Thoughts on Exposition, 1

I am cross-posting the following from my LiveJournal page, since it seems like it should be posted here as well. I am hoping to write part 2, on writing exposition itself, fairly soon.

Enjoy!

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I've known for a while that being a writer has changed how I read, but every once in a while it really comes home to me. Last night was a perfect example.

I needed a new something to read before bed, so I grabbed a book off the shelf that Jamie had already read but I hadn't gotten to yet. It's a fairly thick adventure/epic fantasy novel, first in a series (pretty standard these days, series), by an author with four or five books already under their belt, but who I haven't read before. And before you ask, no, I am not going to name the author or book. :)

Anyhow, I cracked said book and started reading. Right off the bat, I could feel my writer antenna going up as it usually does with a new book and unfamiliar author. I noted the opening sentence and paragraph (quick, nice hook, gets you rolling), the narrative method (3rd person multiple, with occasion POV shifts between paragraphs, but well enough done that it doesn't throw me out), interesting setting/world building, good hints at overall plot, and so on. Pretty standard stuff for me to pick up on, and the kind of things that usually shift to the background if the book is well written and engaging. That is to say, my awareness of these kind of things fade as I get drawn into the book. (Exceptions being exceptionally well or poorly written bits that cause the writer in me to go "Oooh, nice!" or "Arrgh, get me a drink and a large 2x4!") This time around, though, something else started my antennae to quivering a few more pages in. At first, I hadn't noticed it, because it is a fairly standard technique for some writers; but over several pages, it began to grow on me more and more until I had to take actual, conscious note of it: exposition.

For those not familiar with the term, exposition is essentially a sizable chunk of information presented for the reader's edification. Call it back-story, call it world building, cal it info dump, it is the writer telling the reader something about the plot, character or world outside the immediate narrative or action. It can be done well, it can be done poorly, it can be done as dialog or as prose, but just about every story you are going to read has some exposition in it somewhere. Exposition itself is not a bad thing, and can present important parts of the story, world, etc. in a very economical and useful way.

Anyhow, back to last night: I noticed several pages in that this writer liked exposition - a lot. Large, honking gobs of it. For several pages, the formula was basically: Line or two of dialog, paragraph of exposition; line or two of dialog, two paragraphs of exposition. And these were big paragraphs. In other words, lots and lots of back story, character history, and world building, all in the first pages of chapter one.

Now, while this isn't to my personal taste, I had to admit that this writer had done a decent job of it. The information was interesting overall, there were enough intriguing hints and clues to keep me hooked, and the world - while not off the scale original - sounded like a pretty interesting place. I mean, it DID take me a number of pages to realize I was being hit by exposition bombs right and left, which speaks well to the writing, IMO. But notice it I finally did, and that caused me to physically stop and pause. And then I had to decide: do I really *want* to read this book if there is this much front-loading? Will the story pay off? If you are telling me this much right away, what are you going to have left to surprise me with down the line? And so on.

Let me tell you, as a writer, you DO NOT want your reader stopping on page twelve and asking themselves these questions. As soon as the reader starts to doubt you, you are in trouble, because it becomes that much easier for them to put down the book and walk away. Worse, it becomes easier for them to see your next book on the shelf at the bookstore and say, "Oh, yeah, I remember them - they info dump like crazy. I think I'll pass."

Do some people like this kind of front-loading? Absolutely. And for some kinds of books, it is even a good idea (although I do not think the book I was reading last night is that kind of book). Will the average, non-writing reader even be aware of all of the exposition? Hard to say. Some will, some won't; some will react, some won't. And like I said, simply having it in there is not a bad thing. Hell, I'm a fan of exposition and use it in my own writing quite a bit. But you have to watch out how you do it, and how often. Putting it in by the page-full early on can be tempting (there's this whole cool world to talk about, and all this back story, and the reader needs to know X for Y to make sense, and...and...), but you have to make sure 1) it serves an immediate purpose to your story, 2) it works on the page, and 3) there is enough forward momentum surrounding it that the story (and the reader's interest) won't flag. It is very easy for a reader to get confused or not pick up on the hints and foreshadowing you are so carefully laying in their lap. This early on in the book, there is no emotional investment on the reader's part, so there is no compelling reason for them to care about what happened ten years ago, who killed whom when, when Gizmo X was invented, and so on. And that makes it easier for them to walk away.

As writers, it is easy to become enamored of our creations. There is so much cool stuff we develop for a story that never makes it on to the page, it is sorely tempting to toss bits and pieces of it out there. Sometimes, this is perfectly reasonable; other times, it is largely us indulging ourselves. The key is to be aware of when we are doing it, and try to make it so that our readers do NOT become aware of it.

As for the book I started reading last night? Like I said, the author did a good enough job that it took me a while to catch on, and it was farily interesting stuff overall. Plus, the writing is good, which excuses a lot. I think I will give them a couple more chapters to see how it pans out. If the chewy chunks of data ease off and the writing stays strong, they will have me; but if I have to regularly wade through half a page to a page of information just to see something happen on the page, then I'll move on. And that's something no writer wants to see.