So if you write a lot of SF/Fantasy (or historical fiction for that matter) you know that exposition is one of the heavier burdens your tale must bear. The whole point of speculative fiction is that the universe of the story is not “here”, and the author’s job is to get across what the reader needs to know to understand the story as quickly and as painlessly as possible. Delicate balancing act that, to one end lies opaque confusion and on the other like turgid boredom. The only real advice most beginners get about this is “no infodumps,” which, like the passive voice, will be red-flagged by a lot of first readers offering advice simply because it’s easy to identify.
So how does one provide background detail without being dry and boring? By using details in dramatic scenes. Consider the following :
Jacob walked into the bar and called out, “Is there a David Walker here?”
Everyone went silent, except for one large brute who yelled, “You bastard!”
Jacob turned to face the man, just as someone else brought a chair down across his back.
Everyone loves a barfight. But what do we know about what’s going on? Can you tell what year is it? Is it fantasy? Is it space opera? Is it a western? If this is the start of a story, you’ve already started losing the editor because we don’t know anything, really, beyond some names. Let’s try adding a word or two.
Jacob walked into the inn calling out, “Is there a David Walker here?”
The Englishmen were all silent, except for one large brute who yelled, “You Norman bastard!”
Jacob turned to face the man, just as someone else brought a chair down across his back.
Hardly any longer but just by adding a word and changing two others, our reader not only had a good inkling of a historical period, but of the relitive social standings of the participants.
