Hey, Story Seeker! Let’s talk about exposition. You know, that “nasty” stuff writers are supposed to stay away from at all costs?
That’s not entirely fair though. Exposition – in its proper form – is a necessary part of most stories. When we enter a story, we’re breaking into another world, even if that other world is simply the happenings of the next-door neighbor. The story may include elements that require a bit more understanding if we are to fully grasp the narrative and experience the tale to its fullest extent.
Exposition helps readers understand important pieces of the story world. It frames a context, helping readers understand what’s at stake. When necessary, it provides history and background. Exposition offers details so that we can keep-up with the plot.
Let’s look at an example. This line of dialogue sound familiar?
“A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights. He betrayed and murdered your father.”
At this point in Star Wars: A New Hope, we’ve already met Darth Vader, but we know precious little about this mysterious, masked, “dark helmet”. Obi-Wan Kenobi’s offers a wee bit of exposition, in the form of backstory, and unwraps a few layers of the villain to help us understand a few things:
- What’s at stake: the villain is a traitor and a murderer and will hunt you down.
- There is a tumultuous history between Vader and Obi-Wan.
But this bit of exposition does more than simply offer information; it pushes the story along by:
- Causing the audience to ask questions: why did Vader turn to evil and murder fellow Jedi?
- Adding tension and suspense: how will the relationship between Vader and Kenobi conclude?
- Giving the villain a personal connection to the protagonist: Vader betrayed and murdered Luke’s father (from a certain point of view 😉 )
Suddenly, in a mere 33 words, we’ve gone from merely learning a couple of backstory facts, to adding 3 additional layers to the story.
As they say in the movies, “the plot’s thickened.”
As with most aspects of storytelling, there are many, many ways to use exposition.
The above scene from Star Wars is an example of using dialogue to provide backstory and context, but if backstory and context were the only focus, that dialogue snippet would have descended into why exposition is often a dirty word amongst writers: it would have been an information dump.
Fellow storytellers, information dumps, or spewing information about the plot, backstory, etc. with no other purpose than providing information is, let’s be honest, the lazy way to give audience the details they need to understand the story.
The reason why this is lazy?
Because as audiences, we choose to read, watch, and listen to stories to experience the lives of the characters. To be pulled-along through a series of conflicts, tensions, and twists and turns towards an ultimate resolution that is a culmination of the hero’s desire.
We crave that spellbound aura that is a mark of all great stories. And sure, there are times when information for information’s sake is necessary, but halting your narrative for the sole purpose of giving information is rarely the best choice.
Those lines from Obi-Kenobi did so much more than offer plot details. They gave us just enough of what we needed to understand the plot, but then wrapped the info in increasing tension and added meaning for the hero.
This is exposition done-well.
When adding exposition to your own story, considering these ways for making your exposition engaging:
- Don’t answer all the questions. Better yet, give just enough detail so that the audience begs to learn more.
- Add Tension and Suspense by raising the stakes for your hero.
- Make it personal. Allow the hero to discover a new detail that changes the game.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS!
What are ways you’ve discovered to effectively communicate plot information to your readers?
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