What is Exposition? Definition, Tips, and Examples

You enter a cozy writer’s café, the scent of freshly ground espresso in the air, keyboards clicking softly around you. A stranger settles into the seat opposite, eyes gleaming knowingly.

“So, exposition, huh? Misunderstood, often maligned — but powerful when done right. Learn to wield it effectively, and you can immerse readers in your narrative without them even noticing.”

They lean closer.

“Ready to master it? Good. Let’s dive in.”

What is exposition in storytelling?

Exposition is a literary device used to introduce background information about events, settings, characters, or any other element of a story to readers. This technique is typically found towards the start of a narrative, setting up major details about the world and its characters, though it’s by no means limited to the opening. Exposition can (and does) appear as the author reveals new information whenever it's relevant to do so.

Sounds simple, right? Not always. As a writer, you might be tempted to rush through the tedious work of setting up your world and characters so you can get to your action-packed inciting incident, but resist that temptation! No matter how engaging your hook might be, if you haven't effectively established your characters’ everyday normal, even the most seismic shift to the status quo will fall flat.

You may have heard of an “info dump,” which occurs when an author drops all of their exposition into a daunting, long-winded wall of text that a reader hastily skims over — this is exactly what you want to avoid. Well-crafted exposition doesn’t overwhelm the reader with unnecessary details or disrupt the narrative flow. Instead, it should provide just enough information to help an audience understand your world and its characters, setting the stage for the dramatic inciting incident that will kick-start your narrative.

Types of exposition — with examples

Direct exposition

As a writer, you’re surely familiar with the “show, don’t tell” rule. While this is good general advice to follow, it isn’t universally applicable: sometimes telling is necessary to communicate complicated information plainly to the reader — that’s where direct exposition comes in.

Direct exposition is when the narrator explicitly states essential background information to the reader. As the type of exposition that the oft-maligned “information dump” typically falls into, direct exposition is perhaps most responsible for the bad rap that this literary device often receives.

Still, that doesn’t mean direct exposition is inherently bad — it just requires a delicate balance to get right. Too much all at once will disengage the reader, but carefully weaving short bursts into your text is an efficient way to clarify key details while keeping the story moving. Just make sure it’s not the only type of exposition you use.

🔁 Direct exposition example: The Trading Game

The more complex a topic, the more difficult it is to “show” it elegantly in your story, and there aren’t many topics more complex than international finance. Accordingly, Gary Stevenson uses direct exposition to explain forex trading in his bestselling memoir, The Trading Game:

An FX swap is, quite simply, a loan. In more detail, it’s a collateralized loan. Think of it like this: you go to the pawn shop, you give them your gold watch, and they lend you £200. You have received a loan of £200, and you’ve lent the pawn shop your gold watch as ‘collateral’... This loan is, in a sense, also, a ‘swap’. The lender has given you money for a period of time, and you have given the lender, for the same period of time, your gold watch. 

Conveying this information across via a drawn-out, overly complicated back-and-forth between Stevenson and a fellow economist would, in all likelihood, have felt clunky and unnatural. Instead, Stevenson wisely opted for a straightforward explanation that breaks the concept down simply and effectively — a quick break from the action was the most efficient choice to get this concept across to the reader.

Indirect exposition

Now that we’ve discussed “telling,” let's examine its more favorably looked-upon cousin: “showing,” or more formally, indirect exposition. It may not be as immediately informative as telling, but showing has the potential to be a lot more effective: indirect exposition uses discreet cues to reveal character, setting, and backstory to the reader through action, dialogue, and context. We’ll go into more detail on action and dialogue later on in this post, but for now, we’ll keep our focus on how you can use context and implication to your advantage.

Indirect exposition shines brightest when it’s used to reveal character traits, emotional states, or subtle world-building dynamics that would feel heavy-handed if explained directly. Still, beware the dangers of being too subtle — you don’t want less eagle-eyed readers missing out on crucial information because you were too understated in your exposition.

Recognize when clarity should take precedence over pacing (as Stevenson did in The Trading Game), and reserve indirect exposition for moments when it will enhance the reading experience without slowing down momentum.

🌊 Indirect exposition example: Sea of Tranquility 

In this scene from Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility, a small slip in dialogue efficiently reveals a major twist without the need for a direct explanation:

“Fomites aren’t a major mode of transmission with Covid-19,” Gaspery said. Fomites? Covid-19? Mirella had never heard either term, and the other two were frowning too. “Oh, right,” Gaspery said, seemingly to himself, “it’s only January.” He snapped back into focus.

Gaspery begins the exchange by casually using the terms “fomites” and “Covid-19,” neither of which would be familiar to the average person in January 2020. Once it becomes clear that the others don’t understand him, Gaspery mutters “oh, right… it’s only January,” hinting that he’s familiar with a timeline after the pandemic has already spread.

No one needs to say “this man is a time traveler” to get that idea across. Instead, Gaspery’s knowledge of a future pandemic gives him away. It’s a small, revealing moment that invites the reader to think for themselves — the story trusts them to connect the dots without ever spelling things out, creating a satisfying “aha!” moment of discovery when they realize the truth.

While the exposition in this exchange is subtle, writers can use dialogue much more explicitly to deliver key information. Which leads us to…

Exposition through dialogue

As the great Kurt Vonnegut once said: “Every sentence must do one of two things: reveal character or advance the action.” Exposition through dialogue is mainly focused on the former — divulging information through interaction allows you to provide characterization and exposition in one fell swoop.

The caveat that Brett touches on here is sometimes called the “As you know, Bob…” problem, which crops up when two characters discuss something that they both already know purely for the sake of the reader. 

To avoid sacrificing your reader’s suspension of disbelief, try to craft scenarios where your characters have genuine reasons to explain, question, or argue about the information you’re aiming to communicate. Rebecca Yarros does during this scene in her book Fourth Wing — let’s take a closer look to explore what we mean here.

🐲 Exposition through dialogue example: Fourth Wing

Young Violet Sorrengail always thought academia was her calling. Her late father was a scribe, after all, and her exhaustive list of health problems has long discouraged Violet from more physical pursuits. That is, until her mother forces her to become a dragon rider:

"Sending Violet into the Riders Quadrant is tantamount to a death sentence." Guess Mira isn’t done arguing. Mira’s never done arguing with Mom, and the frustrating thing about it is that Mom has always respected her for it. Double standard for the win. "She's not strong enough, Mom! She's already broken her arm this year, she sprains some joint every other week, and she's not tall enough to mount any dragon big enough to keep her alive in a battle."

 

"Seriously, Mira?" What. The. Hell. My fingernails bite into my palms as I curl my hands into fists. Knowing my chances of survival are minimal is one thing. Having my sister throw my inadequacies in my face is another. "Are you calling me weak?"

 

"No." Mira squeezes my hand. "Just…fragile."

The characters might be discussing something that they’re all already aware of, but Fourth Wing elegantly sidesteps the “As you know, Bob…” problem by presenting it in the form of an argument between Violet and her family.

In this exchange, Yarros establishes that (1) the Riders Quadrant is extremely dangerous, (2) Violet has some kind of chronic physical condition making her particularly vulnerable, and (3) the Sorrengails have a complex, somewhat fractured, family dynamic. The reader isn’t explicitly told any of this — instead, it’s shown through Violet’s interactions with her mother and sister.

We’ve spoken plenty about, well, speaking, but dialogue isn’t the only character-centric method of exposition that a skilled writer has up their sleeve: next up, we’ll examine how a character’s behavior can provide exposition.

Exposition through action

Let’s return to the second half of that Kurt Vonnegut quote from earlier: the action. Weaving exposition into your characters’ behavior and decisions allows you to simultaneously advance the plot and reveal key details about your world, allowing readers to absorb critical information subconsciously.

Expository action is everywhere in storytelling. Something as simple as a character's morning routine can subtly reveal their personality, individual values, and relationship dynamics, all while moving the story forward in a way that feels natural and immersive. This can be a little hard to visualize, so here’s an illustrative example.

🐴 Exposition through action example: The Four Winds

In the opening pages of The Four Winds, Jojo Moyes wastes no time showing us Alice Van Cleve’s world through her actions alone:

Mr. Van Cleve had indulged a little too freely the previous evening and had awoken determined to find fault with whatever anyone happened to do in his house. Including breathing. [Alice] had crept around, wrenched her way into her breeches, then found herself singing softly on the half-mile walk to the library, just for the joy of having somewhere else to be.

On paper, this scene simply finds Alice traveling from her house to the library, but in practice, it accomplishes much more. Each of Alice’s behaviors on this brief walk contributes to our understanding of her character: the delicate tiptoeing around her husband’s temper, her traditionally unfeminine choice of clothing, and the quiet song that Alice indulges in all hint towards a desire to free herself from her detestable Mr. Van Cleve.

Instead of pausing the narrative to explain Alice’s situation, Moyes takes the reader on a breezy, exposition-filled journey of their own, establishing her protagonist’s backstory and internal conflict without disrupting the natural flow of the story.

Tips for writing exposition

Now that you understand a few of the most common methods of exposition, we can get into a few tried-and-true tips that will help you implement your newfound knowledge into your own narrative.

Our advice here will mostly focus on weaving indirect exposition naturally into your writing. Your aim is to ensure that readers have all the necessary context without sacrificing your intricately assembled pacing.

Introduce characters gradually

Introducing your main cast can be tricky business. Key players need to be established early, but dedicating page after page of your opening to long-winded character introductions risks veering your exposition into info-dump territory.

Don’t get bogged down in the intricacies of every minor friend or foe — just give each one a notable character trait or two to help them stick in readers’ minds. Perhaps you have a librarian who rolls her eyes at every minor misgiving, or a bodyguard who obsessively polishes his boots. Whatever it may be, you can gradually expand on their personality, backstory, and role as they become more relevant, allowing readers time to form a connection without overwhelming them up front.

Of course, that’s not to say you can’t introduce a big group of characters all at once. In The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien introduces thirteen dwarves in a single, chaotic dinner party, but only their leader, Thorin, is given any significant focus. The rest of Thorin’s merry company might be named in this scene, but their characterization takes a temporary backseat. Instead, each of their personalities is explored throughout the story as the narrative unfolds. 

Build setting with context clues

We’ve covered the who, now let’s examine the where and when. Setting is another key part of the status quo that you’ll need to establish. Once again, it’s best to avoid long, meandering descriptions of where your story is taking place (remember Vonnegut!). Instead, litter your narrative with minor details that hint towards your story’s location and time period. 

Say, for example, your story is set in the 1960s. Instead of stating that outright, you could signify the time period with the distinctive ring of a rotary phone, or the faint sound of a James Brown vinyl crackling away in the background. Subtle hints like these offer context clues that readers will passively pick up on, which allows the setting to emerge in a way that feels natural and immersive.

Blend exposition into your narrative voice 

This final tip is the most difficult to implement, but if you can get it right, you’ll elevate your exposition far beyond surface-level description. Your narrative voice is the lens through which readers will experience your story — it encompasses everything from your tone and language to the rhythm and pacing of your prose. A carefully constructed narrative voice can create a distinct mood that immerses your readers in the time and place of your story, without the need for any overt exposition.

Returning to our earlier example from The Four Winds, nowhere in the passage does Moyes explicitly state that this story takes place in the 1930s. Instead, her narrative voice effectively evokes this period in the minds of her readers. Phrases like “indulged a little too freely” and “had awoken determined to find fault” have a sort of formal, old-fashioned feel to them; the well-to-do Mrs. Van Cleve may not be speaking here, but Moyes’ antiquated choice of language hints towards the days-gone-by that her story is set in. 

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The best might make it look easy, but integrating seamless exposition into your writing is no small task — it requires patience, restraint, and a creative approach. Remember, the most effective exposition doesn't just inform readers, but enthralls them, deepening their connection to your world and characters. With this post, you have the tools — now, go! Use them to craft a compelling narrative where background information flows passively through your prose.