What Is Exposition In A Story?

What is exposition? We include a definition, the two types of exposition, how to include exposition, and examples of exposition in fiction.

What Is Exposition In A Story?

Exposition means including background information on the characters, details of the setting, plot events that happened in the past, and any other details that the reader needs to know.

Exposition comes from: “explanation, narration,” from Old French esposicion “explanation, interpretation” (12c.) and directly from Latin expositionem (nominative expositio) “a setting or showing forth; narration, explanation,” noun of action from past-participle stem of exponere “put forth; explain; expose.”

Exposition is introduced in fairy tales usually using the words ‘Once Upon A Time’. This sets the story in time and place. It tells us who the main characters are and what the story will be about. It includes the 5Ws: who, what, where, when, and why.

Showing us the main character’s life before the inciting incident occurs helps us to understand why the conflict that ensues matters to them.

But authors must avoid the ‘information dump’. This is when too much unnecessary exposition has been included, and it will bore readers. It also slows down your pacing.

The Two Types Of Exposition

Direct Exposition (Telling): Telling is sometimes called using a summary mode. It is when you get to tell the reader what happened. A narrator directly explains the situation. It should be used sparingly. If over-used, it can be boring as it distances the reader from the viewpoint character’s goals and actions. Try to keep telling to a few paragraphs, or in some rare cases, a short chapter.
Indirect Exposition (Showing): Information is revealed through dialogue, body language, point of view, actions, setting, conflicts, flashbacks, characters’ thoughts, in-universe media (for example, letters, emails, newspaper headlines), or tone and mood.

Most authors use both types of exposition to create a balance in their writing. All showing would be too intense for a reader and all telling would be too boring.

How To Include Exposition

Dialogue: This does not have to be a simple conversation. It could also be an interview. The interview could occur on television, in a podcast, or in a job interview or job review. In today’s world, texting is a form of dialogue and everybody uses it. This allows information to be imparted to us without telling.
Monologue: We all talk to ourselves. Your characters do it too. Doing this allows us to give new information about the story. It shows the character and allows characters to process what they’re feeling about a setting, a person, or a conflict. In first person point of view, the monologue is just part the narrative. In third person you would say that this is what your character is thinking. Monologue is an even more important expository tool for playwrights and screenwriters. These writers use visual storytelling, dialogue, and monologue to introduce the setting, the era, and the characters.
Prologue: A prologue often establishes a setting and gives background details. It is used as an expository tool to show us something about the characters or the plot. Prologues can be used ‘when the opening scene of your novel: 1) Occurs long before the main story. 2) Is the ending to your story – making the entire novel a flashback. 3) Is written from a viewpoint that is never used again.4) Is presented as a ‘real’ document, such as an auction notice, diary entry, or letter. 5)Is integral to the whole of the story, but is not immediately obvious.’
Epilogue: Epilogues can be used to clarify events after a book’s ending, or to continue a story. This allows us to see that something has happened to someone long after the ending of the novel.
The Narrator/Description: This is direct characterisation or telling. The author tells us who the character is, what they look like, and what they do. The narrator tells us what the story is about, what the setting is, and why we are there. This is important, especially in novels that include worldbuilding or historical novels. Do not include descriptions in an info-dump, but do add them throughout the book.
Media: Use the media of the day (or the universe in which the story is set) to show your setting, and cultural, social, and historical details. You can include letters, telegrams, texts, news broadcasts, newsletters, adverts, music, and television to convey events in your story.
Flashback/Memory: A flashback is essentially a memory. This is a good way of testing how you write it. Flashbacks are triggered by something – an object, a conversation, or through our senses. Orientate us at the start of the flashback in time and space. Authors use flashbacks to show us something important that has happened in the past that will have an impact on the current story – flashbacks in stories should have consequences.
Characters’ Thoughts: – ‘The author shows the characters through their thoughts by allowing us to see what lies behind their actions and their words. What characters think about and how they think can reveal a great deal about them.’ From 5 Simple Ways To Describe Characters. Their thinking shows their opinions, their relationships with other characters, and often gives readers important information about others in the story.
Characters’ Actions: The way they talk, the way they speak, the way they dress, and the choices they make show us who they are. The author allows the character to act and to speak to show us who they are. We see their interactions with their surroundings, their body language, their thoughts, and hear their dialogue. Read: 5 Simple Ways To Describe Characters
Conflict: We need conflict to show us character growth, and to show how the plot is moving forward. This exposition includes interactions with antagonists, inner conflict, setting as a source of conflict, conversation as a source of conflict, and point of view as a source of conflict (for example, you could use an unreliable narrator). Show us the story through your character’s point of view. The way they see the world helps your reader to imagine it too.
Tone & Mood: Use tone to create a mood for the reader. What the author feels about the story is often defined as the tone. The type of tone you use tells us what the book will be like and even allows for foreshadowing. If the tone is satirical, like Terry Pratchett’s in the Discworld books, the reader will expect to be amused. ‘If we use a compassionate tone, our readers may feel sympathetic or empathetic. If we use a depressing tone, our readers will feel sad.’ (source) In the Rebus detective series by Ian Rankin, there are times when the tone makes us feel scared and even horrified. When a crime is solved, we feel relieved. The mood is suspenseful and melancholic. Click her for an example of tone in motion.
Genre: Writing in the style of your genre also helps with exposition. It tells the readers what to expect without telling them directly. A light-hearted romance should make you feel happy. A thriller should make you feel unsettled.

Examples Of Exposition In Stories

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: At the beginning of the book, we see what normal life is like for the Bennet family. Elizabeth is characterised by the narrator as an intelligent, witty, spirited, unconventional, heroine who relies on her own judgment. She is contrasted with her more reserved, classically beautiful sister Jane and the frantic social climbing of her mother. Elizabeth is established as her father’s favourite daughter because of her ‘something more of quickness than her sisters’. She is described as having ‘fine eyes’ and a ‘light and pleasing’ figure.
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson: Sylvie has a stillborn baby, and we go back to moments before the birth, again and again, until Ursula is born alive. The author uses the flashback technique to show us how the story will change.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: The prologue gives the audience the setting of Verona, details of the family feud, and the fate of the young lovers.
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling: The beginning offers direct exposition about the Dursleys and their terrible son Dudley, including their obsession with being normal and their dislike of the Potters. Harry’s room is a tiny cupboard under the stairs, and he hasn’t had a birthday party in 11 years. This sets up the contrast with the magical world that Harry will inhabit. It is a kind of ‘Once Upon A Time’ beginning.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling includes an epilogue. It continues the story after the characters have become adults. This exposition allows the author to tell the reader what happens in the future.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: The narration explains Bilbo’s background and family history. It establishes the Shire, the tone for the novel, and the quaint, safe setting that will change when Bilbo leaves home.
Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger: Holden Caulfield uses an internal monologue that shows us who he is. He says: “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith: The narrator, Cassandra, directly informs the reader about her family’s poverty and her sister’s personality in the first few pages.
White Oleander by Janet Fitch: The author uses description and tone to set the mood for the story: “The Santa Anas blew in hot from the desert, shrivelling the last of the spring grass into whiskers of pale straw. Only the oleanders thrived, their delicate poisonous blooms, their dagger green leaves. We could not sleep in the hot dry night, my mother and I. I woke up at midnight to find her bed empty, I climbed to the roof and easily spotted her blond hair like a white flame in the light of the three-quarter moon.” We know where we are, and the dangerous plants, restless nights, and white flame hair tells us that something bad is going to happen.
Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood: Elaine visits her childhood town and reflects on the contrast between her past and present. She is revealed through flashbacks rather than direct description.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: The author uses Katniss’s first person thoughts to orientate us. “When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping.” We know that she has a sister and a mother and that something odd is about to happen. What is ‘the reaping’?
Beloved by Toni Morrison: The story begins with a powerful, immersive tone that lets the setting reveal the backstory. National Endowment For the Arts says: ‘Without warning, Toni Morrison’s Beloved ushers you into 124 Bluestone Road, a house where chairs move by themselves, kettles turn over, and handprints appear in cake icing from nowhere, left by a haunting presence which is both an actual ghost and the spectre of America’s unforgettable racial history.’
The Shining by Stephen King: The author starts the story with the “Job Interview” chapter to reveal deep character traits through dialogue.
Emma by Jane Austen: We are introduced to the protagonist on the first page as the narrator says: “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.”
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: The author uses action scenes to introduce the world. The protagonist is hunting in a forest, perched in a tree. We want to know why she is there and why she has to hunt.
The Old Man And The Sea by Ernest Hemingway: The narrator says, ‘He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.’ He has used direct exposition to tell us what’s going on.
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess: ”What’s it going to be then, eh?’ There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim. Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry.’ Paragraph one introduces the characters – the droogs through first person point of view. The same sentences also show us that we are dealing with a language and setting that is different from our world.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng: The novel starts with a prologue with advertisements telling us how wonderful the suburb of Shaker Heights is. The author uses both the prologue and media as exposition.
Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens: The prologue takes place in 1969 and the opening scene in 1952. In the prologue the body of Chase Andrews has been found. The tone is unsettling and it feels as if something bad is about to happen.
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides: The story begins with a narrator telling us, ‘Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband.’ We know who the story is about and what she did. Now we need to find out why.

If you’re looking for ways to begin books, read: How To Write An Epic First Scene

The Last Word

I’ve included a definition of exposition, the two types of exposition, how to include exposition, and examples of exposition in fiction. I hope this helps you to write better stories.

by Amanda Patterson
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Posted on: 13th February 2026

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What Is Exposition In A Story?