How do you handle exposition?

[vworksart]

Hey all!

I was curious as to how a lot of you handle exposition in your stories? I primarily work on comics and I've always been told to show not tell, but I often have trouble in my comic showing things that require long explanation. I don't want to make paragraph bubbles but I also don't want the reader to get lost or confused due to lack of knowledge of what's happening. There are also some things I have trouble portraying visually which I'm sure is lack of knowledge on my part.

I've defaulted to trying to space out explanations over the span of the arc, and showing visually what I'm able over characters talking but I have no idea if this is the way to go about it or if there is a better way to handle it.

How do you handle avoid the "expositional cafe" of characters just sitting around talking over food or drinks, etc?

[craftymarten]

I try to include it in the story in some way, either from an event or through a character not knowing something.
I watched a video once about designing something so it's relatable in some way. It might be cliche to call a fantasy power "infernus" but your reader associates it with fire and demons so already in their head you don't need to explain it that much.
Also if a reader doesn't need to know something I don't tell them. Maybe the magic system is really complicated and intricate but if it doesn't benefit the story I'll bring the rules up when they're relevant. No point in explaining something that will never come up again!
When I started I tended to over-explain but people already had an idea of what was going on from my prologue and summary, so I should have trusted my audience more!

[DiegoPalacios]

There are many ways to organically explain something. Make sure you explain them when the info becomes neccesary and relevant.

As long as someone doesn`t know some crucial info, it can easilly be shared naturally.

Here are some examples:

A tour for newcomers of a school/organisation. They can explain many things about the place, with colorfull comentary. A sarcastic tour guide will be more acid in their comments, but an optimistic tour guide could make some funny contrast between the way they say things with the way things work. (of course there are many more ways to make a tour entertaining)

A classroom: Teacher explains some concept relevant to the plot. (the personality of the teacher can affect how it will be told)

Characters practicing for a quiz: This can combine some exposition of the world with showing a character`s struggle with academics.

Character A realizes character B doesn`t know that he/she is doing, so they get annoyed and start correcting them. "but everyone knows X works that way", "did you forget X works that way?"

Combat commentary from an experienced observer: It doesn`t make sense if the character explains their abilities/powers (unless they are a show off, the power requires it or they are intentionally training his power weaknesses), but someone who knows the fighter and/or the techniques can explain an inexperienced observer what is going on.

[Wumbl]

I think exposition via flashback scenes is a good method - show rather than just telling. I tend to do most of my backstory exposition that way.

If not, I like to keep it organic. I bring things up only when necessary. An example would be that the angels in my universe have the physical capabilities of a human in peak condition. I wrote a scene into one of my stories where an angel and a human are fighting each other and the angel says "You're not going to win - angels are as strong as your best." - it gives a bit of lore but it's also relevant to the plot. If you weave your exposition into scenes where other stuff is happening then it feels way more natural. Characters can have arguments, confrontations... even just taking each other aside for conversations. If your exposition is part of a scene that has other stuff going on it won't be so obvious or boring.

[storytimebiondi]

Information shared should always be important to moving the plot forward. That is rule number 1!

Exposition, in my mind, is something best left undone. As in, just don't do it. You should never stop the plot to explain something to the reader. It's like having to explain a joke. It sucks out the momentum. Weave your exposition into dialogue, or moments where knowing something is necessary to what's happening in that moment.

[shazzbaa]

There are also some things I have trouble portraying visually which I'm sure is lack of knowledge on my part.

"Show, Don't Tell" is a phrase that gets misused a lot. It does not mean "use pictures instead of words," -- it was originally advice for prose! What it meant in prose writing was that instead of Telling the audience how to feel, you Show them the details and let them come to their own conclusions. So instead of saying "the house was spooky," telling your audience what to feel, you describe the creaking floorboards and such, and let them realise themselves that it's spooky.

Show, Don't Tell can be done with dialogue and words, as well. A spurned character can yell "I'm so angry with you for betraying me!" -- that's Telling --or that same character can yell "Well fine! Obviously you and Meghan are having such a great time, why don't you just hang out with HER!!" -- that second one is Showing. Instead of telling us the character is jealous, you've revealed it through the actions they take and the things they say, and let the audience realise for themselves "oh!! someone's jealous!"

Here's another example I use a lot, from another topic on exposition:

Whats your thoughts on heavy exposition/prolouges?

Also, obligatory mention that "show don't tell" has nothing to do with words vs pictures. After all, it's originally meant as a guideline for prose!

"Showing" doesn't mean using pictures, it means letting the reader come to their own conclusions, which can be done with images, or descriptions, or dialogue, or anything else.

so, like, if I have characters in the Magical Fantasy Land of the United States of America,

some folks would be tempted to explain the rules of the fantasy land -- have a scene in a classroom with a teacher explaining "Now as you all know, every four years we vote for the person who will be president of this country! People have the freedom to vote or not vote, and some people choose to abstain because they think their decision won't matter. But it's important, especially in an election year, like this one!" That's obviously telling.

But if you think the problem is the words, and try to show that information without using words, you're going to run into problems! If the gov't system of this fantasy world matters in-comic, that's info that needs to be conveyed to us clearly. Just adding a montage of a polling station and a president being sworn in doesn't really make a difference in the way it's being told. And trying to subtly charade the information to us in background details only works for some stories.

But, you could show us this information by having the characters encounter it naturally:

Character A: Hey man, you gonna vote tomorrow?
Character B: Why bother? It never makes a difference.
Character A: What are you talking about? This determines who runs the country for the next four years!! It's important! How can you blow it off like that?

That's really pretty painless, and despite being the exact same exposition the teacher gave us, doesn't feel like an infodump. We're learning about the characters AND the world, folding exposition into a moment of how their world impacts their lives and how their values conflict with each other.

I think the best thing you can do with exposition is give it emotional weight, like that voting convo above (letting that info reveal something about a character's personality or choices) or at the very least, show that information impacting the character in the world they live in. Someone explaining that you become a pokemon trainer at 10 years old is less effective than a kid on his tenth birthday excited to finally get his first pokemon.

Another example I like a lot is Rocket Raccoon. We never see Rocket's backstory in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, but once when he's drunk and in an argument with the others, he blurts out that "I didn't ask to be made!!" and rants about being "taken apart and put back together." He never mentions it again, and we don't have to see it.
It's INFINITELY better than a visual flashback to Rocket's creation would have been, even though the rant is more vague -- because there's an emotional reason he's screaming it at Peter, we care about that. Any time that you can use exposition to DO something else, to reveal something else about characters, it feels less like you stopped everything to explain. A bit of backstory shared with a PURPOSE -- a secret shared to bring a lover closer, a defense against an accusation -- isn't gonna feel like exposition. It's gonna feel more like an action.

[vfinnigan]

If it's setup, that can be handled with an intro/recap page. Otherwise, a caption box should do the trick. Just make sure to trim all redundant description. For instance, don't talk about a character's brown eyes if the art shows he has brown eyes.

[Hodge]

Hmm well I know as a reader I almost always go right over exposition, especially if it's in the beginning. But I understand the need for some lengthy/complex exposition, but you have to make your reader want it. So I hint at it, make it an intriguing part of the plot, and sort of tease the reader until I finally give the full-on exposition. It's a lot of building tension until the release and playing with reader expectations. If I have elves in my story, I don't need to go on about why there are elves in the beginning, the reader already gets the idea from their preconceived notions about the fantasy genre. Isekai does this a bunch, very few actually explain how they got reborn/transported in the first place.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I agree wholeheartedly with @shazzbaa: "show, don't tell" doesn't necessarily mean "use as few words as possible". And as creative as you can get with hiding little exposition bits in emotional points in the dialogue, there ARE times when things just need to be explained.
The hero character needs to be told how to use their new magical tool, or the new spy recruit needs to be told the political context of their mission. It's hard to "show" or dance around those kinds of things...but the thing is that you don't have to. Realistically, why wouldn't the person just explain it to them in words? There's nothing wrong with it.

Personally, I love "expositional cafes"~. They're a chance to show off your skills with angles and lighting, and a chance to take a break from the more difficult pages and maybe get more done in less time. And as a reader, you get a chance to chill out and spend some time with the characters; look at them, learn their faces and their "voices". It doesn't have to be action 24/7; there's value in slow stuff, too.

If you have to do an "expositional cafe", my advice as an artist would be to take it slowly, putting only 4-6 lines of speech in each bubble, and draw it as beautifully as you can~. Have them do something while they talk, like eat or get dressed or put something together, so you have something to show in your paneling other than just their faces. Take note of the time of day and the weather (if applicable) and experiment with lighting. Just have fun with it~

[craftymarten]

If you have to do an "expositional cafe", my advice as an artist would be to take it slowly, putting only 4-6 lines of speech in each bubble, and draw it as beautifully as you can~. Have them do something while they talk, like eat or get dressed or put something together, so you have something to show in your paneling other than just their faces. Take note of the time of day and the weather (if applicable) and experiment with lighting. Just have fun with it~

I tried to do this in my recent 2 updates. I studied a few comics that have long "talking scenes" for speech bubble placement. It's a good chance to think up compositions that aren't shot-reverse shot which is pretty hard! I like to change my scenes a lot too, you can have exposition scenes where your characters are walking somewhere which means you can change up the background and composition a lot. It can show a lot about the world your characters are in too without being too overt.

[rmdooley]

Brevity is key, keep it short, concise, and make sure every word is a crucial block in building world or character

There are also some things I have trouble portraying visually which I'm sure is lack of knowledge on my part.

There are some elements of a story that cannot be conveyed visually but are still necessary for the reader to know to get a full sense of setting and how the character is moving through it. You can draw a room covered in blood or have a page devoid of sound effects and speech bubbles but to really drive it home to the reader how fresh and pungent the blood smells or how disaffecting the quiet is, there is going to have to be written exposition on it.

Combining exposition with relevant action can keep reader interest and add poignancy. Take the opening of The Fellowship of the Ring with Galadriel's narration. A lot of world building is packed in and while the information is being delivered, the world being described is brought to life with scenes showing the story she is telling. Having a similar world-building prologue translates well to the realm of comics

The webcomic Ghostblade's intro has an expository prologue:

GhostBlade :: Chapter 0 (Intro): Heaven Eye | Tapas

A personal example from the comic I work on: A character approaches the scene where a demon did some dark deeds. As the character moves closer, we move inside her head as she describes how you can feel the lingering effects of an evil presence. This not only allowed for more direct description than drawing would but also helped build the character

I've defaulted to trying to space out explanations over the span of the arc, and showing visually what I'm able over characters talking but I have no idea if this is the way to go about it or if there is a better way to handle it.

This sounds like a good approach. You are avoiding info dumping and making sure to take advantage that comics allow for a visual medium of showing.

Exposition is the comprehensive explanation and description of an idea. Not all ideas in a story can be comprehensively drawn or shown. Sometimes the only way to show an idea is to explain it and that is not a bad thing, just another element of story-telling

[monotone_ink]

Be a sneeky cheeky breeky and slip your exposition into the events that occur (e.g. a conservation between characters, a snippet of dialogue from a radio, a class in a school etc.)

[J.Z.Castillo]

I pretty much do it organically. I don't sit there and tell you a whole story about the world but IF the characters find out about it or tell someone else the story, then there ya go. However, I don't go out of my way to explain everything right there and then, just keep reading and you'll find the answers, I guess

[LT1986]

Hello. Thank you for making the forum topic. I know that the goal of not telling too much in a story can keep readers interested. I'm one of the people that gets more intrigued about a story as I receive more information about what is going to happen in the future of the story. I don't have advice on how to not give away too much information. I just wanted to let you know that I'm one of the people that sometimes gets less interested in a story as it becomes more mysterious.