Sometimes it's just got to be said

In some cases the writer doesn’t care that readers are put off by backstory and exposition. They need to know stuff and the quickest way to tell them, is to just tell them. Sometimes it works for the genre. The lead robber of the bank heist will give the “Let’s go over it one more time...” speech, and it's kind of expected.

Sci-fi geeks want to know how your teleportation device is supposed to work (so they can scoff at your poor understanding of quantum physics). And if the reader is heavily invested enough they’ll even let slide the ridiculous rules to your made-up sport that makes no sense (150 points for catching a snitch? Really?) .

However, assuming you want to work in your backstory/exposition in a subtle and elegant way, there are a number of techniques available to you.

Dialogue is the simplest way, having one person tell another person what the author wants the reader to know. But being blatant about it will read clunky. One guy saying, “So, how does this thing work?” and the other one says, “Well, what happens is...”is not subtle.

Even though one character doesn’t know something, and the other one has the information, just asking and answering stuff on a whim doesn’t feel real or interesting. Same with backstory.

You have to make sure the transfer of the information is done in a way that feels like it was an integral part of the story. Often this requires some of sleight of hand.

Camouflage. Sometimes you want to add some info into the story without slowing the pace (or bringing it to a grinding halt) or you don’t want the reader to realise the relevance of a piece of information until later in the story.

The easiest way to do this is to work the information (backstory or exposition) into the action. Break it up into small pieces (big chunks tend to draw attention to themselves) and mention it  in natural ways. So, let’s say two characters are fishing and you want the reader to know one of the men spent some time in jail years ago, how long he was in there and what crime he committed.

The most important thing here is first you need to make the fishing scene interesting in and of itself. If you can’t do that with two guys fishing, change it. Forget the exposition stuff, is what’s happening interesting? Why are the characters there? What do they want from each other? Build that up first. If it isn’t a well-grounded scene it will show. Having them hanging out in a bar and they happen to reveal stuff to each other is going to look contrived.

So here’s an example of what I mean. Two guys like the same girl so have a bet. Whoever catches the biggest fish gets to ask her out. It starts good natured, but both sabotage the other’s attempts in numerous humorous and creative ways. Eventually tempers flare, one pulls a knife, the other, a tough looking son of a bitch, backs down. The guy with the knife expected more of a fight so is surprised. The tough guy says, “I ain’t going back for killing a dipshit like you.” And then he walk off. That’s just one part of the information revealed . This may seem like taking the scenic route for what could be conveyed in a few lines if you were just direct about it, to which I would say 1) A whole book could be reduced to a few lines if you were direct about it, and 2) Have you seen the size of a Stephen King novel?

A big part of the reason why it’s okay to go to such lengths is because in a scene like the one I just made up I wouldn’t just be establishing his criminal record, I would also be establishing character (through their actions), setting scene (the fishing hole would be a good way to give a sense of what part of the world they were in), establishing other characters (the girl and anyone else they mention) and setting up conflict (that I could also use later). And probably a bunch of other stuff too.  My point is, setting up a situation to serve only one function is inefficient and simplistic, and will make the story read pedestrian. You have to have more than one thing going on, and that’s why you can hide stuff in there.

Decoy. You make it look like the reason you mention something is for one reason, but really it’s for another. For example, you want the audience to know Indy is scared of snakes, so you have him escape from a group of spear throwing natives, leap into a river, get onto a moving seaplane, and then when you think he’s safe, he freaks out about the pilots pet snake in the cockpit. It shows Indy isn’t superhuman, and his fear of snakes is understandable, a pretty common fear, and it adds a little humour. As far as the audience knows it’s just a cute tag to an action sequence. But later in the movie when he’s shut in a tomb full of thousands of snakes we already know how he feels about it.

Humour. If something is funny the reader will assume that’s reason enough to mention it and won’t twig you’re actually using it to provide backstory or planting information for later. As mentioned above, humour

Contrast. If things seem out of place or odd, then you can get away with having a character relay quite dry information. If the hitman is an actual nun, then her explaining who wants the MC dead, what she did to track him down, and why she’s doing the job, is going to be of interest.

Reverse Engineering. This is probably the best way to get the information to the reader, although not always possible. You tell them nothing. If you have the thing you want to explain happen first, it creates the need to know in the reader (assuming it’s interesting enough) and allows you to put the information (often backstory) later in the story.

If the thief grabs his wife’s hairspray on his way out, breaks into the museum, sneaks past the guards, takes out the hairspray... and sprays it in the air to show the laser beams protecting the thing he’s going to steal, you don’t need a scene earlier where he explains what the security system is and how hairspray will help overcome it, you can just show it.

If the reader really wants to know the information it makes your work a lot easier. Once they WANT to know, then it is no longer backstory or exposition, it’s an essential part of the narrative. But don’t assume they’ll want to know just because. They need a reason.



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