There comes a time in every author’s life (probably) where they have to learn how to cut down on exposition. Exposition, or the narration of background information, is sometimes essential in storytelling. How else are you supposed to explain your character’s backstory? The pre-existing relationships between characters? Your detailed worldbuilding? The problem is, exposition is boring. Not 100% of the time, but almost.

So how do you cut down on the exposition, while still providing readers with the information that they need? That’s what we’re talking about in today’s post!

You may also be interested in my quick fix for info-dumping!

Why cut down on exposition when you can remove it entirely?

This feels risky, but can be highly effective. You might be surprised at how little context or background you actually need to provide in order for your story to make sense. As an experiment, try going through your first chapter and removing all exposition. Pass it on to a beta reader, or somebody whose judgement you trust, and ask them where they got confused.

Don’t forget that there’s a difference between confusion and curiosity! It’s okay for readers to have questions about what’s going on, that’s what makes them want to keep reading. So, see where your readers land between those two states with your exposition-free intro.

If your trusted reader does raise points of confusion, it’s worth putting in a little context. But, generally speaking, it’s a good idea to keep your opening chapter as free of exposition as possible. Don’t put back any more of your stripped-out exposition than you need to!

Make exposition inconspicuous by weaving it into dialogue

A popular technique, and one that you want to be careful with. Sometimes you’ll come across a character who’s blatantly there to be a stand-in for the audience. The character who doesn’t know anything about anything. They’ve somehow missed every previous opportunity throughout their life to get a clue, but right now (with the plot in full swing) they suddenly need an explanation for every political/magical/scientific mechanic underpinning the world they live in.

Those characters are annoying. Don’t write one of those characters.

A less transparently irritating version of this is when you have a character who’s new to the setting of your story. That obviously works fine if your story lends itself to that, but I’d still recommend caution. Why? You don’t want all of your exposition to come through lecture-style dialogue, delivered from a character who knows to a character who doesn’t. Those just aren’t particularly interesting conversations to read, no matter how convenient they are to write.

There are better ways to deliver exposition through dialogue, for example by having characters with different views about some aspect of your world argue with each other about it. “I can’t believe you still support our King after he ordered that royal sacrifices be reinstated. That is SO LIKE YOU.” You can deliver important information through a character revealing their fears or ambitions. “Look, it’s not that I think the prince is all that good looking! I want to marry him to get on the right side of those royal sacrifices. I’ll do whatever it takes.” Get creative with it!

Cut down on exposition by letting events and settings speak for themselves

All right, I’ll level with you: this is just another version of the classic “show-don’t-tell” advice. It’s not always perfect advice, but when it comes to exposition it’s pretty vital.

Sure, you can have a paragraph of exposition to tell readers that Jason is sad that his ex-girlfriend is seeing someone else now. Or you can have him studiously look the other way while trying to distract himself from the memory of their last kiss. You can tell readers that your story’s characters are living in a dystopian surveillance state. Or you can show them insisting on having conversations outside, where they’re harder to bug. And other stuff, I don’t know, I’d be rubbish in a dystopian surveillance scenario.

The point is, whenever you want to explain something to a reader, consider first whether you can make it clear through the way your characters feel or behave. It’s much more immersive.

Don’t let exposition be the sole purpose of anything. Ever.

This has been kind of covered in the other points, but I think it’s worth clarifying in its own right. If you have a sentence that is purely exposition, that sentence probably isn’t working hard enough. Exposition in dialogue should, ideally, also provide an opportunity to learn more about the characters speaking. What are their interests? Their priorities? What do they want? Exposition within the narration can also be used to build atmosphere or tension.

If you can’t find a way for your exposition to be anything other than a pause in the plot to fill in some informational blank, I’m going to have to refer you back to our first point: Just cut it. If it can’t be tied to the characters or mood of a scene, chances are it doesn’t belong in that scene in the first place.

What are your tips for reducing the amount of exposition in your writing?

If you’ve got any great advice, or want to recommend someone who does this really well, leave a comment! Share the love!