Writing tip -- Exposition

Jut what is exposition? The purpose is to inform the reader of things they need to know to understand the characters and the story. This is dealing with information and there are a number of ways to get the information to the reader.

A writer can use a big block of information otherwise known as an info dump. Beward putting too much in one chunk or you will end up sounding like a teacher.

A writer can use one character's observation of another to give bits of information. One problem with this approach is mind reading. Statements are made as to one character's view of a situation in ways that the observing character can't know. Such as Mary was sad or Mary seemed sad or I figured Mary was sad. What the writer has to do is show how this conclusion was drawn. Tears glistened in Mary's eyes. The news of her father's death definitely had an effect.

Dialogue is a good way to give information, but beware having two characters discuss something they already know. This can be boring and make the reader toss the book. There is a way around this and that could be by having the information the writer wants to show become a bit of contention between the pair. Arguments are usually nice places to pop in a bit of information.

Another way is to have the character or characters reminiscence about an event in the past. Take care here not to have this become a single person trip into the past. A lengthy one can pull the reader out of the story. A short sentence can remind the reader of something they had read before, or in the case of a series, of another book. For long memories of the past have two people who were there talk about the event.

When giving information, ash yourself these questions. Is the information absolutely necessary for the reader so he understands the characters and the plot? How does the viewpoint character know this information?

Writing Hints -- Tags

When writing dialogue, letting the reader know who is speaking is a good idea. There are things about dialogue that I'll deal with at a different time. This is about speaker identification.

Using things like he said, she asked, he answered or responded are the easiest way but so often this falls into a pattern and the writer decides to get clever and to use different words. Sometimes the choice of the tag word seems silly. He hissed is one I find funny unless the writer has used a lot of words with esses. The funniest one I ever read was "Let me go," she ejaculated. I kid you not this was in a manuscript I was critiquing. One problem with using other things to avoid using said, a word many readers skip over, is becoming so clever the reader wants to see what interesting new word you're going to substitute and the story is lost.

There are ways of avoiding these and one is showing the speaker taking some kind of action. "I will not go with you." Mary crossed her arms on her chest.
Mark glared. "You certainly will." This devise can be especially useful when there are a number of people in the scene. Nothing confuses a reader more than having to figure which character is speaking.

Now we come to adverbs. He said angrily. She said coyly. The use of adverbs with every tag or with many of them also can annoy a reader. Adverbs are best sprinkled in very, very small doses. Instead of adverbs, show how the person is speaking by an action or a choice of words.