Whats your thoughts on heavy exposition/prolouges?

[SoFt]

Ooooohh. Yeah, I hate that crap x) . That's not so much exposition as it is breaking the fourth wall. It can work, but only if executed carefully. And the ones that tell you not to read the book/watch the movie/unfurl the sacred scrolls are just annoying.

To address the question of the topic, exposition is the difference between writing "Everyone respected Jon Johnson because he was the fanciest prancer in the land" and writing scenes wherein characters regard Johnson with awe and reverence until, inevitably, he is shown prancing like no one has ever pranced before.

As I write, I try not to engage in pure exposition unless the topic being explained is both important, but not able to be expressed "visually" for a while. Even then, I try to put it off. The goal is to avoid having the characters explain at length something that they should already know very well. The narrator shouldn't explain anything other than what's happening, what things look like, and, if omniscient, what the characters are feeling.

Regarding prologues, I think they're fine, but they should be brief; a prologue is by definition a story external to the one you're supposedly trying to tell. If it's long enough to stand on its own, you've just written a prequel before the first story is even out .

[KSlinger]

Not a fan. Feels bad but I just move on from work like that. It's not what I came there for, you know?

[storytimebiondi]

Somehow these intros just remind me of the juvenile writing-gasam that was the Eragon series. The film was super bad for that kind of a reason. Since then I find them to be a big turn-off.

[joannekwan]

My advice is if you have to include so much information, introduce it to the audience gradually. Take documentaries for example. A lot of them will start off with their subject matter just doing something in their day-to-day lives. You get to learn about their personality, it gives something for the audience to hold on to. Then once the subject is established can you go into their backstory and history.

[Chroma]

I think anything in writing can be entertaining if done well. And I believe that can be applied to exposition and especially prologues. I won't really talk about prologues, cause if we got done to it, there are a ton of really good prologues out there. But exposition is a bit trickier to make fun. However, this has been done, too. Exposition isn't inherently bad, just difficult to execute.

But I can prove that exposition at the start of a story can be done really well! And, for added challenge, I'm gonna do it by showing one that follows the "show don't tell" rule and one that breaks it (because sometimes you HAVE to tell, and not show Gasp! It's true)

Now one movie that gives an exposition dump without straight up telling you what's happening:

Ba-boom! I think everyone who saw this movie loved the opening segment of this film. But teeeeechnically it's a big ol' exposition dump. You flash through their lives, get a ton of info about them that applies later in the film and they do it all...silently. Very well done.

But sometimes, especially in the sci-fi genre, you just kind of...have to tell the audience everything:

And I'll be darned if this isn't one of my favorite info dumps in the world. It does not get much more info-dump-ier than this, but this is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, the opening segment of A New Hope just is a little...weird. Who are these dudes in weird hats? Why are they fighting these other dudes? Who's the guy in the black suit? Who's the girl? The info dump is necessary, but they make it fun with lively music and fun space backgrounds.

But uh...I guess you can't do that with comics, so....probably stick with Up for inspiration on good exposition.

[DiegoPalacios]

I believe the first seconds are vital. You want to blow their minds/ hype them/ touch their hearts/intrigue them/ give them a sense of wonder as soon as you begin. Before explaining (or while explaining), you must make them want more answers.

Of course it is easier said than done, but is completely worth it.

[Kura]

I... I actually really like reading comics with these.... ;_; I'm usually very interested in the world I'm going to be expected to invest in.

As long as they are limited to only maybe 1 or 2 pages, 3 tops, and also if it's NOT just ONLY a page of text, I would like images depicting an idea of what's being explained.

That being said, I really only find them necessary in explaining to me the world in a way that should be common knowledge to the characters in the story. Like "In this world 80% of people have super powers called ---" because unless a character is doing a narrative to the reader (which I'm not really that big of a fan of) it would be really stupid for characters to explain to other characters something that everyone should know by everyone from pretty much the day they were friggen born. It's just... fking dumb.

Also, I would much rather have an info dump than an 'info dump character' hoooooolllllyyy sshhhhhhhhittttttttt

[shazzbaa]

(i know there's flourless cake but like IGNORE THAT FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS TWEET)

--

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.

[danitasibert]

I get where your coming from, i always thought the prologue was use to set the foundation of an event leading to the current time the story is taking place or it could be a simple way to get things started off.
i can see why a HUGE story dump can turn some people away its all air and no substance just yet. At the same time it depends if the story is taking place in a different world or time or anything, then i can understand explaining to me about certain rules that the characters will be going by.

i personally like it went you can learn the characters first and then slow as the story goes on about the world around then when its important to.

At the end of-the day it depends on the persons preference as a reader if they are willing to give the story a try but their is a lot of explaining they have the choice to continue or stop. that's how i see it

[rahnyjae]

My most "exposition-y" prologue is in the form of one of my main characters writing a journal entry in the form of a letter she writes to herself every year and then burns. At first I had the whole prologue be this letter, but at a certain point it became obvious that it was more of me the Omniscient Narrator giving well rounded information rather than the character reminiscing about her specific perspective. So I cut it up between the character writing from her POV and myself delving deeper as an observer of the full picture. At least, that's what the prologue is aiming for more or less. Edit: and then it ends with an interaction between the character who wrote/burned the letter and her brother, who the letter is about, that reveals the crux of their lives and the story. Whether I did all that well or not, I'll leave up to the readers. lol

[Wumbl]

It's not a good idea to start with exposition. It gives the reader no time to get into the characters.
The prologue should really be spent getting into the main characters, and how they relate to each other. The reader should already want to know more about the world rather than having it pushed on them from the start.
Of course, an exposition prologue that's handled well can be less jarring - it will just never not be jarring as far as I have seen.

Personally I like to introduce some characters in the prologue, and world build later. My current story introduces the protagonist, while slowly expositing info about the world alongside his scenes. That way I can get an idea across about how the setting works without shoving it into the reader's face too hard. It's less hamfisted and even though it was harder to write, I'm glad I wrote it that way.

Most stories rest on their characters' shoulders. You don't want to open with the part that isn't the most important! The characters must take priority. The exception is those rare stories where there is no constant protagonist. The more experimental types of story that don't focus so much on individual characters and are more about an overarching concept.

edit: When I say "exposition" I mean just offloading information about the world and how it works. The lazy stuff.

[LoboSong_Hitaka5Ever]

I like to have my prologues nice and short rather than something that takes like 5+ pages to read. Like one idea I had that I'm probably scrapping is a short summary-like prologue about what the heroes are supposed to prevent from happening without giving a lot of detail away. It was basically how worlds have a balance of energy and anyone disturbing or wanting to destroy that energy would destroy that world

To me, I think prologues should be short and straight to the point without a lot of world reveal. I think the story and the scenery should convey your world/universe instead of someone just narrating about it. And you can introduce the characters in the first chapter articulately (how they dress, their posture, emotions they usually have, etc) enough without being like "This is Dave, he's this weight and height, likes/dislikes these things, etc" that you'd find on a reference sheet or character synopsis

[indagold]

I usually avoid a story if their prologue just dumps exposition because fantasy comics in itself are a massive genre and every single one of them needs to do it for some reason. I do give them a chance if they're straight, quick and to the point because lets face it you're writing a comic to begin with. No one wants to read a comic just to read a 10 page essay.

[Moi]

Well want some example of heavy exposition? Try this one OUT:

HEAVY EXPOSITION COMICS

Then comeback later if EXPOSITION is bad or good for this kind of WEB COMIC.

[GesuGesu]

Just get right into the meat of the story and do a flashback to address the info later.

[Mari]

Expanding on my prev point, I don't think exposition is bad, I just don't like montage of random images 50 boxes of matter-of-fact text type of exposition. It feels like playing D&D lmao. Hiding exposition in dialogue is the best way to go about it usually imho, kinda like what @shazzbaa pointed out.

Protag explaining something via flashback is nice too, however there's a plethora of problems that irk me with it in most comics (webcomic and published alike). It usually comes down to the writer trying to be artistic/poetic while giving exposition, when it makes no sense for the character that is supposed to narrate the flashback say something like that. Out of context the text may sound nice, but in context it often comes across as cringy and very out of the blue.

A good example of this is a mango I recently read called Yuugure no machi. It's a story about an emotionally constipated loanshark and a prev manwhore (it's actually kinda wholesome), but then randomly during flashbacks there's some extremely poetic crap about stars and skies and it fits neither of the characters (and both of them have these flashbacks), and it just gives you a throughout "WTF" feeling after each one of them.

[Zugaikotsu]

Reminds me CLAMP before messing up X/1999 completely. Full of dreams, flashbacks, people crying and fainting but nothing actually moving forward on the plot (what plot?).

A good example, for me, of a prologue full of exposition, but still enjoyable to read because of the narrative and art is the one of Ghostblade:

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

[monotone_ink]

As long as it's executed well, it should be fine. Best thing to do with expositions is to probably tell the most intriguing parts, and leave certain details out to entice the reader.

[ConradComics]

Heh, not really a point, but one of the best openings I've seen that broke every rule was the one in the sci-fi film Serenity. Joss Whedon wrote a teacher exposition dump, inside of a nightmare, inside of a flashback, inside of holographic security footage. Magnifique!

[awesomefeelsman]

I like experience the story as if I was there with the character and experiencing the things they do as the story progresses. As for the description of the world the characters live in, it would be better if the world is explained through the words and thoughts of the characters and the things they've experience while living in it. It gives me a sense of mystery and wonder to hear how this world came to be through the whispers and texbooks of their ancient libraries. Unravelling it's many secrets, learning their culture, practicing their beliefs, witnessing their many influential religions and seeing the bonds and rules they've created in order to build a just and powerful kingdom.That, to me, turns any normal reader into an adventurer.