Of course this makes the characters appear more realistic. The narrative flows more realistically in the second example, as a result of the narrative exposition being naturally incorporated into the narrative, rather than being “forced” as a dialogue. The first two items on the list should be easy enough to notice. (as a result of the element above) the development of a narrative style.the ability to interject subtle undertones, enriching the narrative.a more natural flow of the narrative, with improved pace.In a nutshell, a good narrative exposition strategy offers: I have already referred to the reasons why a solid narrative exposition technique can help your writing and your novel, but let’s make it more specific and concrete. Benefits of a Realistic Narrative Exposition In other words the narrative doesn’t justify the dialogue at all, but the author keeps pushing it in order to pass some information. For example, I can’t count the times that a character – in order to give for the umpth time the same info to the reader – tells another character something the latter already knows. In my Goodreads review of Death by Water, I wrote the following:Ī lot of naive narrative exposition going on, further undermining the characters’ personalities and realism. Would you like an example of a Nobel-level writer who commits this… narrative crime? Kenzaburō Ōe. Narrative Exposition problems are not a prerogative of inexperienced authors. In other words, whereas example 1 above is inferior but still passable, an excerpt of narrative exposition that is more extensive will suffer greatly. Secondly, realize that the longer the exposition, the less natural it appears. However, first of all consider whether example 2 is still not better narratively speaking. Indeed, sometimes you might talk like that in real life as well. Perhaps, at first, example 1 doesn’t seem all that bad. In our examples above, John and Maria both knew that they spent a weekend at a cabin without electricity.Īsk yourself: how natural is it to talk with someone over something you both know? Remember that narrative exposition is information a reader needs to know, but which characters are already aware of. The important part for our purposes is to understand why the second example is better. I expect most people to have chosen the second example. Narrative Exposition Is about Natural Flow That is, try to decide which of the two examples feels more naturally flowing. Take a moment to see both examples again, and try to pick your favorite. Notice how in this example the same information is offered not as a part of the dialogue but as a narrator-inserted thought in the character’s head. “What of it?” he mumbled, thinking that renting a cabin for $200 only to be without electricity would make anyone sad. Let’s see a variation of the example above. Try to see why the red-colored text qualifies as narrative exposition (based on the definition I just gave you) and why the rest of the text doesn’t. This is a crucial point to understand, so take a moment to read the example above again. In other words, it’s a part that conveys certain factual information that is unknown to the reader while known to the characters. In the example above, the part in red font indicates narrative exposition. “Well, I was watching the photo we took at the lake, and it made me sad. “Tell me about it… $200 for a weekend without electricity, thanks to the storm. “Do you remember last summer, when we went to that cabin for the weekend?” Her hand, holding the photo, was shaking. The following examples are imaginary, to facilitate the comparison. I really believe in the power of examples, so let’s look more into narrative exposition with their help. Narrative exposition controls, among other things, the narrative flow What Is Narrative Exposition: Some Examples A better narrative exposition strategy can also increase the affective power of your characters. It can make your narrative flow more naturally and more realistically. Improving your narrative exposition technique can dramatically improve many areas of your writing. Believe it or not, narrative exposition is an area where authors of even the highest caliber can have trouble with. We call this narrative exposition (I will offer a more detailed definition further below). Or, where her parents were at some point in time. For example, what a character did on a certain past occasion. Even in literary fiction, where focus is on characters, the author needs to communicate certain facts to the reader. A novel is about emotions and thoughts, but it’s also about facts.
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