![story exposition story exposition](https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/sites/k12/files/unitAssets/readWritingLit/readWritingLitPlot.jpg)
My main piece of advice for fixing macro-level telling and info-dumping problems is to think in terms of scenes not summary as much as you can. It’s quite common when introducing a new character or setting, world-building, starting new chapters or scenes, and in first chapters. Often it feels jarring and disrupts the flow of a story – readers can tell the author is forcing it in, because it may not sound like the character or fit the voice. It usually comes in the form of backstory, world-building, or general history and events. This means dumping walls of text into your book that explain or summarise something. One of the common pitfalls of bigger-picture telling is info-dumps.
Story exposition how to#
How to avoid exposition Macro-level telling Telling can take various forms: info-dumps, micro-level telling, and second-hand reporting. If you go overboard, though, it can sound clinical and has a tendency to make a novel read like an essay or a piece of non-fiction. It has its place, if you know when to do it. Telling is for informing – explaining something to your reader.But on the flipside, if you have an entire book of showing and no telling, the pace of a book can feel breakneck – pausing for telling can slow things down and give the reader some much-needed space to breathe. This is important in storytelling because most readers will come to your book wanting to have an experience, and showing allows you to give them that.
![story exposition story exposition](https://sbt.blob.core.windows.net/storyboards/4001e0a3/unknown-story.png)
It lets the reader experience and really feel what’s happening it makes things come to life.
![story exposition story exposition](https://live.staticflickr.com/2897/14584231638_e9926c1da1.jpg)
No doubt many writers will be familiar with the rule “show, don’t tell”.