Exposition, or "I first came to Chicago..."

[vienna_waits]

Exposition, or “I first came to Chicago...”

Hi, folks. My name’s vienna_waits, and my topic is exposition and how to gracefully work it into a story. After a general discussion of the key elements driving your use of exposition, I’ll outline several strategies and show they can be used effectively with examples from both canon and fic. (Please note I will

Comments

[vienna_waits]

D'oh! I meant to add a section of large squishy thankful hugs to my awesome beta sageness!! (And forgot!) So, all hail sageness for her awesome beta and content suggestions!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled commenting.

[sageness]

Awww, thank you! This is a fabulous essay, I loved getting a sneak-peek. :)

[spuffyduds]

Oh, this is very cool and helpful, and also serves as an awesome rec post. Thanks for the enormous amount of work that you must have put into it!

[vienna_waits]

*beams* Thank you kindly! (And not to whine, but yes, this sucker ate about 10 hours of my life.)

[nos4a2no9]

This is an incredibly useful and insightful post. I've really been struggling with exposition in my rentboyAU (Fraser keeps needing to explain why he's a hooker and even I'm gettting sick of hearing all the reasons why) and so this is very, very helpful. And the fic links are great, because I'd never thought a lot about exposition sequences when they don't involve dialog. That's my preferred method (and it's dull as dirt in my longer stories) so your examples and suggestions of other methods are invaluable. Thanks so much for being so smart!

[vienna_waits]

Yay! \0/ Thank you! I know it's a lot to digest so early in the week, and right after the changeover to daylight savings time, too...

So why is Fraser a rentboy? Is he trying to destroy himself? Sort of a PTSD thing? Or is it the opposite--he's so empty and so desperate to feel something, anything and connect with someone, anyone, that he's come up with this decidedly non-Fraserish way of going about it (I kind of see him volunteering at a community center or an after-school reading program, myself). I mean, seriously, what would have to happen to Fraser to make him do that? *is intrigued*

Oh, and the fact that Fraser keeps wanting to explain it to people, and to himself? To me, that means he's very uncomfortable and conflicted about it. He must think others are judging him if he is so defensive--which means that his old values and priorities are still very much there. Which means it seems like he could find an alternative way to make a living if he wanted to--so why doesn't he?

[nos4a2no9]

Oh, the story of Fraser and his rentboy-ness is long and waaaaay too complicated. Mind if I send you an email about it? I'm still working through it myself (and inflicting it on others, like j_s_cavalcante and jamethiel_bane) but it helps to talk it out with others. So...email okay?

[vienna_waits]

Sure... v{dot)waits AT gmail.

[buzzylittleb]

This is a really awesome post. I've been working on my longfic and I could have done with that when I was writing the case stuff.

[vienna_waits]

Thank you! I'm sorry it wasn't there for you when you started on the BFP (which I'm very much looking forward to reading, by the way)!

[buzzylittleb]

No worries. In places I looked at this and thought "oh, that was what I was doing" It's very interesting to see it systematised (in a good way) like this, it makes it very clear the methods I missed out. I'm currently untangling the ending and how my pov makes it impossible to fully determine Fraser's motivations and have now thrown some modifiers into the mix. Not sure that made sense to anyone except me. I'm glad you're looking forward to it, but I'm currently at the heeby-jebbies stage where I keep wondering what if nobody likes it, what if it's not as smart as I think, what if people just don't get it? *deep breathing*

[vienna_waits]

*gives you a hug, hands you oxygen mask*

Launching any fic into the world is sort of scary, but the long ones you've spent a lot of time and effort on are the worst. I'm sure it'll be fine! (Isn't that Fraser happy thumbs-up icon yours? Or is it sam80853's? Or maybe bertybertle's? Well, pretend I'm showing you that icon right now!)

[sprat]

Oh, this is awesome. All of your tips are helpful--and I love having them laid out in such a coherent, sane-making way--but the chronological relevance thing was something I'd never really considered wrt exposition, and I think it's going to make things much easier for me. So thanks especially much for that!

[vienna_waits]

Yay! I'm so glad you liked it. And seriously, isn't it great that we don't find out that Ray can't swim *until* the ship is sinking?

[sprat]

Exactly! *g*

[vienna_waits]

*stares stupidly at icon*
*continues staring*
*unable to look away*

You said...something?