Writing: The Curse of Exposition

Infodumps are atrocious. An Infodump is defined by TV Tropes as “a type of Exposition that is particularly long or wordy. Although it can be done in a way that is un-intrusive or entertaining, most are obvious, intrusive, patronizing, and sometimes downright boring,” and god almighty, I don’t think there’s a better explanation out there. While exposition is absolutely necessary to figure out what the hell’s going on in a story, why certain things are the way they are, it’s often used badly, leading to long bouts of expositing ideas and scenarios that make you suffer. If you ever hear the words “As you know” or, “you may remember”, skip ahead or just turn off whatever you were watching or playing. That’s just lazy writing. But since exposition is a necessary evil, you have to wonder: “how do I do it right”?

Well, you can’t opt out of it; a good story needs to have some exposition (which is an account of events or goings-on in a story); while it isn’t a pre-requisite, there hasn’t been a decent or coherent story without one. If you have a simple story and a simple world built around it, then a good old “Once Upon A Time” scenario works. Beauty and the Beast (the Disney one) is a film that does this pretty perfectly. It uses beautiful visual cues involving a castle’s stained-glass windows, uses clear-cut, straightforward words to describe the backstory of the castle, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome; this narration segues perfectly into the introduction scene of heroine Belle, which is built around a huge musical number that gives an entertaining insight into Belle’s character, how her character is perceived, and the village in which she lives. So far, we have two forms of exposition that work perfectly; the “Once Upon A Time” introduction, and exposition through music that is both fun to listen to and narratively insightful, providing a wealth of information about the characters and setting in about five minutes. It keeps the action going, and it’s just brilliant direction.

Indeed, the lack of action and movement is the reason an Infodump can suck so much; it’s boring! There is a scene from a contemptible show called Sword Art Online that vomits forth information for a solid eleven minutes. While that in itself is a sin, the scene is further dragged down by the unbelievably boring visuals. It’s literally just two men sitting down in a restaurant and talking, with occasional shots of their cake or a laptop. Sound boring on paper? It’s even worse on screen. It’s just eleven minutes of pouring forth information nobody’s going to remember perfectly without re-watching the scene a second time, which means slogging through another eleven minutes of that shit, and maybe even more.

A lack of intriguing visuals, character interaction, or anything actually interesting happening on screen.Great mix.

 Even well-written shows, games, and films can fall into trappings like this. Phantasy Star 2 slams you with an unprompted explanation, beginning with “As you already know, Algo has been brought up by Mother Brain. My work as a Commander has been to smoothly promote the plans of Mother Brain…” Stop right there. If my player character already knows this, why the hell does it need to be recited back to him/her? Hell, you might as well of had the Commander say: “I wasn't explaining it to you, I was explaining it to them,” pointing at the audience on that last word.

To steal from Lifetips: “Exposition should be doled out on a "need to know" basis. Give the reader only as much as he needs to know right now in order to understand the story.” That’s Show Don’t Tell 101. Neon Genesis Evangelion is a show that used exposition perfectly; it gave us hints, just subtle hints, brief snippets of information to tell us just what’s going on, simultaneously providing answers and bringing up more questions that would come to be addressed in the final episodes and follow-up film. All of those hints and clues come together to form something that is, for the most part, a fully-realized world; when it wasn’t using narrative cues to tell us about the story, it used visual cues and sharp direction. Books can do the same thing by implying a conversation rather than showing the entirety of it, which would speed up the story and (hopefully) keep it from being too long or redundant. Dialogue is always important, but too much dialogue is gratuitous.

 “My dear young man, don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious; it's quality work! And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.”

-                             -             Emperor Joseph II, Amadeus (1984)

But if you absolutely have to exposit information directly, keep it short and simple. Have it be about a topic that addresses a particular concern about the world and characters, but not all of the concerns.  From Skies of Arcadia:

               Fina: Um... excuse me, but I have a question. What exactly is an Air... Air Pirate?

               Aika: What? You were out sailing all by yourself and you don't know what Air Pirates are?

               Fina: Oh... I... I'm sorry... it's my first time travelling.

               Vyse: Basically, Air Pirates are sailors that attack other ships and steal their cargo.

               Fina: Attack?!

               Aika: You don't have to worry about us. We're "Blue Rogues." See, Air Pirates are divided into two factions: The Blue Rogues and the Black Pirates. The Black Pirates will attack anything in the sky... especially merchant vessels and unarmed ships. However, we Blue Rogues only take cargo from armed ships, especially the Imperial Armada.

               Vyse: We rob from the rich and keep the gold. But we use the gold to save people that need our help. That's why we helped you. Don't worry, we aren't trying to kidnap you or anything. Just relax and enjoy the trip.

See? Short, sweet, insightful. It could have gone on for much longer, like explaining exactly what the “Imperial Armada” is and who’s in it, how the rivalry and divide between the Rouges and Pirates occurred, but none of that was necessary to the question Fina posed, so none of it showed up.

So there you have it. The creed of exposition is: “Show, Don’t Tell, but if you have to tell, keep it brief and relevant.” Don’t just vomit forth information; it’s like ripping a band-aid off. Leave small pieces of exposition or information-exchanging here and there so that it all adds up by the end of the story. A scavenger hunt would be no fun if all the treasure was just hidden in one place, and the same can apply to storytelling.

That’s about all. 'Til next time.