Hello, Exposition, My Old Friend 😭🤦‍♂️ [Comics, Novels and All Writing in General]

Lahin 2021-06-20 08:32:35 UTC #1

Now, first off, I'm not going to talk about expositions related to worldbuilding. I'm not competent for that, since my only experience of it is thinking about stories I like through the lens of a writer. No. I'm here to talk about simple expositions, that of characters and scenes.

(This is kind of a direct follow-up on my thread from a few days ago, regarding descriptions. If you haven't, please, do check out this thread. The people talked about some pretty well-thought ideas about descriptions -->>https://forums.tapas.io/t/less-details-bad-story/60212?u=lahin)

An Interesting Observation:

So, I noticed something while watching My Hero Academia recently.(Yes, it's an anime. But I'm trying to say something.) When the characters' powers are introduced, there is always someone directly saying what it is and how they work. Telling the watcher that upfront seems to be a bad idea, since, you know...

SHOW. DON'T TELL.

But oddly enough, it isn't as bad in hindsight. How the powers work is a very little part of the narrative since there are that many characters. And the way it's said makes it seem like a joke, while delivering the exposition! Like it or hate it, you kind of end up remembering the powers, explanations of which most likely wouldn't fit into the story well otherwise.

Seriously, Why Is This Dude Talking about Anime So Much

Take any big shounen fight for example. How often have you seen a character(usually, not even participating in the fight) explain what they are doing and how they're doing it? The answer is most likely going to exceed whatever number I might say. There are a lot of those explanatory scenes in MHA, JJK or anything you want to name.

Those scenes sometimes feel a little jarring and I know that I'm getting a little tangent-y with this but bear with me. In most cases, during fights, there will be something the character does, clarifications of which might be needed. But delivering exposition of their powers can take a whole lot longer. Maybe multiple scenes or even chapters.

So, maybe, just maybe, that little joke-y exposition at the start wasn't so bad after all !!!

Okay, now for my real argument and question.

I... suck... at descriptions. I am terrified of descriptions.(If you saw the other thread, you know.) Not for the sake of it being 'descriptions', but being a non-native speaker of English and because of the way I am, my way of describing changes with time. And that is a big no-no for the consistency of the story. That is one thing I didn't explain well in the other thread.

I also am not writing fantasy or sci-fi. I'm writing a character driven slice of life right now. And the only descriptions I give are only supposed to be the scenery and the actions!

And I try to keep it just with the dialogues because that is where you really see a person. In how they interact.

If you want them to do things, that's totally fine. That's just not how people can do things in life. There are no runs across cities to reunite with your loved one(although that'd be epic and yes, I'm looking at you, Shinkai Makoto) or loud outbursts that can give you the power to blow the planet to bits(Yes, my man, Goku!).

The most a lot of us can do is..... talk. And there's even a great lack of people willing to even engage in that!

@Alkareel said that my dialogue feels like a podcast. And the criticism it absolutely valid. And I will try to incorporate more parts into them. I'm all for improving my work. And I will try to remove the dialogue chunks or make them part of the scene.

But my idea remains, that just that one conversation is enough to speak for the character. Why they're saying what they're saying, that will be contextualized and maybe on the second read(hah! as if anyone would do that for my thing!), the reader will get it, not unlike the pieces of foreshadowing you found hidden deep in Attack on Titan. Also, not unlike how you see more in something a person had said once you learn why they acted that way.

A Person, Summarized

There is a noticeable thing that a lot of novels do when introducing a character: a chapter dedicated to talking about them. And although I'm not totally against that,(wait let me make my point a little more visible).....

YOU SHOULD NOT EXPLAIN A PERSON IN 6 PAGES! PEOPLE AREN'T THAT EASY TO UNDERSTAND!!!!!!

In fact, I love Paulo Coelho's works and he does this absolutely beautifully! I'm reading his work "The Winner Stands Alone" and the first 6-7 chapters are basically the intro-s to all the characters! AND THEY ARE GORGEOUS!

But I'm not Paulo. I never will be. So I prefer thinking of it as a mystery. The real mystery that is--"understanding a human being". I am trying and struggling with the idea in my writing and I think that it should feel as revelationary and mind-blowing to totally understand a character as a whole. Subtle hints here and there and then too culminate all of it, a revelation at the end.

That's how mysteries work. That's how understanding a person works as well! Granted, the revelation might just be one side of them, but that's progress in and of itself, in my opinion!

A... proposition?

But here, we face the old buddy again. Descriptions. Unavoidable. Persistent. A necessary evil for me, welcome guests for more. And since I have to entertain my old friend, I must find a way to make a deal with them; find a middle ground.

So, here is a possible fix that came to my mind. A proposition of sorts.(Even if it's for a story and idea as niche/specific as mine)

What if ....all.....the exposition in the story was done by a character?

Keeping a character consistent throughout a story is something we all need to learn sooner or later. And having studied up on that, I can almost say that doing that is significantly easier for me to make the character consistent rather than my way of describing things.

I could make the descriptions have more character to them, add more humour to it, maybe a little breach of the 4th wall here and there.. or maybe... make a scene more impactful? (HAHA! What's this idiot spouting outta his mouth; he can't even write a piece of work without dialogue chunks)

End of Ted Talk

I hope I have been able to make you wonder a little bit with me. Thank you for coming to my ted talk[Looking at this now, this is enough content to do a whole video lmaooo] and for staying with me all the way. Thank you regardless you did or not!

And maybe pay a little visit to my work and see if you can spot the hints before the revelations.

Thank you again. Yall have a lovely day or night wherever you live. Lahin out!

P.S: PLEASE. PLEASE TALK BEFORE I DELETE THE WHOLE TOPIC OUT OF ANXIETY! I'd love to hear about your thoughts on this.

chestnutriceeee 2021-06-20 08:41:39 UTC #2

Please forgive me if I interpreted it wrong. But, by letting a character do your exposition, you mean it should be written in first-person narrative? Like showing what your character sees and by changing characters you can show the same thing two completely different ways?

Lahin 2021-06-20 08:43:46 UTC #3

No, I meant it as the narrator being an actual character.....While the story is told in third person.

Alkareel 2021-06-20 11:49:52 UTC #4

It's fine if there was a character written for exposition. How successful that character will be depends on how you use him. Take Wuxia for example, most authors make use of third-party characters inserting commentary into a fight to explain how attacks work. It doesn't feel out of place at all—well, some do, but since they keep it consistent, it doesn't feel off at all. They only things that break their stories is that if they become too repetitive.

As for MHA's lack of show, don't tell. The author has the allowance to do that. The author isn't restricted to writing, and his art style can definitely cover that flaw. If the issue becomes overly repetitive, however—same as above, it'll become one of the things that can break his series.

Lahin 2021-06-20 12:10:25 UTC #5

My point was, that showing actually played in well to the future scenes. It was actually a good thing that it was done that way imo. Plus, a recurring joke isn't all that bad. My reason for bringing that up was that it could be a good way for exposition to be done that way as well.

IndigoShirtProd 2021-06-20 12:36:35 UTC #6

I've always been personally bother by the way some shounen anime structures their fight scenes, specifically early Naruto. While I don't mind expositional conversation in the middle of battle, or even flashbacks, the post fight explanation of the fight and what each character did felt kind of unnecessary. Telling after showing is repetitive. (Though, I realized later that it's a great way to make fight scenes more accessible, but I have a feeling that wasn't the goal and was just a ploy to fill time.)

Anyways, I think you have to be careful when having one or so characters designated as well of exposition. I'm struggling with this as of now with some characters I'm introducing in the future. I don't want these characters to come off as "wells of exposition" alone, regardless of how important the information they have is to the story. It can be reductionary. If you are expositing through a character, try to be mindful how many scenes that character is expositing and make sure to balance it out with scenes where the chatacter is being a character.

Lahin 2021-06-20 13:31:41 UTC #7

The idea was that the narration would be done by said character. And they would add their ideas to a scene, a commentary so to speak. Say a character has an outburst out of nowhere, the narration would be the character reacting to the outburst itself, not just a description of the scene.

Normally, the narrator is not part of the story and/or is just the author's narrative side. I'm sure that my way of describing will change over the course of the creation of my work and I don't want that to ooze into the work itself. I'm trying to solidify that with the character having a distinct personality that would be present in almost all of the descriptive parts.

Legendofgenii 2021-06-20 13:57:11 UTC #8

It’s probably cheaper from an animation standpoint to have characters just stood talking.

WistyWrites 2021-06-20 14:07:41 UTC #9

Yes! I love it when books are written like this! It makes descriptions more fun to read and generally gives the book more personality.

First book that comes to mind is The Girl Who Drank the Moon, but to be fair it only sort of did that, though it did have those chapters with the woman telling the story to (presumably) a child.

Lahin 2021-06-20 14:11:05 UTC #10

OH, DEFINITELY!

Lahin 2021-06-20 14:15:12 UTC #11

That was the idea. I'm not yet sure of the execution but I wanted to do that with the descriptions. Also, I'll check out the book if I can!

Lahin 2021-06-20 15:34:22 UTC #12

Another question, following the original post. (You know where this is headed)

Would you read a story where the narrator lets out their snarky sarcastic side once in a while to talk to the reader?

Why? / Why not?

djourner 2021-06-20 15:56:58 UTC #13

I'd say I get that tip by default... My story is entirely in first person.
It is by design too, I thought since thise was going to be a long ass story having the characters tell the information gives me a bit more leeway to play with it.

For one, the character can only talk from his own perspective, sure they talk with a certain degree of 'hindsight' as the narrators (yes, perspective shifts around) exist in the future, but even then they CAN ONLY TALK ABOUT THEIR POV, whatever else they say other characters look to be feeling is their interpretation of what they saw, not the actual feelings.

This has obvious advantages in drama and character interactions as you always only get one side and have to learn to tell what the others are thinking on your own but it has a fun side effect in exposition that I love to play with.
All exposition in my story is dialog, characters are talking to either you or each other about it, so the aforementioned 'only their POV' apply... A character might paint a certain event one way, while another character has a different opnion... In much the same way, the varying degrees of understanding each of them have about a certain topic affects it too.

For instance, we get introduced to Vernon's magic on episode 1 and how it allows him to do virtually everything but with certain heavy limitations and a heavy cost on his body, Azreth's first comment on his power is along thel ines of 'OH! so it sucks then?'... And Vernon gets hissy about that comment for obvious reasons, Azreth doesn't understand his limitation and utility so of course he would think it sucks... So essentialy, the exposition is part of the interaction and therefore both a moment of characterization and a moment of explanation for the reader.
This i think is better than the way people do in like naruto or other exposition heavy shows, the characters will react in real time and I try to make them ask real questions the reader might... Slight nsfw... In episode 4, vernon is teaching Azreth about magic, and him being the lewd bastard he is naturally asks 'can I cast spells with my dick?'... I mean, sure that sounds like a dumb question, but it is in characters, and might be a curiosity for the reader that is exposited inside the story, so why not talk about it?

Thanks to this, some of my favorite chapters involve training, as it's not this static thing that character just goes through a montage, but in fact you see them learning through the story and improving, and later when they use those concepts it feels more natural and I don't need to break the action to explain jack shit.
The opposite also helps, when a new character appears and they have an unusual type of power or skill, I make a point not to explain it the first few times they use it... Only when THE CHARACTERS realize it, is it ever explained... And if they don't realize it in the fight, they will talk about it later to try and figure it out, as if they are solving a puzzle.
So you THE READER, will have to do as much puzzling as the characters to figure out why this new villain is kicking the party's ass, and how they can proceed to beat him... And you have an incentive to look at the way powers are described.

Lahin 2021-06-21 13:04:45 UTC #14

You have indeed got that down by default! I like the way you think!

NinaWrites 2021-06-21 16:03:52 UTC #15

I totally understand what you are going through. I am so so so bad at descriptions!!! But at the same time, I hate purple prose. There needs to be a fine balance.

If you want your story to be a third pov with a narrator being first person, you need to be very careful with how you write this because you can confuse the readers if you start jumping heads.

It can be done - tho usually the first person narrative start near the beginning of the chapter or end of chapter or the main character is the narrative in the future. It's interesting- but you just need to be careful with the execution.