The fiction-writing mode exposition has a tarnished reputation, and for good reason. In their book, Good Advice on Writing: Great quotations from writers past and present on how to write well, William and Leonard Safir quote Voltaire:

Woe to the author determined to teach!

The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.

Exposition, if handled poorly, can kill plot momentum and bog a story down. It can come across as telling rather than showing. It can be tedious and uninteresting. A classic example of the misuse of exposition is in Moby-Dick, where Herman Melville breaks away from his otherwise fascinating story for entire chapters to tell about the folklore, anatomy, and habits of whales.

If exposition carries such a burden, why do fiction-writers use it at all? Because exposition handled well can provide perspective, dimension, and context that helps a story make sense and gives it depth. Exposition can also be an effective means of creating drama. When handled skillfully, exposition can turn the entertaining act of reading fiction into a thought-provoking, educational experience.

The concept of writing exposition may appear to be simple, but how information is revealed is as important as what that information is. Exposition may be delivered by any of three techniques: narrative exposition, through characters, or by expository devices. Each of these delivery techniques has advantages and disadvantages, and each requires skillful presentation for effective use.

NARRATIVE EXPOSITION 

The simplest way to present information is for the all-knowing, impersonal, and invisible narrator to state it, i.e., narrative exposition. Although it may be referred to by other names (direct exposition, objective narration, summary exposition, or simply narration), narrative exposition is where the narrator of the story provides information directly to the reader. When conveying information by narrative exposition, the narrator simply states the information without any pretext of channeling it through a character or exposing it through some sort of prop.

Narrative exposition has the advantage of simplicity, but there is a price for it. Narrative exposition is authorial intrusion, the author revealing himself to the reader. No matter how deeply a reader submerges himself into a story, he knows subconsciously that an author put the words on paper. But if the author intrudes into the story by speaking directly to the reader, the reader maybe jolted out of the fictive dream. In the most overt form of author intrusion, the narrator directly addresses the reader by name, as in:

Meanwhile, dear reader, in a saloon across the street from Cisco, Black Bart slipped a derringer into his pocket. 

Even if the reader is not addressed directly, narrative exposition can come across like the wizard in the Wizard of Oz, whose voice booms from above.

Meanwhile, in a saloon across the street from Cisco, Black Bart slipped a derringer into his coat pocket.

THROUGH CHARACTERS

Characters may provide information through what they say, hear, see, smell, feel, think, or recall. Here's an example of exposition through dialogue:

Gabby grabbed Cisco's shoulder. "Be careful, sonny. I heared Black Bart carries a derringer in his pocket."

Here's an example of exposition through recollection:

Cisco paused before stepping into the livery stable. He recalled hearing something about how Black Bart had killed a cowpoke in Dodge City. With a derringer.

Here's the same information being revealed through a character's thoughts.

Cisco paused before stepping into the saloon. What if Black Bart carried a hidden weapon? Like a derringer?

Providing the reader with information that flows through the character allows the reader to continue the fictive dream, but there are pitfalls. The biggest problem is when a character presents information that is obviously for the reader's benefit. Readers can tell if characters are being used as a device for presenting information, in effect using characters as puppets to spout information. Even worse than two or more characters having a conversation that is obviously intended to educate the reader is when a single character pontificates information verbally himself, in the fiction writer's version of a soliloquy.

EXPOSITORY DEVICES

Various devices may be used to convey information. Classic examples include such props as treasure maps and messages in bottles. Others include newspaper clippings, letters, diaries, and trial transcriptions. The advancement of technology has provided new expository devices: emails, text messages, podcasts. In the world of science fiction and fantasy, expository devices are limited only by the writer's imagination (think Star Trek and Harry Potter).

Here's an example of using an expository device:

As Cisco approached the livery stable, a young lad approached him.

"Hey, mister, a lady across the street asked me to bring you this note."

Cisco unfolded the paper and read, Be careful, Black Bart hides a derringer in his pocket.

OTHER ISSUES

Other issues related to effective exposition include:

• Quantity
• Selection of information
• Timing
• Exposition in scenes and sequels

QUANTITY

How much information is appropriate? Too little, and the reader won't fully understand the story, or the story may lack depth and texture. On the other hand, too much at one time may become what is referred to as an information dump, so much that it stalls the story. In general, exposition should be no longer than it needs to be to do its job.

The amount of information presented in a story may vary, from incidental to entire segments built around information. Think of the importance of information in novels such as Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code and Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. Even entire genres, such as sci-fi, crime-scene mysteries, and historical fiction, may be filled with exposition, sometimes highly technical information. Fiction packed with exposition can be mind-numbingly boring or it can be fascinating, depending upon how that information that is conveyed. The more exposition presented in a story, the more that information will require skilful presentation to avoid turning off the reader.

SELECTION OF INFORMATION

Which information should be included and which should not? The reader doesn't need to know everything, just the important stuff. With this in mind, each bit of exposition needs justification for its inclusion in the story. To qualify for selection, information needs to contribute to the story, either through characterization, plot development, setting improvement, or theme enhancement.

TIMING

When is the right time to introduce new information into a story? A good rule of thumb is to wait until the information is relevant to the storyline. Readers are only interested in explanation after their curiosity has been aroused by something that needs explaining. Present information when the reader needs it--not before he needs it and not after he needs it.

EXPOSITION IN SCENES AND SEQUELS

In fiction, a scene is a unit of drama where a character attempts to achieve his goal. A scene is largely about action, so there is often little exposition involved. When information is presented in a scene, that information is often interwoven into the action so the story isn't interrupted.

In fiction, a sequel is the aftermath that follows a scene, and typically includes stages of emotion and thinking. The proximity of emotion and thinking make sequels fertile ground for presenting information.

Ansen Dibell, in Plot, appreciates the link of information and emotion when he explains that ". . . we tend to remember best the information that comes to us surrounded by highly charged emotion. That's why so many people can remember precisely where they were and what they were doing when they first learned of the assassination of President Kennedy and how they spent their first date. Applied to exposition, this means that otherwise undigestible chunks of explanation will move faster, and be absorbed more easily, if they're put in a highly emotional context. If you position the information in such a way that it has a strong and immediate emotional impact on somebody . . . it will become . . . hardly exposition at all." Dibell suggests that writers dip exposition in emotion whenever possible.

Whether in scenes or in sequels, exposition may be brought to life by blending it with other fiction-writing modes to show the information flowing from the characters.