Exposition

[FlynnCoyote]

Oh how I hate it. Anyone with me? Those poorly written parts of stories that only exist to explain shit that most of the time doesn't need explaining?

Worst example I've ever seen was in the movie Silent Hill:Revelations. Anyone who's seen it will know what I mean.

 

So, topic of question, do you struggle with this in your own writing? Does it frustrate you with materials you read or view?

[Conker]

In my first book, I can tell you very plainly where the few chunks of needed exposition are, and fuck I hate both sections. But sometimes it's a necessary evil

I try to avoid it as much as possible, though it can be hard when doing time jumps and stuff. YOu want to fill in on what happened but not, you know, dive into it detail by detail.

Or basically, yeah I sometimes struggle with exposition.

[FlynnCoyote]

Best solution I've figured out is to mention plainly that time has lapsed, and whatever else needs to be explained is casually mentioned or observed by one or more characters. With only as much detail as is necessary

If need be the changes can be expanded bit by bit, but never all in one long tedious go.

[Khaki]

On 11/18/2015 at 5:33 PM, FlynnCoyote said:

Oh how I hate it. Anyone with me? Those poorly written parts of stories that only exist to explain shit that most of the time doesn't need explaining?

Worst example I've ever seen was in the movie Silent Hill:Revelations. Anyone who's seen it will know what I mean.

 

So, topic of question, do you struggle with this in your own writing? Does it frustrate you with materials you read or view?

Yes, Stephen King novels, his spends way too much time providing needless backstory fluff details on his characters that you are then required to force yourself to keep reading the story just to get through to the end, most stories except his short stories I've read are like this.

[Conker]

6 hours ago, Khaki said:

Yes, Stephen King novels, his spends way too much time providing needless backstory fluff details on his characters that you are then required to force yourself to keep reading the story just to get through to the end, most stories except his short stories I've read are like this.

Oh man, I totally disagree with this. I love how cavalier and good Stephen King is at doing this. It might be exposition, but it never feels that way. He can flesh a character out quickly and then kill 'em off just as fast (thinking of The Stand there) and I loooooooooove it.

But as to exposition in my own work, I've been cutting it out of my current novel. It's so much better now.

But I"m not Stephen King so ya know

[Khaki]

5 hours ago, Conker said:

Oh man, I totally disagree with this. I love how cavalier and good Stephen King is at doing this. It might be exposition, but it never feels that way. He can flesh a character out quickly and then kill 'em off just as fast (thinking of The Stand there) and I loooooooooove it.

But as to exposition in my own work, I've been cutting it out of my current novel. It's so much better now.

But I"m not Stephen King so ya know

Really?

I read Pet Sematary once for example, it was a slow and dull slice of life storyline with such fillings as "What it's like to work as gynaecologist" before anything interesting happened.

Where a you read something like James Herbert, you can already get a rough idea of his characters from just a page or two, maybe three depending if the character is important or is just story fodder and then the rest is just action.

 

[Conker]

20 minutes ago, Khaki said:

Really?

I read Pet Sematary once for example, it was a slow and dull slice of life storyline with such fillings as "What it's like to work as gynaecologist" before anything interesting happened.

Where a you read something like James Herbert, you can already get a rough idea of his characters from just a page or two, maybe three depending if the character is important or is just story fodder and then the rest is just action.

 

It's really in the execution. King can get away with it, in my opinion, because of the voice he injects in his novels. I don't mind when his stories slow down to just meander or smell the roses, because it's always a good time.