Exposition - Beginning Your Story
How much do you need to describe?
I’m going back to basics this week to look at the first part of the story arc, exposition.
With apologies to those of you who are experienced writers, exposition is the where, when and who in your story.
Where
In the words of Spike Milligan ‘Everybody gotta be somewhere.’ Your story needs a location, the actors need a stage to perform on. Within a short story, the descriptions need to be concise. Think of an artist sketching a room or an impressionist landscape. The reader only needs to know the basic details to create an image of the place in their mind - let their imagination work for you.
When
Does the reader need to know this? If a story is set in the present or near past then they don’t need to know it was four-thirty on a Friday afternoon unless that is relevant. The different periods of the day, morning, evening or night can be useful to create different atmospheres. If your story is set in an historical period then a lot of this can be shown in the where. Think, does your reader need to know it is 1452 or is sometime in the middle ages enough?
Who
This usually centres on your main character but can also include any other characters they are going to interact with.
Let’s look at some ideas for writing these concisely and, when possible, showing rather than telling.