Sometimes you simply must include exposition into your story, especially in science fiction when you’re dealing with entirely new worlds, alien races and technologies. Good writers handle this dilemma by embedding expository information into their stories.
Here are some ways to that:
n Viewpoint character recalls the information – The “captain’s log” convention is a way to accomplish this. Note that most log entries are only a couple of sentence long and focus on conflict.
n Viewpoints character seeks out such information and discovers it in notes, journals, articles, etc. which is then summarized – Mr. Spock and Data often do this in “Star Trek” by giving the relevant facts from the library computer on extraterrestrial species, exoworlds and historical events.
n Another character tells this information to viewpoint character - This other character must have a plausible motive for telling it, however. In addition, the character who the information is told to shouldn’t disappear once he hears the background, instead he needs to play an integral part in the plot beyond being the receiver of an info dump. An example of this successfully being done is in Steve Alten’s “Domain,” in which the reader needs to know the basic layout of a psychiatric treatment center; in the opening chapter, Alten has the center’s chief of psychiatry explain it to the main character, who is on her first day of an internship at the center. Alten wisely limits the description to a few brisk sentence.
n Viewpoint character experiences the world through his five senses – The character should capture details that infer background information the reader needs to know. If you need to describe the physical makeup of a world, give the tour of it through the viewpoint character’s five senses.
Ultimately, it’s best if readers learn about the setting or novum as a byproduct of engaging action. As science fiction writer and editor Stanley Schmidt recommends, “Know as much as you can about your background – and tell no more than you have to.”
Whatever you do, avoid embedding exposition by having one character say to another, “As you know …” This is commonly known in science fiction as a “Stapledon”.
Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell
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exposition, info dump, novum, setting, show vs. tell, stapledon, viewpoint character
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Virtually every story has a central character that spends the tale overcoming a major challenge. This character is called the protagonist.
Examples of well-known protagonists include Captain Kirk in “Star Trek: The Original Series” episodes, Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars IV-VI” and Paul Atreides in Frank Herbert’s “Dune”.
Usually the protagonist also is the viewpoint character, but not always. Stories told by a friend or assistant of the protagonist would be an example of this.
When writing a story, you want to think a lot about the protagonist. He’s the most important character of your story, after all, an ambassador of the author who is reaching out to the reader. Create a dull or a contradictory or an unlikeable protagonist, and your story will suffer. Because of this, many authors know far more about their protagonist than ever makes it in their story.
You should know what your protagonist looks like, his strengths and weaknesses, his likes and dislikes, what motivates him, his parents and schooling, who he’s dated throughout his life, the foods he enjoys and hates, the what he does during his free time, how his apartment is decorated, places he’s visited and places he yet wants to go, and more. You should know your protagonist almost as well as you know yourself. You Do It
Look back at the piece you wrote for the "Inciting incident" blog entry. Now write a 250-word biography of that piece's protagonist. what aspects of the protagonist's life appear inthe biogrpahy but not in the inciting incident entry?
Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell
Tags:
inciting incident, main character, viewpoint character
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