Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Emotion and Exposition #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Emotion #Exposition

There is one trick to getting the research material you feel the reader needs to know to make the story clear. Use some kindof emotion to pin onto the bits of information. Make the hero or heroine have a driving need to know the information and you can do this inseveral ways. He can question other characters. He can head to the computer for the information or research at the library. Making the information nedessary to the character's life or livelihood and you can use this vehicle to get the words across.

I often use this devise in many ways. This is the good way to explain a culture, especially if the arriving person is new to the situation. Just make sure the character reacts emotionally tothis new information.

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Plot and Exposition #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Plot #Exposition

 Plot is the glue that holds a story together. While most popular fiction has a plot that drives the story from beginning to end, literary stories may or may not ahve a plot.

When writing popular fiction, exposition should be kept to a minimum. Honing these details and showing them through the characters' eyes is the best way to do this. Long blocks of what is essentially a non-fiction thesis in the middleof a popular storywill turn the reader off. This is to be avoided.

In literary fiction there is often no plot where an explosion of exposition is allowed. Many of the stories we think about are listed as classics, written years ago when people must have enjoyed a leisurely pace in their stories. That doesn't happen today. Most readers want the story to flow from scene to scene without all the exposition. 

So decide when you're writing if you're looking to write a popular story or one that appeals tothe litery reader and use exposition in the way that fits.

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Exposition and the Soap Box #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor # Exposition #Soap Box

 Sometimes the author has a pet peeve or some cause they belived it and in their story, they take time to air these views. What was to be fiction turns into a lecture. I've started to red stories like this and I never finish them. The characters can have strong feelings but it the lecture takes over the story, most readers are turned off. Yes, there are great stories that are for one causeor the other but the writer hasn't forgotten the plot to become a preacher.The characters have become puppets to move to the author's desire to prove points. This makes the story less than a story and more of a lecture.

I remember once a friend who told a story and her anger at animal abuse became so engrained that the characters became spouts spewing information that had been researched. The author's world became a political statement. While there are causes I feel strongly about, I try not to let them take over the story.

A reviewer once reviewed one of my books, My premise was in proving a surgeon was inept and shouldn't have been allowed to practice. The reviewer never saw the point. The review consisted of several paragraphs as to how I should have written about the doctor's treatment of women. Did I miss that point. Not really. There were subtle mentions but my real goal was to show the harm he did with his surgeries to people, not a femals soap box.

So don't jump on that soap bok and forget about the story or turn your characters into puppets who expound on the wrongs they're talking about.

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip _ Exposition - How to Get the Facts Across #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Exposition #Writing #Ways to tell

 You have all that lovely information you've researched. You have created a new world with many customs. How do you inform the reader of the things you think they should know. Turning your story into a non-fiction discussion isn't the way to go but there are some ways to show and tell your reader about these unique and interesting things.

The first way to do this is build it into your scene. Find a way to have the characters show the information in a subtle way. Remember when you create a scene, you are doing several things. You are showing the characters with their assets and faults. You are advancing the plot and letting the reader know about the background facts including the setting.

A second way isn't as easily done and that's to put a writer intrusion passage between a scenes. Remember, there needs to be a lead in to this material and an exit that fits the story. A much harder way and keeping the reader's interest could be difficult.

The third way is to let the characters do the reveal. A dialogue between two or more characters, but try not to be disgorgin information all of the participants know. This could turn the reader off with thoughts like they already know that. Using a character's inner dialogue is a way of letting a character let you know what's been happening in the past or to allow a bit of that research to enter the story.

So build in the information you need is important but make sure you just don't want to give the reader a history lesson, a primer on  methodsof death or how your world came about.

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip - More on Exposition # Story comes first #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Exposition #Story

 What do you do when there is a lot of information you want to give to the reader? You could do pages of exposition. This might work but usually it doesn't. Often when you're writing, especially when dealing with the pastor the future, there are things you would like to share but you need to remember one point. The Story Comes First. Expositionneeds to be handled with care. Feed this in bit by bit and show with these bits of exposition what effect it has on the characters or the story. Use it in such a way that the reader wants to know this bit of information. Making a dump of lots of material isn't the way to go. The expositionneeds to be part of the action. And think of the ways it could be used. To develop the character is one way. Another is to advance the plot. To give a road into a character's thoughts. This can also be sued to foreshadow the coming action.

So use exposition in your storyes byt connect it to the plot or the setting or the characters. and keep it as active as you can.

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Exposition - Enough or Too much #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Exposition #Enough #Too Much

Now we come to the writer and look at when it's enough or too much. You've developed this world and you're enamoured of what you've developed. So you begin gushing and putting every detail you've discovered. The prose goes on for pages and the reader begins to skip pages. I once had to judge an entry for a contest with the first chapter of the story. Thirty pages later I still hadn't found a bitof what the story was about. The first chapter told of a deive along the coast with every feature described. Needless to say I wasn't impressed.

Not only was the description of that ride tedious, the author jumped in to give her own viewpoint with small asides that still told me nothing about the story. Leaving out the personal comments would have cut the descriptive passages down. That would have helped but describing the route taken in detail and living color read more like an excerpt from a travel article. 

The trick is to for the author to keep out of the story. That's one thing. The other is to use the setting no matter how spectacular in having the characters react to the setting. Revealing the story with the impact of the research on the hcaracters is a plus and probably a must. So when writing passages of prose keep them short, related to the character's reactions and also enter the characters' heads and show rather than tell the impact on their lives.

 

 

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Exposition - All That Research #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Exposition #Research

 I don't think I've ever written a book whether contemporary, historical based or fantasy without doing a little research. Sometimes I do a lot. Then when I'm writing how tempted I am to put in everything I've learned during this research. This usually comes in big gulps of exposition. While some of the information will interest me this gush of material will broee the reader and that's nothing we want to do.

I create worlds in various times but I've learned to keep the material to the minimum. I have several books set in an alternate Egypt. When setting up the series, I read a lot of books I have on the subject and ended up with a small note book. I could have spent pages building the world but I didn't. I tried to keep the blocks of exposition to a few scattered bits that brought I hope clarity to the story. Weaving this into the action was difficult but it can be done.

Also I write fantasy and this is a different kind of research. You need to look at the culture you're designing. If you're writing more than one book in this fantasy world, you can put pieces of what youhave designed into one book and more in a second. 

So keeping the exposition to a minimum and enough to give the reader the flavor of the world or culture you're building can be hard but it can also be a challenge. Who wants to read pages of prose and research in a story. I know I don't.

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Time to Tell #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Writer's Tip #Tell #Time

 When you're writing, one warning you always hear is show don't tell. Is this always the case. There is a time to tell and that is done by exposition. A bit of exposition will give the reader a break from the ongoing action. Done well this break can be welcome. Think of a movie you've seen. The setting and other things are shown through pictures. Not possible when writing a story of book unless it amy be a comic book. Telling is different from showing and necessary for a story. When I began writing, an editor once wrote, "Your characters are existing in a vacuum. You may know the setting but the reder has to have clues. Another pointed out the lack of cody language and physical descriptions of the characters. While the reader may use their imagination, some find it hard to stretch that far. So a bit of exposition can add spice and detail to a story.

Of course you can go overboard and suddenly there is more telling that showing. Finding the right balance is hard but is worthwhile. This is one of the secrets so don't totally avoid esposition and send your reader off on a journey od detatched scenes, Also don't have so much exposition, the story becomes lost in description.

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Viewpoints and Exposition #writing #Viewpoints #Exposition

 We all know the best stories are told through the eyes of characters. There can be an overbiew type used but this often distances the reader from the story. There are a number of types of viewpoints. There is the first person where the reader sees only what the character sees. This can be effective and the exposition that follows is shown through what the single character sees. Some writers use the first person with a number of characters.

There is the third person narrator, a viewpoint often used. This allows one character or more to have the spotlight for a time. Here, the exposition must be relevant to what the viewpont character sees. Here there can also be more than one character seeing the world the writer creates. Often there can be just two, especially in roamnce when the hero and the heroine have their say.

When there is no character sharing the viewpoint, the author is telling the story. There is a problem here since the reader has no one to root for or to dislike.

The choice is for the author whether to be all-knowing and telling, a single character telling the story or two or amny characters telling the story and showing through their eyes what is happening and where the characters exist..

 

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Beginnings #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Writing #Opening scenes

 The time has come to begin your story. You've gone through the four ways to explore your idea and you know you have a story but now what? The story must begin somewhere.

Now you could begin with a few paragraphs of exposition and many stories begin that way. One problem is that exposition is telling not showing. To make your story sing, you need to have action and action can always be found in a scene. What scene do you want to bring to your readers?

There are several places where you can begin your story. One is a moment before the change to the norm of the character's life occurs. Something like "She felt a change in the air. This sunrise blossomed like none she had ever seen. Now that makes a dramatic opening. The reader will wonder what will happen.

You could begin a moment after the change has arrived. Starting with something like this. The problem was what to do now. Why had she been the one to find the body? That brings some curious reaction on the reader's part.

Or you could begin in the middle of the action. She steppedinto the room and stumbled over the body. Now that's something to spur the reader on.

All of these opening scenes would stimulate th reader to continue reading. That's what a writer wants. People to continue reading their stories. So consider your opening and if possible find a scene that brings action into the story.What you are doing is taking the focus character of the story away from their normal life and casting them into an adventure. There are other things to consider in story openings that will be explored in the weeks to come.

Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Exposition #MFRWauthor #amwriting

Just what is exposition? Exposition equals information the reader needs to know to identify with the characters, the setting and the plot. Now one could disgorge this in large lumps but there are other ways to do this. If the reader doesn't know certain things he's in limbo and unable to move through the story with ease. But if large lumps are there for the reader to gulp down, he or she might miss some important factor and scratch his head.

How do we do this? The focus character or characters can't see or know everything. So the writer needs to fins ways to make this happen.

Let the information come about during a conversation between the focus character or characters and the character in possession of the information. During the change we can learn a lot about the characters, the setting and the plot.

Have the information come through a memory of someone telling one of the focus characters the needed information.

Have two characters argue about a third will bring all kinds of knowledge not only about the character or situation being discussed but also the characters who are speaking.

Let two characters talk about the past to give needed information.

Use inner thoughts of one of the focus characters.

Wednesday's Writer's Tip - A bit about exposition

Exposition is all about giving information. Often this involves backstory. You need to know how much to tell and how. Exposition is also used for describing people and places. Another place where you need to know how much to tell and how. In the beginning of a story, these are things that need to be there. The question is How much and when.

I begin with a rough draft that includes anything I can think of. This is the draft only a writer can love. Then I have to sit down and ask myself some questions. One of them is how can I put the information in so it doesn't seem to be paragraphs and paragraphs of material that will put the reader to sleep.

With the backstory, I ask myself questions. Is this material something I as the writer need to know? Does the reader need to know it at this point? If the reader needs to know how can I slip it into the action? Can I use dialogue. inner thoughts or a flash memory" Not a long memory that takes the reader way from the story. Most of the time I discover that all this backstory is something I need to know but the reader doesn't need to receive a blast of information at this time so I save it for later revelation.

The same goes for descriptions. What I look at here is what is the really important part of the scenery, something to hone in on during the action of the story. The same goes for character description. The glare in his blue eyes caused her to tremble is better than He had icy blue eyes. This goes for every bit of description. Light shone through the stained glass windows or Bright sunlight cast myriad colors on the cream walls. She was reminded of a kaleidoscope.

So use exposition wisely and get the facts needed across during the action and using only what's absolutely necessary during the beginning scenes of a story.

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?