Exposition @ Exeter library 30th November -

Exposition is an explanatory account. It is a necessity in creative writing, that, at some point you'll need to explain something - to do with:

1. a past event
2. a setting, or place

The problem comes when writers, as Hilary Mantel explains 'stand to tell the story.' I thought of this as someone standing at the front in a lecture theatre. It's not very engaging for a reader, if they feel like you're speaking in general terms because there's a host of other people behind and to the the side of you.

It is essential, in my view, to avoid this feeling. Readers tend to put books down when this happens.
SO - HOW DO WE GET AROUND THE PROBLEM?

Firstly, we should write exposition as scene (bring it into the present tense and make it a happening event)
Secondly, narrate a scene through the voice of a secondary character - this is particularly effective when describing important events in the past that are effecting the action in the present.
Lastly, keep it moving. Do not, says Hilary Mantel, 'stand to tell the story' - I like this because it's an image that we should avoid - we're not lecturers. Readers are alongside us - we're whispering in their ears, not treating them as remote individuals. Hilary says the 'the ground should be hot beneath your feet.' Please keep it so.