Creative Ways to Write Exposition

[Superpride]

Hello, fellow writers! I haven't posted anything on his site since last year, and I'm hoping to do so again by first writing this post. As the title suggests, I was wondering how you all, as writers, implement exposition into your stories, especially when there's a lot of world-building. For me, I sometimes like to write my exposition in the form of news clips, like someone is flipping through channels of their television and are getting snippets of news reports of events that have occurred in the story's universe. I'll also sprinkle in a commercial or a talk show to make the exposition even more interesting and further explain the world the story takes place in. I try to insert some exposition into the dialogue as well; however, I know that a character talking about the world in long paragraphs isn't realistic, so I try not to do that or at least not too often.

So, what are your methods of writing exposition, so that a reader is more compelled to read it without getting bored or overwhelmed? Whether that be creatively or just the ways you organize it, I want to know. It feels good to be back on this site, and I'm really looking forward to reading all of your opinions on this topic!

[Ashi]

Hmm....  Interesting.  I just checked Wiki's definition of exposition, which is different from the exposition I used to do in high school.  I see you're doing world-building and setting up the story. 

I think your method is fine, and cinematic.  Wiki's definition gives an example about a woman put away a piece of paper into her purse (though I've seen man purse before), the idea is "show, don't tell."  If you're afraid of being long drawn and boring, sprinkle them out throughout chapters as you stated.  Besides each author or each story's pace is different.  It's your style and your story.

Myself I sprinkle them out like you did.  This works better when the story is longer.  Flash stories might not have this luxury.  As the world seen from the narrator is subjective reality, it doesn't have to be true at the beginning.  When the truth finally comes out, the crumbling of the world view might just provide enough conflict for the story.  It depends on what you're writing of course.  Is it a fantasy, sci-fi, or contemporary setting?

Some people might have an outline to keep things in a proper timeline, so you don't forget the critical information you planned and when they should be disclosed.  My stories are very shorts so I don't use it in my current story, but it is very useful.  Good luck.

[Superpride]

On 6/23/2020 at 1:01 PM, Ashi said:

Hmm....  Interesting.  I just checked Wiki's definition of exposition, which is different from the exposition I used to do in high school.  I see you're doing world-building and setting up the story. 

I think your method is fine, and cinematic.  Wiki's definition gives an example about a woman put away a piece of paper into her purse (though I've seen man purse before), the idea is "show, don't tell."  If you're afraid of being long drawn and boring, sprinkle them out throughout chapters as you stated.  Besides each author or each story's pace is different.  It's your style and your story.

Myself I sprinkle them out like you did.  This works better when the story is longer.  Flash stories might not have this luxury.  As the world seen from the narrator is subjective reality, it doesn't have to be true at the beginning.  When the truth finally comes out, the crumbling of the world view might just provide enough conflict for the story.  It depends on what you're writing of course.  Is it a fantasy, sci-fi, or contemporary setting?

Some people might have an outline to keep things in a proper timeline, so you don't forget the critical information you planned and when they should be disclosed.  My stories are very shorts so I don't use it in my current story, but it is very useful.  Good luck.

I'm definitely attempting a cinematic feel when presenting some of the exposition as news feeds. I got inspired to write exposition in this form after I watched Resident Evil: Degeneration, which is a true adaption of the Resident Evil video-game series by Capcom. The opening credits features different news feeds of events that transpired before the beginning of the movie, and I thought that was a very clever and entertaining way of introducing the world of Resident Evil instead of just presenting the opening credits.

A similar style was done with the beginning of the movie Pacific Rim. My stories are mostly science fiction, but set in a contemporary world. To be specific, a certain aspect of life like the military has became scientifically advanced, while the rest of society is like the world we know today. I find this easier to write and plot versus a story with aliens since that's a whole new set of world building I'd have to accomplish.

An outline to keep the timeline in order sounds like a great idea. Also, sprinkling the exposition throughout the story is well-advised as well. I agree that exposition should be approached differently when it comes to flash and short fiction since you, as the writer, only have a limited amount of words work with. I think if a series of short stories are all set in the same world, I believe sprinkling the exposition throughout each story would make sense, giving commonality between the stories while also being able to be read separately. Thank you for responding to my original post and offering me advice and insight as well. 😀 

[Demented]

On 6/11/2020 at 11:34 PM, Superpride said:

So, what are your methods of writing exposition, so that a reader is more compelled to read it without getting bored or overwhelmed? Whether that be creatively or just the ways you organize it, I want to know. It feels good to be back on this site, and I'm really looking forward to reading all of your opinions on this topic!

The way I see it, the only thing you need to do with exposition is imply that the world is bigger than what is on the page. Context clues, implications, and passing mentions of unintroduced elements gives the readers questions they can mull over and want to find the answers for. 

Take someone shopping in an aisle of a supermarket. The only thing happening in that scene is someone looking through whats on display and trying to find what they need to purchase. However with implied exposition and context clues you could morph something like that into whatever you want. 

For example, lets say the person that is shopping is a kidnapper and this is a thriller story. He has a victim in the trunk of his car and he is currently shopping for things he'll use to dispose of them later. You can gradually reveal the true nature of his shopping trip through the course of the narration that not only conveys the necessary exposition, but builds tension and makes the reader want to know what happens next. Maybe he's musing about what his victim is doing in the trunk right now, and enjoying the thought of them squirming around in there. Maybe he had some injuries during the struggle capturing the person and he doesn't want to go to the hospital, instead deciding to try and find some self help products in the store. Maybe there's an off duty detective in the same aisle, and he notices the scratches on the man's face and hands, and other signs of a struggle, and he strikes up a casual conversation with the man about what he's buying to gather information. 

let the scene tell the story rather than thinking "I should put exposition here."