Exposition Shouldn’t Be An Imposition

There’s a book that Jen read a while back, which now Kent is finally getting around to, which means we can finally talk about it. It’s… not perfect. It’s not awful, but there are many things about it that could be a lot better.

For instance, the way information about the story’s world gets delivered. The narrative just stops and waits while we’re treated to whatever facts and figures have taken on sudden importance. The interruptions are generally pretty small, but they still break up the flow of the story. It’s like the author had been warned against the dreaded info-dump, and thought the answer was to use smaller helpings.

So instead of one big dump, we get dozens of little info-turds.

Conveying information without pausing the action is tricky. Note, “action” here doesn’t need to mean a fight scene. It’s whatever is actually happening for the character(s) at a given moment. Keep the reader in that moment by keeping the characters in it. And don’t let your characters get away with just knowing stuff when they should be showing it.

To contrive an illustration: Sgt. Smiddlers gets nervous around balloons. It’s because he grew up in a faerie realm where balloons are carnivorous, and in fact was almost killed by one once. Write the scene where the balloon monster almost got him. Write it, and figure out where it goes. Show us this experience. And then, when Det. Doodles innocently walks by with a balloon, we’ll be able to empathize with the sergeant’s anxiety without needing an extra explanation.

World-building is not a matter of relaying enough facts. It’s about helping readers feel what it’s like to be a denizen of that world. Hopefully, what it’s like isn’t a herky-jerky sequence of by-the-way-here-is-a-thing-you-should-know.

A writing partner is someone with a good nose, who won’t let you get away with dumping info all over the place (even if it’s spread around in little pieces).