What is Exposition?

Exposition is when you provide background information about a story, specifically the setting or its characters, in order to tell the actual story. Exposition can often feel daunting to write. How much information do you reveal? How much do you conceal? How do I know if I’m showing instead of telling? 

In this article, we’ll break down what you need to know about exposition, provide some examples, and offer some tips. 

Exposition provides the rules of the world that your characters inhabit

In order for an audience to care about your story they need to: 1) relate to your protagonist and 2) understand the stakes for the protagonist. But in order to understand your protagonist and the stakes, they need to understand the rules of the world that they inhabit. It does not have to be fantastical. It could simply be the rules of trying to rise up the ranks in a competitive law firm. That said, if you spend 10 minutes dumping information onto your reader, it’ll pull them out of the immersive world you’re trying to create, and you risk losing their attention. 

A few techniques that writers use to deliver information without “info-dumping” are: 

  • Showing instead of telling
  • Integrated dialogue
  • Gradual disclosure aka breadcrumbing
  • The “Pope in the Pool” approach
  • Flashbacks
  • In-Universe Media

When in doubt, you should only include information that the reader absolutely needs to understand the narrative. The narrative is the particular events and the sequence of events that have been deemed important. Let’s go through each of the above techniques in more detail. 

Showing instead of telling

When we experience something for ourselves, we obtain understanding, because we’ve locked into our own mental maps. When we’re told something, we either parrot back an acceptable response or tune out and act polite. The same is true for when we’re reading a story, except for the fact that no one is obligated to read a story. This means that if people are being told how to feel or lectured to, they’ll simply stop reading.

Showing instead of telling helps people create their own meaning while simultaneously locking into a shared meaning. So instead of saying that someone is nervous, you may write that they’re fidgeting, fiddling with belongings, glancing around, or stumbling over their words. Most people can discern that they’re nervous – and the scene’s context clues such as a stressful meeting or a confrontation – but showing with key details can help make the character more relatable and pull the reader into the story. A reader may say, “Oh! I do that too when I’m nervous. I thought I was the only one!” or “Hm…that action seems suspicious. I wonder if this character knows more than they’re letting on…” The more the reader starts interrogating their understanding of the scene, the more they’re building meaning, the more invested they become, and the more memorable the story is. 

Integrated dialogue

Integrated dialogue is when you use the things that characters say to each other to deliver information. I think Roz Morris over at Nail Your Novel offers some great thoughts on this: 

“…in a dialogue scene you have to keep another purpose in mind – that of the characters. What do they need at this moment? What would they naturally say? They are not puppets operated by the writer. They are themselves, with their own reality, which you want the reader to believe. You want to create the illusion that they are acting from their own purposes (even though those purposes are actually yours – which might, in this case, be to tell the reader about Victoria and Albert). But they need to serve their own needs first.” 

“If you need to explain back story, choose your explainer carefully. And find a character who needs the explanation. What you can’t have – and I see it a lot – is characters talking about things they both already know. This is weird unless there is a good reason, like a lecture or a chat show, or there’s something deeper going on that means the conversation isn’t to be taken at face value (more on that in a moment).” – Roz Morris

Gradual disclosure aka breadcrumbing

Breadcrumbing is when you give your character’s little pieces of information that seem unimportant when they receive it but add up to have a big impact later in the text. This is sometimes called foreshadowing. Here’s the thing though. Readers are very savvy. They know what Chekhov’s gun is. They’re pretty good about spotting that if a character coughs in the first act, they’ll likely die somewhere near the end of the second act. One way to circumvent this and create a juicier experience is to present a piece of information that the reader thinks will lead to a specific conclusion. For instance, instead of the cough meaning they’re old or sick, it could actually mean that they’re giving a signal to someone and they’re much younger than they appear to be. 

The “Pope in the Pool” approach

The “Pope in the Pool” approach is used when writers need to share information that’s important but dry. The information is delivered while something entertaining or distracting is being shown on the screen. This technique is often used in movies. The Big Short used this method often to solve the problem of making complex financial information entertaining. Two examples are when Margot Robbie is in a bathtub explaining mortgage-backed securities or Anthony Bourdain is shown making a seafood stew in a busy restaurant to explain CDOs. 

Flashbacks

Flashbacks are another way that information is communicated without a lot of exposition. It’s written like any other scene – with a focus on showing and not telling and keeping things dynamic – but it’s made clear that this is a particular character’s memory or that the story has gone back in time. 

In-Universe Media

This technique uses media within the story’s world or universe to reveal information. A character in a historical drama may spot a newspaper headline that tells the reader what time period it is and what country they’re in without there needing to be a lot of explanation. There could also be letters, computer ads, or secret documents. 

What should you do when you need to introduce information?

One effective technique for introducing information is to make the reader curious for that information. Create the conditions where they have no choice but to eventually start asking about a person, a place, a thing, or a situation. This means that when the information is finally revealed, the reader is eager to digest it. They also feel like they’re being taken on a journey that makes sense while still being engaging. 

Exposition helps create a vivid, engaging world for your readers

Exposition is all about sharing information, so you readers have the context they need to understand your story. It helps you make your character relatable to your readers by clarifying what the stakes are in their situation. If you need line-level help writing your exposition, you can also check out this article, “Top Poetic Devices for Writing Effective Exposition.”