I'm currently writing a story. I don't quite know where it's going, yet, but I know the basic premise of what happens in it.
However, before we can get to that part, we need a little set up. I need to introduce the characters, show (not tell!) that the main character is in a somewhat dysfunctional relationship, establish the mechanisms that enable her to slip between worlds... Today, I got to the place where the story actually starts.
I'm nine pages in.
Usually, at this point, I would be gripped by vague panic. This story is becoming a monster! It aspires to be a novel! It is going to mushroom into a thing that will take over my entire life, and never be done! Even if I get it finished, no one wants to wade through nine pages of character study before their story begins!
However, last year I was listening to an episode of the excellent Start With This podcast - an episode titled "Exposition". It opened with a description of exactly this problem.
“a lot of what you start writing is sort of throat-clearing, it’s you figuring out your way in”
This, to me, was a bit of a revelation. I have to work through these details to write the story - but the reader doesn’t need all of them to enjoy it. Armed with this new idea, I mercilessly pruned the introductory section of a piece I’d just finished, keeping in only the fragments that were essential to the plot.
And then an editor said “would you consider dropping the preamble?”
“But it’s important we know the box contains a plastic Millennium Falcon, because it places us in time!”
Fine, she said, put the Falcon in a box later. The reader doesn’t need to know absolutely everything up front.
The preamble went.
So, today, I am trying not to be concerned about the excessive exposition at the front of my current work in progress. It’s all important and completely necessary… at the moment. I’m getting to know my characters, and learning about the dynamic between them. The words I’ve written will probably be cut, but their former existence will inform the story. Perhaps some sections will survive past the first draft, perhaps all of them will have outlived their usefulness.
I’ll let you know how it goes!