How to make exposition better?

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Laer Carroll

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I sometimes write science fiction, which often requires more explanations than contemporary fiction. I also sometimes write alternate history fiction, ditto. The situation is even more acute when I write alternate history with scientific and technological elements.

So an issue which keeps coming up for me is how to make exposition more entertaining. Or at least more bearable. Here are some possible tactics that I've come up with so far. Maybe you can modify them. Or suggest other tactics.

(1) Include exposition where it's needed, not before.

I'd modify this by suggesting that an author ON THE FIRST DRAFT include exposition when s/he feels the need for it. And make it as complete as s/he needs to. It's best to have too much, written when you're inspired to, than to have too little. ON LATER DRAFTS we can always trim it. Or move it.

(2) Include only what's needed.

Leave fuller explanations and side issues for a later point in the story. Or just leave them up to the reader's imagination.

(3) Make an especial effort to write simply and clearly.

Avoid jargon and technical terms, using them only when necessary. Using them does not make text sound authoritative; it only makes it sound pedantic.

(4) Try to make it interesting.

I can't say I know how to do that!
 

MythMonger

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I've been writing an alternate history manuscript, so I'm interested to see what other people come up with.

One way I tried to show how my alternate history differs from our world is through children's toys. In one instance I played off of the "Cowboys and Indians" toys of our world, and showed how this concept has been turned on its head in the alternate history. I was hoping to say a lot with just a few short descriptions about the toys, as opposed to a more intense narrative discussing the same points.
 

morngnstar

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Just remember that people in your world already have a basic knowledge of what technology there does and is called. Don't have them explain it to each other in dialogue for the reader's benefit. At the same time, just because your world has high technology, doesn't mean everyone is a tech wizard. Think about whether it's appropriate for a futuristic cab driver to know how to sabotage the bad guy's hover barge.

Keep those things in mind, and you will have a hard time blathering on, even if you want to.
 

dawinsor

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In The Fire in Fiction, Donald Maass offers some suggestions for making exposition tenser. He's talking about exposition that comes in the form of the POV character's internal monologue rather than an objective narrator or something. Here's some of what he suggest:

Identify the primary emotion, then its opposite.

Look at what the character is thinking, her main idea. Find a conflicting idea.

If the character is mulling over an event, find something s/he failed to realize or notice. Does the character have reason to be uneasy?

See if you can incorporate the conflicting emotions or ideas or the new fear.
 

griffins

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I've been over-explaining in my sci-fi too. This is a real bugger of working in the genre. A lot of the fun (and work) lies in creating new things, but you're forced to leave a lot of it behind during editing.
The process is "write now, trim later" for me as well. It's easier, I think, to fully explain in the 1st draft, and then scale back slowly until you get the bare minimum of details needed. It's hard to hit that magical amount without overshooting it first.

Some thoughts on your four (very good) points:
1. I tried cutting everything that isn't pertinent to the scene, but I've found that sometimes a small detail gives more characterization than I could otherwise write. You do need small world-building cues for flavor and texture. But I think we have to carefully weigh how much value each of these lines give, and keep only the absolute best work. In other words, you can't play favorites. You gotta, as they say, "kill your darlings."

2. Just thinking about this, I don't know how I'd do it. I've tried breaking up exposition and feeding it in smaller doses throughout a scene, but it takes a bit of nuance and a lot of work. Not to mention whatever action you've written needs to be able to support this stop-and-go type of exposition. I suppose you mean introducing an idea but explaining it later, but I'd only do that if I have to show my hand early so the whole thing doesn't come out of left field.

3. Oh no, I think technobabble is part of the appeal with certain works of sci-fi. Some of the characters should be allowed to geek out!

4. The main way I can think of to make an otherwise non-interesting detail interesting is by pure wit. A lot of people will resort to fancy writing, but I disagree. I think interest actually comes from the idea, rather than how you present it. Humor leans heavily on presentation, and you can get a lot of mileage out of that as well.
 

neandermagnon

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I find that dripfeeding worldbuilding info works best. I do this on a "need to know" basis, and through the main character's voice (it's in 1st person).

Also, I try to show as much as possible rather than tell. I realise this is a rule that it's okay to break sometimes, but this is one case where mostly showing how things are really is better.

For example in my novel I have to show the social structure of the MC's tribe. I don't describe this; I make it evident from how all the characters interact with each other. If you were a visitor in a completely different culture, there might be someone who explains bits and pieces to you here and there, but a lot of it you'd be able to deduce for yourself by observing how people interact with each other and what they do as they go about their lives. I do insert some little explanations here and there, but I keep it in the main character's voice. The way he might explain it to you if he was showing you around.

With regards to technology, you'd learn by watching what it does and you'd accept that this is how the technology works because you've seen it in action and what it can do. You might later on ask questions about how it works, and the person answering isn't likely to give you a complete lecture in all the physics, but to give you a brief explanation.
 

Laer Carroll

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Lots of helpful points! More, more!

One point. In some genres fans expect and even want a fair amount of exposition. This includes historicals, military fiction, space-war sci-fi, and police procedurals. But the need to keep it relevant, clear, and entertaining remains the same.
 
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Laer Carroll

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Just remembered another way to include exposition that adds and not detracts from the story. It is in a book I was rereading last week by Lois McMaster Bujold, one of my favorite authors. It was included in dialogue.

It satisfied all the other criterion of exposition: relevant, short, clear, and entertaining. Plus it worked as dialogue. It didn't feel as if the explanations were forced into the story and made into action by sticking quotes around it. Instead it was a back and forth conversation, the two characters engaged in give and take.
 

Gregg Bell

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Try not to think about it. Keep it all as organic as you can. The exposition should be as natural and fluid as everything else.
 

BethS

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Make it interesting and relevant.
 

Old Forge

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Hi Laer - might be worth taking a look at CS Forrester (Hornblower) and Patrick O'Brian. They had their work cut out to put across a complex world of nautical technicalities. O'Brian particularly manages to slide a lot of it under the radar through dropping it in to conversations and through making sure characters continue to think of real-world concerns whilst doing their (technical) jobs. Forrester used various methods, including Q&A in Hornblower's promotion exams. Being a journalist, he was happier to provide more exposition anyway.
 
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Irish Whiskey

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James Clavell is my favorite writer of all time, and one thing I noticed about him and tried to adapt myself is that he uses multiple methods to provide exposition. Sometimes a character asks another character, sometimes the narrator explains that a character came to understand it this way, or thought this because he knew this, so on so forth. Sometimes he'll "show" it. Then there's the narrator just coming out and saying it, in as few words as possible. If the delivery of exposition is varied yet relevant to the scene it keeps it unpredictable. Relevance to the scene would be important, though, because if it fits naturally, the reader may not even know it's exposition.

As to science fiction tech explanation, I personally think most of that should be shown because most of the time the reader only needs to know the effect that device has on the story. Some dialogue would definitely work, but readers wouldn't need to understand all that was spoke necessarily, only the effect. I don't care how many buttons a quadron multicapacitor influx regulator has, I only need to know what the button that was pushed does.
 

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I think, depending on your story and your persona, blah, blah, blah, that it helps to remember your reader is part of that society. At least, that's one usual assumption in SF. You are not writing about the future; you are writing about the present, so you have to let your reader know, or surmise, what the world is like without telling her. If it's something you wouldn't tell a contemporary reader about now, it's something you don't openly tell a future reader about then. Contemporary people text or phone, but you don't explain the mechanics of that. Past people wrote letters, but in historical fiction, you don't explain all about quill pens. Future people do X (Shove their eyeballs up sideways to access their contacts?), but you don't give too much detail about that, either. Tricky. Hard.
 
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