A Brief Excursion to Exposition Street
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| Title: | A Brief Excursion to Exposition Street |
| Creator: | Merlin Missy |
| Date(s): | April 18, 2008 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | multifandom |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | A Brief Excursion to Exposition Street |
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A Brief Excursion to Exposition Street is a 2008 essay by Merlin Missy.
Series
This essay is part of a series called Dr. Merlin's Soapbox.
Some Topics Discussed
- info dumps and how to avoid them
- show don't tell
- comments on flashbacks
From the Essay
Exposition means telling the audience what happened, typically in simple prose. In film, the exposition happens when one character tells another a core-dump of information ala "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." In fiction, the author's doing the telling.
Your reader has clicked open your story because s/he wants to be entertained. S/he wants a quick (or longer --- Dr. Merlin likes well-written epics as much as the next fan) hit of the same stuff s/he sees in the canon. Maybe that's the interplay of two particular characters, even divorced from the canon setting (perhaps an SGA John/Rodney AU set in a NASCAR venue, for example). Maybe it's the witty banter like in Buffyverse or Aaron Sorkin's shows. Maybe your readers are madly in love with any character named Hermione, regardless of how she's written, be it rocket scientist or valley girl. You're there for the same reason, and you're not just writing to satiate your audience but to scratch your own itch.
At every point, ask yourself how the story you're telling is going to affect your readers. Do your readers know the characters in question well enough to care about what happens to them? In general, if the character is from canon, the answer is probably "Yes." Much of your legwork has been done for you then, and you can focus on how the events of the story affect the character, assured that your audience is already buckled in for the ride. If the character is canonical but disliked, or if the character is original to your story, you need to do more work to make the audience care about the outcome.
Don't do it by laundry list.