One key to handling exposition

Yesterday I featured what may be an example of the worst exposition ever, a humorous frame for a serious subject: If exposition is necessary, yet also can grind a story’s momentum to a screeching halt, how to handle it?

First, let’s get specific about certain types of exposition because each may benefit from a different approach in terms of how they are handled:

• Setting: Exposition that conveys to a reader a sense of the place, time, and culture of the story universe.
• Information: Exposition that conveys to a reader rules, history, and special circumstances of the story universe and/or its characters.
• Data: Exposition that conveys to a reader facts, figures, and technical details.

These represent general exposition. There is also a special kind of personal exposition known as backstory, details from a character’s own history.

In my Handling Exposition class, I explore six ways to look at and shape exposition to give it the most compelling and entertaining spin. Here are three:

* Mystery: Convey the exposition in such a way that it arouses curiosity.

* Fascination: Use the exposition to grab the imagination of the reader.

* Revelation: Place the exposition in such a way that it discloses something important.

In discussing this the other day with participants in the class, it dawned on me these three can have a natural flow, one to the other. And perhaps the best way to do that is to embrace the dynamic of question / answer.

When we think of exposition, our instinct may be to dump it out in a scene and thereby get it all out of the way in one fell swoop, enabling us to move on. What if instead we dole it out over time?

First we use the exposition to posit a question, which establishes the mystery: What does this information mean?

Then we can come back to the question and tease the answer, perhaps providing a bit here, a piece there, even use disinformation to mislead the reader. This can help create fascination as we lure the reader deeper into the mystery.

Finally when it suits our purposes, we provide the answer to the question, thus creating a revelation scene, and providing a reader with the satisfying psychological experience of mystery solved.

Maybe the most classic example of this tripartite construction with exposition is Citizen Kane. In the opening, it establishes a mystery:

A dying Charles Foster Kane holds a snow globe, whispers the word, “Rosebud,” then dies, his death underscored by the snow globe smashing to bits.

Why a snow globe? What does Rosebud mean? Why was it so important to Kane, his last mortal thought? The scene uses questions to arouse our curiosity.

Throughout the story, screenwriters Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles tease the mystery, coming back to it on a regular basis:

* In the newsroom scene: “Yes, Mr. Rawlston, what were Kane’s dying words?” / “Rosebud!” / “What does that mean?”

* The “El Ranco” cabaret: Thompson interviews Susan Alexander, then afterwards asks The Captain: “When she used to talk about Kane — did she ever happen to say anything — about Rosebud?” / “I asked her. She never heard of Rosebud.”

* Thatcher Memorial Library/Vault Room: As he’s leaving, Thompson asks Miss Anderson, “You’re not Rosebud are you?”

* Bernstein’s Office: Thompson meeting with Bernstin: “We thought maybe if we could find out what he meant by his last word — as he was dying.” / “That Rosebud? Maybe some girl. There were a lot of them back in the old days.”

* Then later in the conversation, Bernstein says: “You know I was thinking. That Rosebud you’re tying to find out about — maybe that was something he [Kane] lost.”

* Xanadu/Great Hall: Toward the very end, Thompson talks to Raymond, Kane’s chief valet: “That ‘Rosebud.’ That don’t mean anything.”

* Later a photographer asks Thompson about Rosebud: “Did you ever find out what that means, Jerry?” / “No, I didn’t.”

But we get to find out what it means in the movie’s very last images:

All those references throughout the story tease the mystery, creating an increasing air of fascination, ending with the big revelation, providing a whammo of a jolt for the moviegoer.

So the next time you are dealing with exposition, see if you can figure out a way to strip it out into three movements: Question [Mystery], Tease [Fascination], Answer [Revelation].

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