• Our software update is now concluded. You will need to reset your password to log in. In order to do this, you will have to click "Log in" in the top right corner and then "Forgot your password?".
  • Forum moderator applications are now open! Click here for details.
  • Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.

Exposition? In my action story!?

Vragon2.0

Say it with me (Vray-gun)
420
Posts
6
Years
Pretty much. Nobody likes sloggy expositon that goes on and on and on and yet, sometimes there's just a lit of information to covey.


So question to all you writers that ua e had this issue. How do you tell a gargantuan amount of info in a more purposeful or meaningful way?

Conversation?
Sparsed out?
Subtle scenery?
Post mysterious events?
Bribery?

What's your way to getting the reader to eat such a big bowl of cereal and enjoy it? So I can totally steal these ideas for the future.
 

Venia Silente

Inspectious. Good for napping.
1,225
Posts
15
Years
For me, it largely depends on the context of why the information has to be explained.

For things that the characters obviously know or are natural to but the audience doesn't, I just spread out banter and background data flow (public announcements while riding on the subway, reports on the TV, etc) over a few scenes that explains the context. If even this looks like it'd drag for too long, I make mention of a Core Concept (with capitals and all) and add an Author Note to go check it at my wiki.

For things that are large and need to be treated urgently, but are clear – in the sense that they can be explained to the audience without having to go into a scientific treatise with new definitions and formulas and stuff – I just arrange the story so that the characters are sat down and things explained to them. Life is full of such instances anyway (work meetings, plaza preachers, the economics journal right before the sports section in the news, ...) so there's no reason why this can not also happen in fiction.

If the amount of information is truly gargantuan (could you perhaps give an example to see where do I draw the line on this distinction?) what I do is give a very brief description of the element during the scenes and then, out-of-band, check for design notes to see if it is better to give this info away as a Special Episode or a Gaiden Story. That way I also have more excuses to make even more characters.

Mind, all of this was mostly more valid during my PBP RP days when I would write for lots of posts and stuff; since nowadays I mostly write oneshots that don't largely suffer from that issue (and if they do, I just redirect to the wiki).
 

Bay

6,383
Posts
17
Years
It also depends for me. I tend to go for conversations if something arises, but I also have other ways of exposition like letters and news reports. Foul Play a lot of the stuff in the Sun/Moon and USUM games had been done in background so I sparse the exposition out here and there.
 

Firebolt

Reach for my hand~
967
Posts
8
Years
In my main literature work that I am writing, if there's a gargantuan amount of information that's needs to be expressed (whether it's character or story related), I just...write a chapter about it. It's fanfic, so I have a lot of flexibility with picking a point in time to frame this story and more importantly, each 'section' doesn't necessarily continue from the last, so bits of information can be conveyed in a short exchange between characters (e.g. one character refers to 'that time we helped that old man with his monster problem' and then it's just a matter of filling in the gaps).
 
Back
Top