Bob

The key phrase here is, “...as you know…”

When using dialogue to convey exposition, many young and early writers turn to this old trick. A piece of information that both characters know, and one says to  the other, “As you know, today is our anniversary..” It feels false because if both characters know this, why are they saying it? As is non-immersive, it doesn’t feel like it belongs in the world, and that can pull the reader out.

There are a lot of variations on this as well

  • “As you know…”

  • “Let me sum up”

  • “Let’s review”

  • “Tell me again…”

The Lecture:

A lecture happens when exposition is presented in dialogue but it’s one-sided. To help break this up, other characters can: 

  • ask questions.

  • Challenge the speaker’s knowledge

  • React emotionally to significant information

  • Prod the character along, to get to the point, or maybe the speaker is withholding and the information must be pulled out.

  • Let the personal relationship with the speaker interfere with the conversation

  • Action beats

Flashback

These can be action-packed scenes that really pull the story forward, but you have to remember their purpose and what stakes will matter after the flashback is over. Putting the character’s life at risk in a flashback is hallow tension. We already know they survived because it’s a flashback. However, if a life-death experience changed their perspective that is something that will continue to impact the present.

Another point is don’t go into a flashback with memory slots filled. If you interrupt in the middle of dialogue for a flashback, then the reader will either be unfocused for the flashback and skim or forget what was going on before.

First Advice on Flashbacks:

They must go to a dynamic scene not a dull one. A flashback requires building a new scene; that’s an investment that doesn't move the plot forward. If you are going from one slow scene to another, then it is not worth the investment.

Second Advice on Flashbacks:

Don’t bring them until you have instilled a need in the audience to know. Have you given them the question that the flashback will answer?

Back Story

This about getting to know the characters to better understand them better. It can create beautiful tension as the audience sees them making decisions. There is a lot of writing advice about limiting backstory, or not using it at all. I disagree with this. But it has to be done right.

In my third novel, I decided to include more of one of my characters’ backstory. He is the villain, but as I included more of his backstory, he became the standout character of the novel. He is the one people talk about because they felt they understood him.

From real-life: I attended a friends’ wedding that was probably the most intense event of my life. I’ll call them David and Anna for this story. What made the wedding such an intense event was nothing that was happening at the wedding that day; it was the back story. David and Anna had been engaged to get married two years ago, and the night before the wedding David called it off. It devastated Anna and sent her into a deep depression. Her family hated David for that. But David and Anna still had the same network of friends, six months later they were hanging out in the same social group, and once again saw the same things they loved in each other. They started dating again. Her family was furious; they ranted about how terrible he was and refused to speak to him. They got engaged again, and her family couldn’t believe it. They repeatedly tried to talk her out of it. As the wedding approached the question lingered in everyone’s mind, would David back out again. So, we were there at the wedding, the bride’s family refusing to talk to the groom, and everyone wondering what would David do?

What makes this back story so good is that it impacts the present. It changes the way we understand the stakes in the current situation and illuminates the characters. That is the core; it must change how we see and understand the current moment of the novel.

Backstory Turning Points and Revelations:

Backstory can be turned into powerful revelation and turning points by having that information introduced at the right moment.

This is exactly how Darth’s statement, “I’m your father” Is used in Star Wars. It creates a turning point. Luke can no longer commit to killing Darth Vader. He can’t even bring himself to fight him.

Ignorance/Outlander

A way to introduce informational exposition into dialogue is to have one character explain it to another who doesn’t understand.

Think Andy Dufrane in the Shawshank Redemption. He’s knew and Red explains prison to him.

Building Questions

Some points of exposition can be structured as questions the reader wants answers to, so they are invested more when the exposition arrives. Harry Potter does this really well this Harry’s back story. He often referred to as “the boy who lived” and “the one who stopped the dark lord.” But we don’t get this backstory exposition for a long time, and the longer we wait more tolerant we will be of exposition info dump because we’ve wanted this question answered for so long.

This can also be done but parceling out the information, and starting with the intriguing part. This is how Anne Rand approached her exposition in her novel Atlas Shrugged. The question begins, “Who is John Gulch.”

EXPOSITION THROUGH THOUGHTS / SOMETHING A CHARACTER HAS TO SAY ABOUT HIS/HER LIFE (http://www.booksoarus.com/6-ways-write-effective-exposition-examples/)

Excerpt from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

There was no possibility of taking a walk THAT DAY. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, where was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door excerise was now out of the question.

I was glad of it: I never liked long walks, especially on chilly windy afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddenned by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John and Georgina Reed

This novel is the medium in which we go into the character’s head, so it is only hear that exposition can be explored this way.

The choice Between Flashback, Direct Exposition. Dialogue, and Interiority.

In the flashback, we see the scene as it unfolded originally. It’s more visual and visceral, but it doesn’t give us the current perspectives of the character. In the exposition, dialogue, and interiority we can both get the information and new perspectives that the characters have on the situation.

  • Flashback can be dynamic, and interesting playing out like any normal scene would 

  • VS. It takes time to invest in the development of a new setting, and sometimes the audience can walk away feeling the events of the flashback had no importance to the current story.

    • The opening prologue of the expanse is a flashback to the death of Julia Moa.

  • In dialogue, we get more than one character’s perspective on the information, because it’s being told to someone, and there can be a reaction

  • VS It can feel false and out of place, or you might have to give up some exposition points to make it feel natural.

    • Multiple points of exposition are covered as Miller shows his new partner (a detective from Earth) around the station.

  • Direct Exposition is short and to the point, so it doesn't bog down the narrative.

  • VS too short and directly can actually be hard to comprehend and remember.

    • The first opening page of the expanse is straight exposition so we knew where we are in the endless possibilities of Sci-Fi

  • Interiority gives us more to focus on the character's reaction to something, and we can see parts of their reaction that they wouldn’t show to people.

  • VS It’s not a sharp engaging way to introduce information like dialogue and flashback. You give up multiple points of view.

    • In the expanse Miller, the detective falls in love with Julia Moa, but he never says to anyone. He never meets her in real life. All that takes place in his head. But it’s important because it helps us understand the choice he makes at the ends as he tries to communicate with proto-molecule, and it responds with Julia Moa’s voice.

The 5 Key Points of Exposition:

Who, What, How and & Why

Essentially exposition at the beginning of a story breaks down into these four important points. 

When I say who, that is a grand and complicated question, and if you answer it with a simple name you’re probably doing it wrong.

Who: Luke Skywalker (potential Jedi and wielder of the mythic Force, nephew to a struggling farmer, brother of the leader of the Rebellion, Son of Anacin Skywalker. A young man left behind by his peer group, a man asked to give up his dreams to help his family. A man who wants adventure. Estranged from his family.)

  • I won’t break down each of these, but let’s look at one.

    • When Obi-Wan mentioned Luke’s father his reaction was surprise and eagerness, “You knew my father?”

  • Who is defining the first impression of the character

    • In just a moment of stepping on the screen, the protagonist kisses his grandmother on the cheek. As my friend Dave put it when he saw the movie, “Any kid who kisses his grandmother is a good kid.”

  • Who is the back story, and goals of the character.

What is about defining the goal of the story both in terms of what the character wants, and what they need. 

  • In the case of Cars, it’s very clear what Lightning McQueen wants, and also that he needs to learn a few things. 

  • In terms of James Bond, it’s about defining the big problem or villain, this usually plays out in a scene where M explains the mission to him. 

  • In Rocky, this is Rocky defining victory not as winning, but as “going the distance.”

How is similar to what and they two may often coincide. It will also often discuss some of the potential dangers and challenges they will face.

  •  If we are talking Mission Impossible this is the plan, often explained in a meeting, where they will also cover the WHAT. They will talk about the security in place, the cameras, the vault etc...

Why is the reason behind the mission, the purpose.

  • James Bond wants to stop the Villain and save the world

  • Rocky wants to prove to himself that he can compete at that level, that he is not the useless bum people say he is.

All these points of exposition are important for the audience to understand, so they can evaluate what each step forward and backward means, so they can value the dilemmas put before the protagonist.

A & B: Making Exposition do more.

This is a technique where a single point of exposition can be useful both the immediate point in the story, and have relevance for later as well.

As Described by Robert Wood (https://www.standoutbooks.com/improve-exposition/)

First, necessity: what does your reader need to know right now? This is something you really need to interrogate yourself over, and it’s better to handle it with a ‘big picture’ outlook. For example, consider the piece of information that your protagonist’s mom is a prominent banker. This is important because A) it explains why the protagonist has time to himself after school and B) she’ll later be accused of fraud.

Details to provoke curiosity:

Another technique is to try and arouse curiosity about something through details.

“Once upon a time, a hundred years ago, there was a dark and stormy girl. The girl was Russian, and although her hair and eyes and fingernails were dark all of the time, she was stormy only when she thought it absolutely necessary… She had no dressing gown, but she pulled on the jumper her mother had knitted, which came down to the scar on her knee, and ran to the front door.”

– Katherine Rundell, The Wolf Wilder

The jumper is being pulled on – it’s completely relevant – but Rundell uses it to draw the reader’s attention to the scar. Using this scar as a measure of where the jumper falls justifies its inclusion, making this moment of physical description feel like an integral part of the action that’s just been performed.

Allusion

This is a tool I saw a lot of writers mention in how to deal with exposition. They don’t’ tell the reader, but rather allude to it. I’m not going to cover it here, because we are talking about how to make exposition work, this tool is actually about leaving it out.

Critique Guide Updates: Exposition

We have talked about this before, but I want to be better about it. A lot of writing books, and writing podcasts give you writing exercises at the end to help you use and explore the ideas discussed, but I’m a writer and I work full time, like most writers in the world. I want all my writing time to go into my current manuscript. So, instead of writing exercises, I create a Revision Guide for myself based on the research for these episodes. 

Additions to my Revision Guide:

Does my early exposition cover: Who, What, How, and Why? (I don’t mention When, because that is a setting question, and we have several episodes on that already.)

Have I created a need/question in the reader for the exposition/backstory?

What is missing: Is there historical (general history, or character personal history), scientific, or geological information that will make the point more impactful or easier to understand. Add that exposition.

Make if flow: Look for all points of exposition: Direction, dialogue, internal monologue (interiority) Do they also contain characterization - how the character feels about the information. Can they be converted into questions and the exposition delivered later, or the question asked sooner? Can it be a great flashback?

Life story: can the information be converted into a story from a character’s life?

Flashback

Is there a question raised that would best be answered through a flashback? Is there a moment when a character’s motivation is not clear, and a flashback or telling of character backstory would be the best way to clarify them? Can a dilemma be created by introducing an element of backstory?

Sources:

  • Story by Robert Mckee

  • Bonne Lynn Johnston: Lesson 4 Exposition - Page 3