How to Write Exciting Exposition (Writing Advice)

I think the worst example of infodump that I remember is "Somehow Palpatine returned" It's so bad and awkward that it's hilarious!

John Wick is my absolute favorite example. It's an info dump on who John Wick is and why everyone fears him, but in a way of "How bad did he just fuck up???"

I feel like an entire video could be dedicated to why Fellowship of the Ring's 8 minute exposition dump works so well, tbh

Examples of natural dialogue: 1) A head butler explaining to the other servants about an esteemed guest who will be arriving soon. 2) A reporter demanding answers from a police chief about a crime/mystery that is central to the plot. 3) A bunch of teenagers gossiping about a weird kid who is or will become an important character later. 4) An interviewer asking a potential employee about a peculiar entry on their resume. 5) Two military officials going over tactics for an upcoming battle.

The opening of the original DUNE (1984) movie is the most egregious examples of an info-dump I can think of. The movie begins with Virginia Madsen's floating head appearing and talking directly into the camera and delivering long-winded exposition that goes on for several minutes, and only confuses the audience even more.

"Exposition is like a vegetable on your plate you don't want to eat, but you have to...". 😅 I think I paraphrased slightly, but I love your down-to-earth analogies, Brandon! Thanks for another funny and insightful video!

Children of Men does a brilliant job with exposition throughout the whole movie, especially at the beginning. It’s natural, often subtle, and leaves just enough questions. One of my favorite films!

Zola's speech in the middle of Captain America: Winter Soldier is one of the best, pure info dumps/villain monologues I've ever seen. It somehow keeps you entranced even as it dumps major info. Exposition isn't bad, it's just hard to write well.

About tip #1: "Make your audience WANT the exposition", I think The Hangover did a great job at that! After the opening scene with the tiger in the hotel room, we spend the rest of the movie craving for more exposition!

When I think bad exposition, my first example is The Next Karate Kid. During her introductory scene the main character is arguing with her guardian and comes out with "my parents were in a car accident and they're both dead." Her grandmother or aunt would know that and it slaps in the face how obviously it's only for the audience. I can't remember the setup, something like "If your parents were here..." I don't think they need to point out the parents are dead at all, their absence kinda implies as much, so I'd just have her respond something like "well they're not, or have you already forgotten the accident?" which feels less like Rick moranis turning to the camera to say "everybody got that?" when the plot of Spaceballs was explained in a far more convincing exposition dump xD

In the beginning, Brandon posted a new video. Then I watched it, and it was good. I could go on, but you get the point. Time for fanservice.

My favorite example of exposition is the Gilligan's Island theme song, we learn everything we need to know in one catchy tune! A three hour tourrrr🎶🎶🎶

Very good. I'm thinking about the council of Elrond, which takes several pages but the lore is so rich that each tidbit discussed feels like a real gem.

I think the original Matrix trilogy did a great job with scattering the exposition around. There's an info dump when Neo and Morpheus are in the "blank space" in the first movie, but it's captivating. And a lot of the "real world" exposition happens gradually. It takes a while until we actually see the surface of the real Earth in the trilogy "for real" when Neo travels there.

Another tip from Brandon Sanderson: filtering exposition through an interesting character POV can give an economical method of dumping info while feeling engaging to the reader.

Love your term, “As you know, Bob,” as it sticks in my mind. So when writing yesterday, it popped into my head to remind me to avoid it.

I've been guilty of writing pretty bad exposition in the info dump category. Now I'm better at it. What I changed is how I introduce it: instead of having "as you know" conversations, have one character not in the known, or someone sloppy and complacent who needs to be retold information he should know or care about. I generally do crime fiction, so it makes sense in a professional environment (the police or the mob) to have someone that needs to be told what's what. I'm currently writing a horror story for Halloween and in it I need to explain that witches are real and are hiding in our world. A lot of the story has to be exposition, so I have one character in the known explaining to a sceptical one, who is the MC and reader's surrogate, how such thing is possible.

I liked the exposition in the Fellowship of the Ring. It introduced the major characters, conflict, and the Shire in a way that held my interest despite reading the book before.

The West Wing did a lot of "as you know Bobs." A main character would essentially read a guest character's resume to them so that the viewer would know that character's credentials. Those scenes stuck out like a sore thumb in a show that is known for its excellent dialogue.

Sometimes these how-to-write videos seem so basic to me, but, this one is about something that never even occurred to me. I normally try to avoid exposition but, sometimes, you have to have it and he's absolutely correct. It seems to me that here is where many writers falter.