- Are we back for one more round, hehehe! Yes, folks! I believe that we are!

When it comes to exposition, that is an entire book in itself. Learning what it is, how to use it, when to use it...when it’s too little, when it’s too much...it would be an absolutely exhausting effort to try to fill you guys in on all of it at the same time. And that’s just with the limited amount of experience that I have had with it, personally, over the years...most of it being stuff I learned through a LOT of haphazard trial and error. So I just tired to tackle the subject from a completely different angle in multiple parts whenever I got my head screwed on right and felt confident that I’d be able to make some sense out of the whole thing for anyone who was looking for a fw eta tidbits of knowledge here and there. Everything else has to be learned by just embarrassing yourself enough times to get it right. Hehehe!

But we’re all creative people here...so we already know that it’s the best way to go more times than not.

So make a few sandwiches, grab your particular drink of choice...maybe bring some porn along with you, as long as you’re willing to share, hehehe! And let’s get back to the ins and outs of the art of using exposition and how it can help or hurt your story, depending on how you decide to use it. Cool?

If you haven’t read my previous two articles on exposition, you can find Part One at https://gayauthors.org/blogs/entry/17506-exposition/ (Dealing with what exposition really is, and what is needed and not needed for the sake of brevity and pacing) and Part Two at https://gayauthors.org/blogs/entry/18119-exposition-round-2/ (Which deals more with being able to deliver information through visuals and detail instead of just speech alone). So check those out for some of the other parts of the process that I’ve spoken about in the past. They both, basically, deal with the art of being able to say what you need to say...without saying it. On many occasions, this can be accomplished gracefully, and your story can really benefit from it. But, the question we’re tackling for Round Three is...what happens when you’re not really given much of a choice in trying to navigate your way around just coming right out and saying what you have to say so the story doesn’t stall and your attempts to avoid it become awkward and weird. I mean...sometimes it happens, you know? Prepare for it. And when it comes time to ‘tell’ over ‘show’...you want to make sure that you’ve already figured out an effective way of doing so.

I have struggled with this in the past myself, and it can sometimes lead to long periods of frustrated stares at this blasted blank screen, hoping that some sort of random stroke of genius will somehow fall in my lap and free me from the temporary block. I get stuck between lacking the clever answers I was hoping for and the desire to simply cheat and skip over it so I can get back to the ‘important’ stuff...hehehe, but it is important. It isn’t going to work one hundred percent of the time...but the lack of a challenge will lead you down the road to laziness, every single time. So never give up trying.

That being said...there are going to be times in your writing where the simple approach to the problem is the best one. Some important details can’t be delivered to your readers in subtle and nearly invisible ways without you having to slow everything down considerably and taking an unnecessary scenic route that might ultimately bore and frustrate your readers. Sometimes...just plain ol’ exposition is best. What you need to think about most is which forms of exposition are stronger, and which ones are weaker, in terms of delivering the same amount of information in your fiction. That’s not to say that they won’t work...it just means that you, as a writer, should always look for the strongest ways possible to get the job done.

For example...

How many movies have you seen in the past where a certain piece of information has to be delivered to the protagonist of the story...and they just happen to be in a bar, or a restaurant, or a convenience store...and the info just so happens to be playing on the news on a TV in the background? And they run up and tell the bartender, “Hey! Turn this up!” And the bartender actually does it, first of all (Hehehe! “Sure, random stranger!”), and everybody around them gets quiet so he or she can hear the news broadcast clearly? Not to mention that they turn up the volume at the exact moment that the newscaster repeats the news that needs to be given? Or someone calls them on the phone, like, “Are you watching the news?”...and they turn it on just in time to get all the details without interruption?

Does that happen in real life? I don’t know...maybe. But I’d think it was unlikely. Now...you can easily deliver information to your audience in this manner, but I’d like to think that this is one of the ‘weaker’ ways of doing so. There’s really nothing wrong with it, per se...but I’m willing to bet that you guys already knew what I was talking about from one hundred movies you’ve seen and stories you’ve read a million times before...and that makes it cliché in a way that you might want to avoid. I’m thinking that you don’t want that.

Why is it weaker? Because it feels as though it’s a story contrivance that comes out of nowhere. Very fortunate for the protagonist, but not to anyone reading. Therefore...not to anyone writing it either. If it were me, I would use the whole news broadcast thing as a last resort...but I would still use it if I thought it served the purpose that I needed it to serve. Because it really is a quick and easy way to give the main character (and thus, the audience) the information that they need to have for the story to move forward. And that’s why this form of exposition is used so much. Because it’s very useful.

I hope that doesn’t sound like a conflicting flurry of advice in this article. Just keep in mind...this isn’t about good and bad uses of exposition. It’s more about stronger versus ‘not so strong’. K?

As many of you guys already know, I am a hopeless insomniac, and always have been since I was a little boy. So much so that my mom just kind of gave up on trying to force m to go to bed at ‘bedtime’, and just tried to stay with me until I fell asleep naturally. Hehehe, even then, my brain was buzzing with so many ideas that I couldn’t quiet my thoughts long enough to relax. SO...I grew up watching a lot of old black and white movies and TV shows on television, and they always stuck with me. And if there was ever a long road trip that w had to take somewhere, my parents used to play these old cassette tapes in car to sort of keep me captivated by the stories and all the entire time. I still have some of those old cassettes! I would listen to the original “War Of The Worlds”, and “The Witching Hour”, and more. And one that I always had a specific fondness for were episodes of “The Shadow”! God, I know som of those old tapes by heart! Hehehe!

The thing about these ‘story tapes’ is that they were played on the radio, in a time where there wasn’t a television in every household. No pictures. No stage. Nothing. Just the words you heard, a few sound effects, and a couple samples of music added here and there. Everything else? It’s ALL exposition! Every word! The rest was left up to your imagination. Back then, they didn’t really have much of a choice. But the overall effect is absolutely brilliant.

I want you guys to listen to the audio of this particular episode of “The Shadow” for a few minutes. You can listen to the whole thing if you like, and find huge block of episodes on Youtube if you find you have a taste for it like I do...but I’m sure that just listening to the first five to ten minutes or so will give you more than enough context to understand the idea that I’m talking about.

Check it out...

The beginning of the broadcast is just the opening to introduce you to the protagonist, theme music and all. That’s exposition. This is the info you need to know in order to follow the main character on whatever adventures he plans to take you on. But listen after that. It’s just words and a few sound effects...filling in everything you need to know. Who is The Shadow? Who is he with? Where are they? Snow? Werewolf? What’s a werewolf? How long has this been going on? All of this is being given to you with words alone, in an interesting and entertaining way, without showing you a single picture. With a radio broadcast like this, way back then, you wouldn’t have the luxury of the kind of subtlety and visuals that you would have with a TV or a movie screen...but you wouldn’t have the inner monologue and narration of a full length novel either. This lies somewhere in between. Everything has to be spoken aloud in order for the rest of the story to make sense. It’s practically narration...but without the narration. Does that make sense?

This is one of the reasons that I’ve always felt that one on one dialogue has always been one of the strongest methods of delivering information in your narrative, as opposed to any number of other methods that might be effective...but simply don’t deliver the same ‘punch’, you know? I guess it really depends on what kind of story you’re writing, which methods you decide to use. For example, if you’re writing a mystery from a detective’s point of view...finding clues, photographs, reading news articles, etc...might be the way to go. But if you’re writing about two college Sophomores flirting with one another at a party...I’d think having them talk and trading some witty (or perhaps some nervous) dialogue would fit better when it comes to finding out who these characters are and what their background is.

I’ve been writing a gay teen story that takes place during a zombie apocalypse (How’s THAT for a way to start a paragraph! LMAO!!!) called, “Shelter” (https://gayauthors.org/story/comicality/shelter/) where the teen survivors are walled in and protected by the military in a high school that was made out to be a fortress for refugees from the outbreak...but teens are the main protagonists of the story. And something that I’ve found it difficult to do is to deliver the proper amount of information to them without them constantly having to ‘overhear’ conversations from the officers or doctors or civilians all the time. Once or twice, is fine. But seeing as it’s a serious situation and everything is being sort of kept as a secret, I really haven’t found many ways for them to figure out what’s going on without them just ‘happening’ to be hiding out in the right place at the right time. It’s what I’ve got to work with right now, but I’m constantly struggling to find other ways for them to be in the loop without having to hear everything second hand.

Maybe it’s just me, but after a few times of using that trick, I feel as though it’s beginning to weaken the narrative a little bit. I’d rather find a few different sources of exposition if possible.

Still….it works, and it’s effective...but I want to be as strong a writer as I can be. And drifting over to that ‘lazy’ off ramp is OH so tempting sometimes! Hehehe!

Just something to think about when you’re writing. You can use exposition quickly to get your point across without having to strain yourself too much to find clever ways around...as I said before...sometimes, simplicity is best. But use it sparingly, and try to strengthen your presentation if you can.

Having your protagonist looking for information and just hearing it on the news can be a bit weak. If they need to look up a specific sort of demonic possession and they Google it and it’s like, the third result on the page? Weak. Trying to find someone who can’t be found, and suddenly running into their ex-boyfriend on the street with their name and address in their phone all cued up for you? Weak.

I truly believe that informative dialogue is the way to go, and that’s exactly what I learned from listening to old cassette tapes of classic radio shows in the car as a kid. So grab your influences wherever you can, and take the best parts to heart. In my story, “Gone From Daylight”, I was lucky enough to take the whole ‘fish out of water’ approach to the situation, where everyone around him was a vampire and he wasn’t. So I was able to effectively use dialogue with his companions in order to teach my protagonist (and thus the readers, remember?) how this world works and what the rules are. That takes your readers on a journey with your main character, as opposed to just following breadcrumbs from whatever knowledge you decide to drop in front of them from a journal entry or an overheard conversation. It keeps your main character driving the story forward, as opposed to simply being a passenger or a witness to what is going on around them.

Also...if you go that route...please don’t reduce your protagonist to a ‘parrot’. That’s not good either.

Meaning, you’ve got everybody else doing the talking, and your main character just says, “Why?” And then they dump the info on him and he says, “How?” And they dump some more info on him….rinse and repeat. Always, always, ALWAYS, have your protagonist driving the plot forward! It’s awesome to have him absorb a lot of information and use it to get the rules in order...but don’t let him drift out of the spotlight. K? Even the strongest bit of exposition can weaken your main character if your readers don’t feel like he’s directly involved anymore.

Alrighty! That’s it for tonight! I hope this helps you guys out while you’re writing your next big masterpiece! We’re all just on brilliant opus away from a legacy we can be proud of, right? Hehehe! So go out there and grab the trophy!

Love you lots, one and all! Take care! And stay beautiful!