Exposition: A Literary Term Defined

Put your hand up if you are one of the many writers out there who hears one of the many terms that industry professionals throw out at you and you blink. "What exactly does that mean?" Let's not forget how stupid we feel for not knowing. However, there are so many well-known writers who are just as much in the dark about some of these terms as the rest of us.

In a recent post, I defined the term purple prose. Today, I want to talk about another term that tripped me up when I first started (and trips up so many new writers, understandably so): Exposition.

Basically, exposition is a comprehensive description of an idea. That is the dictionary definition, but what does this mean for writing?

Exposition IS Writing

It's actually quite difficult to come up with a single synonym within writing for the word exposition, because exposition is used in ALL areas of writing. It's the backstory, the settings, the characters, even the action. Anywhere where you use some form of description of get your ideas across on the page is where you employ exposition.

Yet, whenever a new writer hears the term, there seems to be this dread of it. Here's why.

Whenever anyone actually talks about exposition, actually using the term, it's often accompanied by the words too much.

Another phrase for Too Much Exposition is Info-Dumping.
Another is Purple Prose.

Okay, so when someone is talking about too much exposition, depending on the context in which they are saying it, they're either referring to info-dumping or purple prose, or both. 

For those you who can't be bothered reading my post about purple prose, purple prose is an overly ornate description of something. We talk about keeping the writing tight, and purple prose isn't it.

However, info-dumping is a more problematic issue. This normally manifests itself as an excessive amount of backstory (often introduced at the wrong time). And those passages that overly describe the setting — both terms apply.

Finding the Balance in Exposition

Finding the balance between too much or too little exposition takes time. You need to provide enough details to capture your reader's imagination, but if you provide too much detail, you can run the risk of putting your readers to sleep. Exactly how much exposition is needed in a manuscript is a subjective thing, and one that can't be answered in this post, but here's hoping that you no longer feel the need to run scared of the term.