Early exposition, yes or nay?

[RepresentingCaution]

Infodumps account for more than half of the manuscripts I've rejected.

 

[melchi]

Infodumps account for more than half of the manuscripts I've rejected.

Quicky smashes infodumps in his fiction so it doesn't get rejected by K5.

 

[georgelee5786]

No

 

[LunaSoltaer]

I'm going to give a bit of a counterintuitive bit.

You can front-load a surprising amount of exposition, provided it doesn't actually feel like exposition.

The trick to doing this is Not Insulting The Reader's Intelligence. Have your characters act, well, like actual people. Group of friends? Inject some exposition as banter. Political debate? Sprinkle in facts of your world, then use your characters to conjure different interpretations of those facts (Hint, this makes you worldbuild, whee!). Also, these techniques create character moments and conflict.

So in short I guess my advice is: focus on your characters, and the exposition will derive naturally. If it still doesn't, then ponder that but don't jump to early expositing.

 

[Temple]

There are already many comments saying that early exposition is bad, so I'm just going to add why it's done, even on famous web novels. Also, manga, manhwa, webtoons, etc. that use popular tropes (OP MC, progression, cultivation, isekai, etc.) Readers of those "webnovely" tropes (not sure what to call them) have tons of choices online. Just flooded with those works. Also, this is the internet, so people are very fast at clicking away.

Authors may have only one shot at a reader. Authors here can attest that reader stats between the first and second chapter drops by a wide margin. And so, they front load the hell out of chapter 1, making sure what people are looking for is there. For example, an author is trying to hook an isekai reader. Chapter 1 will have the MC already transported to the new world, along with exposition of the world they came from and the new one.

... and that's actually the correct strategy, BUT you should know how to implement it.

After all, that's also how chapter one of the best-selling isekai book of all time did it, and it's good to study how it did.

 

[greyblob]

Authors may have only one shot at a reader. Authors here can attest that reader stats between the first and second chapter drops by a wide margin. And so, they front load the hell out of chapter 1, making sure what people are looking for is there. For example, an author is trying to hook an isekai reader. Chapter 1 will have the MC already transported to the new world, along with exposition of the world they came from and a hint of the new one.

that's the opposite of exposition. exposition is when the author puts multiple paragraphs explaining their magic system, world history, ruling class system, etc. it's just an obnoxious and lazy way of writing.

 

[Temple]

that's the opposite of exposition. exposition is when the author puts multiple paragraphs explaining their magic system, world history, ruling class system, etc. it's just an obnoxious and lazy way of writing.

Yeah, I meant that exactly. Many web/light novels, even famous ones start that way. Even webtoons/manga, explaining what happened, and why this or that god is giving out powers to the OP MC, disguising it as a sort of prologue. Maybe I shouldn't have used the word "hint" because it gives the wrong impression.

 

[Gryphon]

Do the second option. Not only is it better paced that way, but also that gives some mystery to your MC.

exposition is the biggest turn off from any novel

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with this for a whole bunch of reasons. If it weren't for exposition it would make reading stories infinitely harder. Imagine reading any fantasy story without exposition. I've been reading Stormlight Archive recently, and it does exposition amazingly. I think what you mean is the wall of text exposition, where instead of expositing information naturally, it's all shoved onto the reader in a long, boring, drab paragraph that breaks the pacing of the story.

 

[greyblob]

Do the second option. Not only is it better paced that way, but also that gives some mystery to your MC.

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with this for a whole bunch of reasons. If it weren't for exposition it would make reading stories infinitely harder. Imagine reading any fantasy story without exposition. I've been reading Stormlight Archive recently, and it does exposition amazingly. I think what you mean is the wall of text exposition, where instead of expositing information naturally, it's all shoved onto the reader in a long, boring, drab paragraph that breaks the pacing of the story.

all narration is in a way is exposition. i guess what I'm talking about specifically is info dumping

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Quicky smashes infodumps in his fiction so it doesn't get rejected by K5.

I'm not taking on any more projects until my kid it at least five years old, and then my next project might be another kid, so you're still out of luck either way.

 

[ElijahRyne]

So, the MC for one of my series is a shut-in. That said, I can't decide whether I should explain why he became one right from the beginning, or just begin the story first and drop hints here and there before finally revealing it on, say, the second or second final arc.

It depends on how you are doing the exposition. If you can make it entertaining then I would say do it, but if all you give is a paragraph or two randomly describing why mc is a shut in then you probably shouldn’t.

I would, however, suggest that you either let the traumatic event be one of the first things that happens in the novel, or just sprinkle it on. I.E. 1 chapter establishing the character and their goals, next chapter traumatic event, next chapter is time skip/montage/whatever you want. Though this is just a suggestion.