Why Stories Need Exposition

Maybe our overly-streamlined approach to writing fiction is detrimental to story depth

Older novels tend to have a bad reputation for long, slow beginnings that take time getting to the main action. While books with slow-build beginnings do demand a lot for the reader to get invested in the story, in this post I will argue that good stories need substantial exposition (the set-up before the hero gets involved in the primary conflict) for a strong emotional payoff at the end. Rather than detract from the story, good exposition properly introduces the story’s stakes, primary characters, and world.

Photo by Aliis Sinisalu on Unsplash

Why Strong Exposition is Critical for A Story’s Emotional Payoff

Many modern novels tend to lean on truncated exposition to get to the action of the story faster. A reader may get one or two chapters introducing the main character and world, and then the incident (event where the hero becomes tangled up in the primary conflict) occurs shortly after. While this method works best for some types of stories and does, generally speaking, create a more gripping opening, I believe shortening the exposition so drastically can have consequences for the book’s emotional payoff at the end.

Older novels tend to have much longer beginnings, which does certainly draw out the amount of time it takes for a reader to get invested. However, I have found these older novels to be much more compelling in the end with key scenes having a stronger emotional punch. Here are three reasons why I believe this to be the case.

1. Exposition Clarifies What’s at Stake

The exposition establishes the hero in his normal life before he goes off to fight evil. One reason why this matters is to show the reader what the stakes are: what the hero will lose if he fails. Stakes are critical to both drive the plot and add thematic depth. If a hero is motivated by a love for home or family, adequate “screen time” at home or with the family helps add emotional depth to that motivation. Characters may find themselves in thematic dilemmas if they are offered what they most desire – but evil will triumph if they take the offer. Good exposition is critical if the reader is to care about what drives the hero.

For example, in Lord of the Rings, the story spends a good deal of time in the Shire before the Hobbits leave on their dangerous journey. While some readers complain that Tolkien’s epic is slow-paced, the contrast between the goodness of hearth and home in the Shire with the places of evil is stark. The Hobbits longing for home on their journey is felt acutely because readers got a proper sense of what they left behind.

2. Exposition Gives Readers a Feel for Worldbuilding

Expositional worldbuilding is essential for any story, but especially for those in the fantasy and science fiction genres. Original worlds, technology, creatures, and groups in conflict with one another have to be established well for the story to have a rich setting. When fantasy and science fiction novels hold back exposition, a story can have a disorienting feel, like the characters exist in a vacuum.

I once stopped reading a science fiction novel (about 400 pages) because the author released worldbuilding information so slowly that by page 50 I still had no idea what was going on. I couldn’t visualize the world and I didn’t understand why the different groups were in conflict. Creatures, technology, and terminology were named, but then wouldn’t be described or defined until pages later. Overall, I found this to be an unenjoyable reading experience and didn’t finish the book. Between a short amount of time allowed for exposition and an over-application of the “show don’t tell” writing principle, the story’s worldbuilding was too vague for me to get invested.

Solid worldbuilding exposition doesn’t mean an author must go into serious detail about every single aspect of worldbuilding, but it does mean a world will have richness and depth. Good exposition can ground the characters in their setting, helping the reader care for what happens in this world or preventing the reader from being confused by complex worldbuilding. For example, in Marvel’s Loki, much of the first episode is spent exploring and explaining the Time Variance Authority, or “TVA”. While the first episode was exposition-heavy, it laid important groundwork for the show’s later philosophical depth. Had the show decided to drop bits of worldbuilding as it went instead of front-loading the important details, viewers most likely would have been lost.

3. Exposition Foreshadows the Hero’s Arc

Characters undergo an arc throughout a story, either overcoming or succumbing to a flaw. Exposition provides an opportunity to foreshadow the character’s arc. At this early stage of the story, the hero has not yet triumphed over his flaw (or fallen). This is the perfect time to show what the hero’s flaw is and build up to what his arc will be.

One of my favorite examples of great expositional foreshadowing of a hero’s arc is in the original Star Wars trilogy. A New Hope is a bit slow-paced in the first half as we meet Luke Skywalker – but those early scenes are so important for developing Luke’s arc later on. When we first meet Luke, he is whiny and immature. He wants to have an adventure but hasn’t yet realized the gravity of what it means to resist the Empire. Later, in The Empire Strikes Back, Luke is still immature as he undergoes Jedi training. He rushes off into danger rather than listening to wise counsel. Finally, in Return of the Jedi, we see the culmination of Luke’s arc: he is a wiser, more patient Jed.

---

In conclusion, cutting back on exposition does not always equal a better story. Of course, there are times where a story may require shorter exposition or an author may spend too much time, unnecessarily, with exposition. But, in general, starting a story as close to the start of the action as possible is not always the best decision and can actually hurt the book’s thematic and emotional punch. Strong exposition can have a huge payoff and make stories better.