You’re Thinking About Exposition All Wrong

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You’re Thinking About Exposition All Wrong

Рет қаралды 5,127

Күн бұрын

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Exposition, or contextual information about characters and setting, is hard to balance-too much, and your novel can read like a textbook, but too little and your story can read as vague and ungrounded. As a developmental book editor, I frequently discuss exposition with the authors I work with because it’s so vital to include and nail in a story. To help you approach exposition in your own stories, here are some dos and don’ts to keep in mind as you write and edit your novel.
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Dialogue Mistakes You Might Be Making (with Examples): • Dialogue Mistakes You ...
DO’S AND DON’TS OF EXPOSITION:
01:23 - Do: Clarify when and where the story is taking place
02:48 - Don’t: Info-dump right at the start
04:13 - Do: Weave in contextual information as it becomes relevant
05:20 - Don’t: Include extraneous details
06:37 - Do: Illuminate the protagonist’s backstory and motivations
07:42 - Don’t: Overshadow the main narrative
ABOUT ME:
My name is Alyssa Matesic, and I’m a professional book editor with 7+ years of book publishing and editorial experience. Throughout my career, I’ve held editorial roles across both sides of the publishing industry: Big Five publishing houses and literary agencies. The goal of this channel is to help writers throughout the book writing journey-whether you're working on your manuscript or you're looking for publishing advice.
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Пікірлер: 42

@andyclark3530 2 жыл бұрын

The tip about recognizing info dumps is gold. I definitely try to weave exposition into my narrative, but I’m certain I tilt toward dumping periodically. One thing I might add - if you’re working in fantasy/sci-fi, your readers want to learn about your world, and I think it’s cool to tease them with it, revealing snippets of your magic system, political structure, economic system, as you go along. The readers of these genres are interested in world building, and you should satisfy that interest-slowly. That’s what I see in most successful novels in the genre.

@AlyssaMatesic 2 жыл бұрын

That's a great elaboration on exposition in different genres! Thanks for sharing!

@samfowler2073 Жыл бұрын

I mean that was all brilliant as always, I just as a British person shuddered at the use of the phrase 'downtown London'.

@A-Nonnie-Mouse Жыл бұрын

With my debut novel, I somehow stumbled into doing this well, and upon reflection, I know why. Exposition bores *me* as the writer. I hate those long paragraphs that describe the physical world. I even hate describing physical features of the characters. Lol. So one other 'heads up' if you are like me is whether or not you're boring yourself as you write! I know this won't work for everyone, as some people love detailing everything in print about their worlds, but if you *are* like me, Robert Frost's advice is helpful: no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. Which can be taken multiple ways 😄

@marygeorge2467 2 жыл бұрын

That's why they say it helps to be well read. Not only the classics, where gleaning from the richness of the prose can be incorporated into any genre to varying degrees, but also from the current market in your genre, studying the way the setting and character profiles are painted, the when, where and how the hero's goal is laid out, and finally resolved. Narrative prose is an opportunity to pan your voice for gold. To use your creative juices, pluck the words from the ether to let the reader know the heroine choked on her coffee when she opened the newspaper, or how she walked in on her mother hysterical in the kitchen, or if she was pacing the docks in NYC for a ship that never came. It's why deleting and rewriting is So. Much. Fun.

@silverletter4551 17 күн бұрын

Nah, it's not fun. It's just work

@ruthanne6729 2 жыл бұрын

I’m editing and revising a huge project to prepare for a dream come true mentorship, and this is super helpful. Thank you so much, Alyssa.

@jasonhobbs2405 Жыл бұрын

One of your most helpful videos for me. Thank you! My current project is a fantasy trilogy. I worry excessively that I’m info dumping in chapter one of book one, but I did so in response to beta readers saying they needed more info. I hope I can make it work well.

@AlyssaMatesic Жыл бұрын

Best of luck with the trilogy, Jason!

@deebrown5980 2 жыл бұрын

Very good info and wonderfully explained. Most helpful. Thanks.

@cjpreach 2 жыл бұрын

My intuition tells me that this info-dumping is incompatible with strong narrative voice. That is to say, if we immerse ourselves in expressing narrative voice, info-dumping will not make it into the text.

@gamewriteeye769 2 жыл бұрын

That is true

@elizabethmcglothlin5406 2 жыл бұрын

The difference between exposition and description is sometimes a tricky one!

@bobtheominc4838 2 жыл бұрын

Great video! This is all really helpful!

@Simeulf 2 жыл бұрын

This is really good advice.

@briantellstales 2 жыл бұрын

Very helpful video. Thanks!

@johnricciardelli9579 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for another enlightening video. I can see where my first chapter has a bit too much exposition not being incorporated into the narrative. Thanks again!

@AlyssaMatesic 2 жыл бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

@evalramman7502 2 жыл бұрын

All good points. I guess they could be summarized as less is more. (Of course, be open to the times when it is absolutely necessary to put in more - a matter of intuition, I suspect.)

@infinitymfg5397 2 жыл бұрын

I'm glad that you gave this along with techniques to make it work.

@AlyssaMatesic 2 жыл бұрын

I'm glad the techniques helped!

@rowan7929 2 жыл бұрын

It certainly is a bit tricky to find the right balance to introduce the character, time line, setting and the world you want to pull the reader in. Especially in fantasy. I mix some hints with thoughts of the protagonist and their surroundings. Mention a weapon like a sword or wearing a tunic. Then who they are and what they do or why they are here. I know I had to rewrite my first chapters like 5 times in my last self published book until my editor, the few betas and myself were happy with the outcome.

@gamewriteeye769 2 жыл бұрын

Sometimes narrative/exposition for a scene may have to be done in a different perspective to shorten the word count, within good story reason of course. **Exposition can be entirely avoided with a rich prose that fully displays a scene similar in style to a screenplay.** However, backstory/flashbacks generally will have exposition, and sometimes dialogue amongst the characters. While I'm hard pressed to stick to first person mainly in my narrative/exposition, it tends to bloat the word count because it cannot progress the pacing fast enough (using a real-time sensory detail), so I switch to third person limited where viable to progress the story.

@marciejuarez1483 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for another informative video. I've implemented 99.9% of your advice.

@AlyssaMatesic 2 жыл бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

@bobtheominc4838 2 жыл бұрын

If you do another Q&A: I saw your video on how to know if your ending sucks. I am intending to write a series, and was wondering the balance of tying up all lose ends vs leaving plot threads and cliffhangers for the prospective sequels. Do you have any tips there? Thanks in advance!

@anthonydileonardo8156 2 жыл бұрын

editor Maxwell Perkins warned James Jones about too much exposition when writing From Here To Eternity.....he told him to reveal as the story unfolded....but still, Jones went on for pages and pages and pages

@lindadiggen9973 2 жыл бұрын

This was great! What is the line between giving background and not making the plot move forward?

@shaunmcmichael6386 2 жыл бұрын

This encapsulates why I recently rewrote my first chapter for like the 50th time; it was sounding way too much like my query letter and synopsis. 🙄 I read/heard advice stating that agents would be turned off if the first chapter was too different, but I errored in the wrong direction, making my first pages way too similar. Wondering if I'm the only one who's had this problem...

@jcourt58 9 ай бұрын

I know i have too much exposition and am working on incorporating it into the narrative. My novel is set in a small town in Australia 1930s onwards, not a scenario familiar to many readers. Stuggling to fond the balance.

@maychenwoo9205 2 жыл бұрын

Personally, I like a little info dumping as a reader. And as an author too but I don’t do it a lot obviously

@sorrowspire_12 2 жыл бұрын

Hello, any possibility of making a video targeted towards the writers of fantasy fiction? like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings type of stuff?

@sorrowspire_12 2 жыл бұрын

I have another question - how important is vocabulary of your writing, and what is the best way of improving it?

@AlyssaMatesic 2 жыл бұрын

Great books have been written with the simplest of vocabulary--it's all about how you write! My number one tip for expanding your own personal vocabulary, though, is to just read tons of books, as you'll naturally encounter new words as you engage with other people's stories. Great question!

@truthbetold444 2 жыл бұрын

Isn't this advice contradicted by many famous classic novels? Just for one example, I seem to remember Victor Hugo spending many pages describing certain quarters of Paris in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. (But I read it many years ago.)

@autumnadams4574 2 жыл бұрын

The market is way different now. Times have changed and people expect different things from books, it’s 2022!

@dueling_spectra7270 2 жыл бұрын

Yes, but classic writers weren't trying to complete with TV, Netflix, KZfaq, and TiKtok to engage their audience. Technology has dramatically altered the world, including the modern attention span and we must adapt if we want to succeed. Unless we want to invent a time machine, to publish our work back in the 1800's. Then we can have our characters ramble on worse than Mr. Colins.

@clintoreilly 2 жыл бұрын

I'm struggling to finish the last four chapters, Alyssa :) Don't know why. Please advise.

@dueling_spectra7270 2 жыл бұрын

The last quarter of the story is the hardest. I went through my story to make a list of all the loose ends I wanted to weave into the conclusion (some are left dangling for the next book since I'm going indie) and added any plot Ideas I wanted to incorporate. I keep the list at the bottom of the chapter document I'm writing in, so when my brain stalls I can quickly scroll down to see what else I should be working in next. So far it seems to be helping.

@clintoreilly 2 жыл бұрын

@@dueling_spectra7270 Thanks. I guess that's the problem, tying up the loose ends. All the best on your work