97: The Third Rail of Exposition
9/30/2015
I just got done with Chapter 22: The Gift, which was the first chapter in Part Two: Twa Yal-Jukun. It turned out fairly well despite a lack of interesting visuals and a good deal of exposition. The exposition was necessary, though, to help lay the foundation for the entire Part, and I think it’s mixed with enough dialogue to maintain good pacing. It had some cute twists as well due to Guma’s master plan.
I was really happy that after finishing my rewrite of The Yara, I was able to completely plot all of Part Two in a single day by preserving the material already written for Twa Yal-Jukun. This saves me a lot of work (though much editing is still needed), and it has the built-in framework of the lunar festival upon which to hang the story arcs of my new chapters.
As of now, my new outline consists of the original ten scenes, with seven more added onto the beginning and two onto the end. It took me four days to get going and to finish this first chapter though. A touch of writer’s block, despite knowing precisely what had to be written.
The how is harder than the what.
Present-Day Reflection
8/30/2026
I believe that learning to manage exposition is a key facet to solving the how of my writer’s block.
When I first started writing this series, I avoided exposition as if it were the third rail of bad writing. Touch it and die. Though good writers can skip nimbly atop that rail when they need to without being electrocuted, I wasn’t experienced enough to trust myself. So, I simply avoided it at all costs – adopting the mantra of show, don’t tell.
Though I eventually began to loosen up and allow myself to use a paragraph or two of exposition here and there over the years, I believe banning it altogether in the beginning was the right instinct. The ability to describe or explain things directly and still hold a reader’s attention requires an extremely subtle touch. And I’ve never managed to be objective enough with my own work to know if I’m achieving that or not. I just have to go out on a limb when I need to and hope it’s strong enough to support both me and my readers when they join me out there.
