Write Fiction, Not Exposition (Get To The Meat of The Story)

Have you ever been reading a book, and for some reason the author insists on giving you the recipe blog treatment? You know, you came here for a story about international intrigue and spies, but for some reason the author insists on going on about historical events from twenty years ago? Or when you wanted a blood-pumping high fantasy adventure, but you're five pages in and all you've gotten is a complicated history of the royal family which involves a lot of "begetting," but you have no idea who your protagonist is, and what they're actually trying to do?

This is something all of us fall prey to sometimes... but generally speaking, we should focus on writing fiction, not on filling our pages with endless exposition.

We don't need this much backstory... trust me.

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People Are Here For The Story

I've said this before in a variety of ways throughout this blog, but for those who've never heard this before, the story is what draws the audience. Your audience might enjoy your worldbuilding, or your evocative language, or the intricacies of the time period your story is set in... but first and foremost people are here for the characters, and the story. Most of us, on some level, know this.

But a lot of the time we get stuck trying to give context to the point that it eclipses everything else.

The tower was a marble-floored monstrosity. The marble had been shipped from Gandahar over 1,000 years ago, and it was the result of the Treaty of Ardun, signed by...

This is, in some ways, a result of our desire as creators to tell our readers the entire context for the thing we're creating. Because yes, there's the surface-level appearance of things, but there's almost always deeper context for our worlds, our characters, and the things our audience is seeing. But the question we always have to ask ourselves is, "Do the readers need this?" Because if they don't need it, then as much as it might hurt us to do, we shouldn't put it in the text. That space can be better utilized for something else.

However, there are going to be times where that exposition is necessary for the audience to understand the story. But there are a few, simple things you should keep in mind as a creator when it comes to including it.

- Save it for the quieter scenes between the harder, more emotional beats of the story.

- Work it into the flow of the fiction, instead of giving your audience a Shakesperian aside.

The first tip is specifically aimed at the urge we have to do a long-form lead-in for readers. We've all heard that we need to hook the reader as quickly as possible, and if someone feels like they're reading a history textbook, or the opening lines of a physics experiment, that isn't going to drag them into immersion. If anything, it's going to do the opposite. Focus on your fiction, your characters, and what they're actually doing, because you want your reader dragged along in their wake, curious to see more about who these people are, and the adventure they're going on. Exposition can wait until later.

Secondly, make sure that you chop up the exposition, and figure out ways to work it into the natural flow of the story. Whether it comes up in conversation between your hero and their guide who is trying to give them a tour of the city, or it's mentioned as part of a political declaration and ceremony, or it comes up when someone overhears a bit of gossip, it's typically better to work the information your audience needs into dialogue, or scene-setting description. Asides, on the whole, are a terrible idea (with the exception of comedy and parodies, because it's then drawing attention to this tendency that can slam on the brakes of reader interest).

Remember, people who are coming to your book haven't spent months to years living in this world, and they haven't fallen in love with it yet. This is your first impression, and you want your reader to be taken with it, and immediately agree to one of those dates that lasts practically until sunrise. Don't blow your shot by launching into the origin of the sandstone found in the ancient ruins of the lost tomb... focus on the fact there's an angry mummy rushing out of the darkness to tear apart the intruders who disturbed its slumber!

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That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

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The Elevator Pitch: What It Is and Why You Need One

Every author dreams of finding themselves talking to a publisher who's a big deal. The kind of person who could open up a cell phone, call an assistant, and have a five-figure contract in your hands by tomorrow if he likes your idea. Maybe you're at a cocktail party and you just said something really witty, and he wipes a tear from his eye, gives you a smile, and says, "So, tell me about your book." This is it, the moment when you get a chance to hook that big fish, but you can see someone else making a beeline for him. You know you've got thirty seconds, maybe a minute, before the big deal's attention will move on and you'll be lost in the shuffle.

So what do you say?

The Elevator Pitch

The term elevator pitch has been used for decades because it refers to the scenario where you and the aforementioned important publisher are in an elevator. He's going up to his floor and you have between now and the time he gets there to sell him on your book. What you don't want is to be reaching for a good explanation, tossing in buzzwords, or rambling through the entire plot. You want something short, sweet, concise, and engaging.

In short, you want a hook.

Tell me more.

That's the whole point of your elevator pitch; you want your audience hooked on what you just said. You could go on at length about how your main character is a demon who is summoned by a young girl and bound into service to help her find a mysterious artifact of power, and how your lead has to contend with other persons who want the same item, but you'll start losing the thread of the tale and your listener will wander away. Instead you should say something like this:

"My novel is a gritty crime thriller in the spirit of The Maltese Falcon, if Sam Spade was a demon."

Whether modern fantasy is your genre or not, that is the kind of line that is going to make people stop and blink for a second or two. That's the reaction you want.

Elevator Pitches Are For More Than Just Publishers

Getting your book published is just the first step; you're going to have to help sell it too. That's why you don't want to hang up your elevator pitch just because your book is newly minted and breathing on the shelves. If it worked once then there's no reason it won't work again. And again. And again.

So what is this thing about?

The number of times you are going to be asked by people what your book is about is legion. Casual acquaintances, complete strangers, and everyone in between is going to ask you some variation of the question within ten minutes of learning you've had a book published. If your elevator pitch got a professional publisher interested then it should work great when you're being interviewed, when you're trying to hand sell your book at a convention, or when you just want to leave someone with an itch in their head to know more about what your book is really about.

Your book is an infinitely complex tale, and everyone is going to have a favorite character, moment, or scene. Your job is to be the travel agent and to find the hook that gets every reader to want to travel to this mythical land you've created.

Speaking of which, would you like to read a story about a budding romance between two young journalists forced onto a knife edge in the flickering light of the silver screen? Then check out Double Feature, my contribution to American Nightmare.

You know you want to...

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