Friday, July 29, 2005
Exposition: prioritizing information
After completing the main characters' biographies, the writer may have up to twenty or more pages of detailed histories and information. If she boils it down to ten-percent, the absolute essentials, that's still two pages of meaty exposition. The reader can't consume all of it at once. It has to be cut up into tiny bite-size pieces.
Which bite should the writer spoon to the reader first? Does the reader need to know the heroine's aunt is an ex-convict, or that she recently lost her job because she rejected the boss's immoral advances?
The first quarter of a story, especially the first fifty pages, are the most important to "hook" the reader and keep her reading. This is the time to raise questions, not answer them. Most expository information answers questions, and there are only three questions the reader needs to know answers to in the beginning of the story:
What does the main character want?
Why does she want it so strongly?
What's preventing her from getting it?
In other words--
Goal.
Motivation.
Conflict.
Filter expositional information accordingly. Information that applies to goal, motivation, or conflict belongs in the first fifty pages. Everything else may be reserved for use later.
For example, in Frank Peretti's Monster, the reader is introduced to the main characters, Reed and Beck. The Inciting Incident occurs a little while later, but the characters still have goals, motivations, and conflicts (GMC) heading into the story. To feel oriented for what's about to transpire, the reader needs to understand Reed and Beck's current GMC, and the GMC of other point-of-view characters.
Reed
Goal = affectionately bully his wife out of her comfort zone
Motivation = she's turning into a recluse
Conflict = she doesn't want to relinquish the security of civilization
Beck
Goal = prove she can hold her own as well as he can in the wilds
Motivation = Reed treats her like a child
Conflict = his gung-ho enthusiasm wears on her stretched nerves
Next, dramatizing exposition through internal thoughts.
(To be continued…)
Which bite should the writer spoon to the reader first? Does the reader need to know the heroine's aunt is an ex-convict, or that she recently lost her job because she rejected the boss's immoral advances?
The first quarter of a story, especially the first fifty pages, are the most important to "hook" the reader and keep her reading. This is the time to raise questions, not answer them. Most expository information answers questions, and there are only three questions the reader needs to know answers to in the beginning of the story:
What does the main character want?
Why does she want it so strongly?
What's preventing her from getting it?
In other words--
Goal.
Motivation.
Conflict.
Filter expositional information accordingly. Information that applies to goal, motivation, or conflict belongs in the first fifty pages. Everything else may be reserved for use later.
For example, in Frank Peretti's Monster, the reader is introduced to the main characters, Reed and Beck. The Inciting Incident occurs a little while later, but the characters still have goals, motivations, and conflicts (GMC) heading into the story. To feel oriented for what's about to transpire, the reader needs to understand Reed and Beck's current GMC, and the GMC of other point-of-view characters.
Reed
Goal = affectionately bully his wife out of her comfort zone
Motivation = she's turning into a recluse
Conflict = she doesn't want to relinquish the security of civilization
Beck
Goal = prove she can hold her own as well as he can in the wilds
Motivation = Reed treats her like a child
Conflict = his gung-ho enthusiasm wears on her stretched nerves
Next, dramatizing exposition through internal thoughts.
(To be continued…)
