exposition of a story


Another option for handling a large chunk of exposition, and in particular an episode from a character’s past, is to turn it into a dramatized flashback. How do you make sure your exposition has conflict and choice so that it can develop the plot? Without it, readers will not have a context or understanding of events as the story unfolds. Readers can’t create a movie in their minds because there’s nothing to visualize. See how, even though this is just a scene in the exposition, it still contains all the elements of dramatic structure? What does exposition mean? Exposition: ___________ (Fill in the blank.). Both are important, but both are potentially unwelcome distractions.
Climax: The master thief gives up the profit, saving his/her team.

He could have told the lady that he had two boys and a girl back at home who were missing their daddy like crazy, and a wife somewhere in France sleeping with a kid half her age, but he really wasn’t feeling chatty right now. He wanted to be home himself right now, caring for his children, but instead he was 100 miles away on a business trip, stuck in this crummy hotel. Stephen King’s classic horror novel The Shining (1977) gives a strong example of good story exposition.

Move back in time and let the event play out like it’s a scene happening in the here and now. They need to know where the character has come from, what their childhood was like, why their marriage failed – anything which helps to explain what they are doing here, what they want, and why they want it. One tried and true method of introducing a central character in the best possible light is to have them “save the cat,” a screenwriting term popularized by Blake Snyder in his book of the same name. This passage from "Hansel and Gretel" shows exposition from Hansel's own thoughts and actions: In the example above, we understand the background of the story because the main character is thinking about their circumstances. It was always, “Rachel’s busy. It’s not a traditional ‘once upon a time’ beginning or slab of historical exposition. It is then that the main action of the play begins. Every Story Begins with the Exposition -main characters are introduced -setting is described -exposition is over when the inciting incident happens 7. The tone and mood of the exposition of a story will depend to some extent on genre.

Otherwise your reader will read five pages of your story and then put it down in boredom. Exposition, or the introduction, is just one of a plot's many parts. The audience, who doesn’t after all know the characters who are caught up in the action, can easily feel distant or even confused. If you’re writing a novel, screenplay, or other narrative, how do you write great exposition? The beginning of the story where the characters and setting are introduced is called the exposition.At some point when we are meeting the characters, we are introduced to a problem, or conflict that the main character has-and this will eventually create the rising action of the story. Many years later, Meggie had only to close her eyes and she could still hear it, like tiny fingers tapping on the windowpane. Exposition is the first part of the plot sequence in a story. I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summer – and what trees and seasons smelled like – how people looked and walked and smelled even. He had work to do, too. A very clear and strong example of an exposition is from the movie “Pride and Prejudice,” which stars Kiera Knightly  and is adapted from Jane Austen’s book written in 1813. In your exposition, part of a writer’s job is to establish what scale your story is moving on. Are you telling a performance story about a team competing to win a major tournament? The exposition is still part of the story, and all story relies on conflict and choice to create plot movement. The scenes are relevant past events that are needed to pick up the next story line. It fits into the definition of exposition I gave above because events from a character’s past are not a part of the present story, but they nevertheless have a bearing on it.

Although the expository writer isn't primarily taking a stand on an issue, he can't—and shouldn't try to—keep his opinions completely hidden. It also hints at the mysterious power books have on our characters. In the beginning of the film, Martin, who has a strangely long nose, literally saves a cat from a tree, thus making sure you love him despite his strange appearance. What is always true of successful stories is you have to get through the exposition at some point, even if it’s not in the first scene. But still an interesting couple of paragraphs that contain a lot of information without ever descending into dullness. [4], An information dump (or "infodump") is where the author merely tells the reader something he thinks the reader needs to know before moving on with the plot. He had a little study in the spare room off the kitchen. Writing the exposition of a story – the narration introducing key scenarios, themes, characters or settings – takes skill. Your exposition is not just about introducing your setting and characters. As she walks by a window, she hears her mother and father talking about a prospective new bachelor in the area. The introduction is the opening paragraphs or sentences in a piece of writing that gives the topic and what will be said about it. The excerpt below introduces Meggie and her father, showing that they have a close relationship. Frank took his key and started up the stairs. But this was relatively subtle, compared to Kipling's science fiction stories, where he used the technique much more obviously and necessarily, to explain an entirely fantastic world unknown to any reader, in his Aerial Board of Control universe.[9]. Exposition is a literary term that refers to the part of a story that sets the stage for the drama to follow: it introduces the theme, setting, characters, and circumstances at the story’s beginnings. Resolution: Missing out on the heist, or appearing to, was all part of the thief’s plan, and he/she shares the profits with his/her team. Tommy wished he still had his bike, but he had broken the frame last fall when he and his friends did some trick rides. [6] Instead of saying "I am a woman", a first person narrator can say "I kept the papers inside my purse." The writers who do it the best draw the audience out of the action as quickly as they drew them in, soon beginning normal exposition. The book she had been reading was under her pillow, pressing its cover against her ear as if to lure her back into its printed pages. [10] She defined it as "the process of scattering information seamlessly through the text, as opposed to stopping the story to impart the information.

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There are several reasons why this is good character-based exposition: In one paragraph, Atwood’s exposition raises questions about names, the reasons underlying a character’s emotions, and their environment. This begins the story with a heightened level of suspense at the expense of clarity for the sake of the reader. You also don’t want to start too slow with no choices or conflict. The term comes from Roxeanne, the 1987 film starring Steve Martin and Darryl Hannah. In this example, we see the protagonist, Tommy, battling some inner conflict as he deals with issues with his older sister. Your exposition must still be a good story. Here’s how: Just as a story has the six elements of dramatic structure, so every scene must incorporate them as well.

They didn’t see the cities, for that matter.

The story begins with Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and astronaut Matt Kowalksi (George Clooney) who are on a spacewalk on the Hubble Space Telescope.

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