Just started watching a new anime last night, it shall remain nameless, but it lost me within the first episode. Why? The first five minutes were the main character narrating the basic plot structure of the world to badly-drawn character portraits. The episode then followed a by-the-numbers detective story involving some kind of vampire mafia. I wasn’t invested from the word go, and the plot failed to regain my interest.
Block exposition, where the plot and character rundowns are simply delivered to the audience in the opening minutes, is something that I’ve seen fail more than once (2016 Suicide Squad comes to mind). So, what makes a good exposition? Here’s a few things I’ve learnt over the years.
First and foremost, show don’t tell. We don’t need to lay everything out right away. Half the fun of delving into a new series is understanding how the different parts are put together, by watching how our characters act against the setting they’re placed in. Another way I’ve heard this described is “Giving the audience 2 + 2 is better than just saying 4.” My last book, “The Traitor’s Reliquary,” opens with the main character facing his execution. The declaration of crimes, his defence, the other character’s reactions – all of this allows the information setting up the world to be released naturally, piece by piece.
Building on this, an effective exposition allows each character to give their character-defining statement, letting the audience know who they are and what they are about. Another fun use of exposition is to set up misdirects – a false character statement – that can shock the audience later. Either way, these exposition statements set the hook for the character arc. The example I always come back to Dan Abnett’s Eisenhorn books, where the aforementioned Eisenhorn, an Inquisitor of a rigid Imperial religion, muses in his opening chapters on what could turn a person into a Heretic. The book series is literally the answer to this question, with Eisenhorn’s own road to hell paved with the best of intentions.
Lastly, a good exposition needs to set the pace. What kind of a book is being presented? A fast-paced thriller? A slow-building horror? A coming-of-age journey? These are all good choices, and the opening actions and conversations need to let the audience know what to expect. I’ve written before about the “Clock,” the plot device that defines when the story is going to reach its climax. A good exposition is where we wind up this clock.
That’s all for now, I hope this all helps with your writing. If you’ve got a favourite exposition, please feel free to comment below!
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