referenceforwriters:

Ah, yes. The exposition. Come with me.

The thing with exposition is that you can very easily lose your readers in it. I know I have found myself skipping (consciously or not) paragraphs or even pages if I don’t find the information in them engaging enough as they delve into explaining things, whether it is an event’s background, world building, character, the works. Now, this happening once ain’t so bad, but if someone keeps skipping chunks of what you’re writing, chances are, they’ll stop reading. (Unless. Unless. But this is besides the topic.)

It can be dreadful. I’m sure we’ve all been there, wondering if it will ever end and we’ll get back to the characters actually talking and doing things. And that is what you want to avoid, so: 

  • Be ruthless. When writing, do feel free to overwrite if you’re that type, but when editing, ditch everything that does not serve your purpose. Whittle anything unnecessary and sharpen the information you deliver until it reaches piercing levels.
  • Be efficient. Pack as much detail into as little words as possible. Combine pieces of information along with character actions, along with description. Limit your exposition and space it out. Too much in a single place, you lose punch. 

Do it as if you were telling the story to a friend or, even better, a group of strangers: strangers only offer as much interest as you compel them to give you. You want to tell only what’s necessary to make the anecdote work, otherwise, they’ll begin to ignore you, and stuff will be awkward. You don’t want awkward, now do you? You need to tell them what they need to know, and you need to keep only what is essential for them to understand what is going on. 

Also, even if you have to provide a lot of information on something, dullness is your enemy. If you have a good voice, anything can be of interest; use humor, wit, or otherwise interesting imagery in order to inform your readers in an entertaining way. 

-Alex

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