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.
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| 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.
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| 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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