Exposition

Exposition is a literary tool that is used to give information to the audience through dialogue, description, flashback, or narrative.

In nonfiction, exposition is commonly found in essays, directions such as recipes and instructions, encyclopedias, and biographies. Exposition in nonfiction is usually achieved through description.

In fiction, exposition can be given in multiple ways. Sometimes it's as simple as a character observing a headline on a newspaper and sometimes as complex as the narrator giving an overview of the full history of the fictional world.

Exposition is a two-edged sword. While it is extremely useful for establishing setting, plot, and characterization, too much exposition at once can bog down a story and slow the pace to a crawl. An exposition that is overly long or wordy is known as an Information Dump (or Infodump for short) and is very difficult to do well.

See Information Desk (where characters learn things), Meaningful Appearance (using the way characters look as a form of exposition).

Tropes:

• And Another Thing...
• And Then I Said
• Aside Comment
• As You Know
• Before the Dark Times
• The Big Board
• Captain Obvious: A character who has the tendency to point out the obvious.
• Captain's Log
• Cassette Craze
• Clique Tour
• Coincidental Broadcast
• Combat Commentator
• Connect the Deaths
• Constantly Curious: A character who won't stop asking questions.
• Creation Myth
• Description in the Mirror
• Do Not Adjust Your Set
• The Echoer: Someone can only speak by copying another person's words.
• Encyclopedia Exposita
• En Route Sum-Up
• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy
• Expo Label
• Expositing the Masquerade
• Exposition Already Covered
• Exposition Beam
• Exposition Break
• Exposition Cut
Advertisement:
• Exposition Diagram
• Exposition Fairy
• Exposition Intuition
• Exposition of Immortality
• Exposition Party
• Expository Gameplay Limitation
• Expositron 9000
• Expospeak
• Expospeak Gag
• Flashback: A scene taking place in the past that serves to explain how things came to be and why certain characters are the way they are.
• Fictional Document
• Fictional Media
• Flavor Text
• Happy Flashback
• Haunted House Historian
• He Knows About Timed Hits: Video game characters inform the player how the controls work.
• How Dad Met Mom
• Infodump
• Info Drop
• Informed Attribute: A character is said to have some kind of skill or quality that the story never really has them demonstrate.
• Inner Monologue
• Inner Monologue Conversation
• Introdump
• Just Between You and Me
• Laser-Guided Broadcast
• Lethally Expensive: The importance of information is underscored by the fact that at least one person had to die in order for spreading the information to be possible.
• Lecture as Exposition
• Let Me Get This Straight...
• Little Jimmy: A naive child in an educational film or PSA who exists only to be educated about the film's subject.
• "London, England" Syndrome
• Lore Codex: An encyclopedic list of things and events encountered in game provided for the player's reference.
• Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me
• Mission Briefing
• Mr. Exposition: A character whose purpose is to explain what's going on to the other characters.
• Musical Exposition
• Myth Prologue: The work starts with exposition about a myth that is important to the plot.
• Naïve Newcomer
• Narrating the Obvious: The narrator points out what should already be obvious to the audience.
• Narrator: A character who describes the events of the story as they happen.
• Newspaper Backstory
• Newspaper Dating: A time-traveler checks a newspaper's date to determine what year they've arrived in.
• Obstacle Exposition
• Ominous Multiple Screens
• Opening Monologue
• Opening Narration
• Opening Scroll
• Or My Name Isn't...
• Parrot Exposition
• Parrot Expo-WHAT?
• Pilot: A test episode made with the intent of being picked up for a full-fledged television series, which is likely to feature a lot of exposition about the intended show's plot to attract the interest of the audience and network executives.
• Rambling Old Man Monologue
• Recap by Audit
• Recap Episode: An episode devoted to recapping what has happened in the series so far, usually for the benefit of viewers who haven't seen the earlier episodes or may have forgotten certain developments due to a gap between the airing or viewing of episodes.
• Repeating So the Audience Can Hear
• Sexposition
• Slow-Paced Beginning
• Sounding It Out
• Sounds of Science
• Speaking in Panels
• Spreading Disaster Map Graphic
• Storyboarding the Apocalypse
• Story Breadcrumbs
• String Theory
• Talking Is a Free Action: In fiction, characters who are in danger somehow have the time to say anything before they get out of harm's way or fall victim to the whatever imminent danger they are in.
• Tell Me Again
• Textual Celebrity Resemblance
• Thinking Out Loud
• Third-Person Flashback
• Troubled Backstory Flashback
• TV Telephone Etiquette
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue
• Unreliable Expositor
• War Was Beginning
• The Watson
• What Is Going On?
• What Year Is This?
• Welcomed to the Masquerade
• You Know What That Means