A to Z Challenge: E is for Exposition

Welcome to Day 5 of the A to Z Challenge

Many bloggers have chosen a theme for the A to Z.  My pledge since becoming a blogger is to post about writing, so for this event, I will being posting about what I've learned about writing a novel.

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E is for Exposition:  the act of expounding, setting forth, or explaining; writing or speech primarily intended to convey information or to explain; a detailed statement or explanation (Dictionary.com)

There’s a dirty word—or term rather—in fiction writing:  the dreaded info dump!  Why?  Mainly because it slows the action down.  So there are a few rules writers should follow to avoid them.

Rule #1:  Act first.  Explain later.  In other words, begin with a character in motion and drop in only as much info as necessary, in tiny little bits as you go.

Rule #2:  When you do explain, think of an iceberg.  Don’t tell everything.  Keep roughly 10% on the surface and 90% hidden.

Rule #3:  Set the information inside a confrontation.  Let it come out within a scene of conflict and use the character’s thoughts and words to do the work.

Yes, this means you need to resist the urge to explain.  Hard to do sometimes, I know, but it’s that old adage of show, don’t tell.  Exposition works if you remember to keep the tension high.  And when you do need to explain something, hold off as long as you possibly can and don’t explain what you’ve already shown.

I had no clue about these rules when I wrote my first draft and had to go back and pull out all those paragraphs of excessive information.  I added them back into a high-conflict scene, a confrontation loaded with dialogue.  It worked much better.                     

How do you deal with exposition and fight the urge to explain?

And thank you,  Alex J. Cavanaugh for posting about me today!