Today, 23/5/18 is the _'s installment of Writing Advice Wednesday, where every two weeks, I share some advice to other writers that I have happened to learn along the way and would have rather known earlier on in my writing journey.
It is important to remember that any opinions I express are not law in any way, shape or form! Not everyone has the same experiences as I do in this field, but it is valuable to share opinions on topics in order to help others.
After a class presentation in April, I decided it would be worthwhile to provide you with my presentation script, with incorperated writing advice on the topic we were set to discuss for the presentation. This is completely fine, you don't need to worry as this assessment is formative and I will not be jeopradising anything by sharing what information I gave my class, with you today. But I would like to apologise for the lack of familiarity in the content presented today as I had a page quota to fulfil.
So, what is the actual topic today? I will be discussing exposition and how it relates to dialogue!
Exposition is a term used to describe a comprehensive
description and explanation of an idea or theory.
When applied to storytelling, the term relates to the insertion of important
background information within a piece.
This can be done in many ways, and one of the most common forms of conveying
expository information within a work of prose is through dialogue.
Expositional dialogue is most common in the genres of
science fiction and fantasy as the entire world that surrounds the characters
could be of the writer’s creation. This is usually hard enough to do without
having to explain everything to the characters to maintain suspension of
disbelief. What a writer doesn’t want is for readers to poke holes in the logic
behind the systems in place.
Many writers have established skilful ways in which to
provide readers with expository information in their pieces of prose. For
example, in Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling, expository information is dealt
to the protagonist from the inciting incident in Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone to almost the end of the series. Most significant plot
related information is given to Harry through dialogue. For example, the iconic
“You’re a wizard, Harry.” – this quote from the first book of the series, is
what sets the ball rolling in terms of world building. Not only was it simple
but it immediately provided context for the peculiar experiences that Harry had
experienced during the story, prior to Hagrid’s introduction.
What Rowling does especially well with the first book is to
take advantage of Harry’s lack of knowledge about the workings of the wizarding
world and his age as a first year student at Hogwarts in order to provide the
reader with significant information about the world and lore surrounding this
universe. Rowling takes advantage of the fact this; as by having Harry ignorant
means that the reader gets to learn everything as he does – this is a method
that is carried on for the rest of the series too. The reader knows not of why
Sirius Black is so determined to reach Harry Potter until he learns of this
himself. We also do not know about the prophecy until Harry does.
It can be argued that Rowling took advantage of setting this
story in a school environment for the sake of context as it meant that the
readers could be “taught” by her about the world she had created. It meant
world building could be condensed into a Q&A section and also push the plot
forward as Harry learned more about what he had become involved in.
The idea of introducing a foreign character into this world is a common method used for exposition as it aids the education and emersion of the reader. As, in an ideal situation, a character that is new to this space is going to have similar if not the same questions as a reader would to the writer. This method allows the reader to know everything they need to know.
I have used this method myself in several pieces of science fiction. The most prevalent being when I wrote a space opera, where a character from Earth managed to find themself stranded on an alien spaceship hundreds of thousands of lightyears away from their homeworld.With surprise, surprise, a huge case of amnesia. In that text, the first thing that the other characters did was gag the human and inject a universal communicator into the nape of their neck so they could understand what everyone was saying around them. Once they could actually comprehend things, the questions just kept coming. But instead of getting answers, the human was at a loss because the aliens that recovered their body from the wreckage of another ship, had no idea how they got there! I did this in order to establish an arc in which the character, Atlas began to learn of what happened to them.
I found that the aforementioned method of exposition was ideal for that kind of scenario, where a character is new to a world and needed to learn things in quick fire ways, and with the communicator in their neck, it was easier to justify Atlas learning from these aliens and the pace in which that happens.
This form of exposition and dialogue is less common in realistic fiction, where the pieces are set within this world. Instead, exposition in the form of backstory is conveyed to the reader via dialogue. This means that information tends to be revealed through passing comments and elaboration. For example, in Becky Albertai's novel Simon Versus The Homo Sapien Agenda, also published under the title Love Simon after the film adaptation, exposition is given in reference to Simon's sexuality, where Martin declares that he knows that Simon is gay, after reading and screenshotting his emails to Blue, another gay student at their school whom Simon was yet to meet.
*INSERT EXCHANGE FROM BOOK*
The above exchange between Simon and Martin is in place, not only to set the plot into motion, but also to allow the reader to know things that wouldn't immediately come to mind, had there been no stimuli to bring them forward. This is important as real people to not just walk through life thinking "I'm gay. I'm gay. I'm gay, I'm gay, I'm gay, I'm gay", no. The human mind isn't like that unless provoked to think such things. And albeit, Blue's coming out via social media does provide Simon with stimuli, but it is fully addressed in its full force when Martin speaks of it, as Simon is not out as a gay person.
So, after all of this context, published examples and personal anecdotes... What exactly, in my experience, do I suggest that a can a writer to do optimise their use of dialogue for the sake of exposition?
1. Do not forget that dialogue needs to sound like an actual person is saying it. Real people do not speak in flowing eloquent sentences unless they are in a scenario under which it is necessary. Such as a class presentation. Otherwise, people would use colloquialisms and fillers when speaking. They stutter, and drop letters when they speak. It adds to the authenticity of the voice and the believability of the dialogue.
For example:
*INSERT EXAMPLES FROM NEON BLOOD*
But! There are always exceptions, insults tend to be more eloquently constructed as they are put together in order to cause offence! If you are providing exposition into a general opinion, sometimes there is no better way to do it than to throw in an insult!
2. Sometimes, being simple with establishing an area of exposition is easier than actually explaining backstory and context all in one go. It can be easier for a reader to comprehend if the exposition is jotted around here and there, as opposed to being thrown at them all at once. This is usually referred to by the company I keep as an "info dump" and I am infamous for them in early drafts of my prose! They don't tend to be well received.
An example of scattered exposition goes as follows:
*INSERT EXAMPLE FROM NEON BLOOD*
3.
