Dialogue with frequent back and forth between characters speeds up your story. When you understand the best times to use exposition, description, and dialogue, you will have a more tangible control over the pace of your story as a whole and in each scene. In general, whenever your reader needs to know something, but they don’t need to see/experience that information, exposition can be impactful. When your reader needs to know a bit of backstory to understand the current scene but they don’t need to witness that backstory in a flashback, exposition is a great tool. The passage of time in particular is best told through a line or phrase of exposition. Your readers don’t need a description of each uneventful moment leading up to those scenes they just need your characters to get there. Some of the best times to use exposition are when you’re trying to get your characters or plot from scene or moment A to scene or moment B. All they need to know to understand the current moment and story is the character has been there a significant amount of time and is usually in the living room.

The reader doesn’t need to witness this character moving in or spending a bunch of time in the living room. For example:Įver since I moved in with Nana Vase three years ago, I’ve spent most of my time in the living room. Exposition’s sole purpose is to summarize and deliver information your reader needs to know as quickly as possible. It doesn’t immerse your reader in the setting like description or show your character’s conversations like dialogue. In order to keep your readers engaged and immersed, make sure what you are describing is essential to the plot and/or characters of your story like the Nana Vase example.Įxposition tells instead of shows, so of these three aspects, it should comprise the smallest percentage of your story. Description tends to create large blocks of text, which can be off-putting or exhausting. Spend more time and words on the moments or details that impact your story. The shape of Nana Vase’s mouth and where she puts her hands not only show what she looks like but also how she’s feeling. Instead, only the features important to the reader’s understanding of this moment are described. Her mouth thins to a pink lipsticked line, and her hands move to her padded hips.Įvery nuance of Nana Vase’s physical description isn’t covered in this example. Nana Vase doesn’t actually stomp into the living room, but her presence has a way of thundering into a space when she’s irked. Description is what transports your reader from their armchair to your story.

Use description to bring the details that impact and build your story to life. If you are in a scene where your characters are developing or deepening or your plot is advancing or your world is developing, you should have description. Because dialogue adds white space, shooting for a roughly equal balance between dialogue and description is a good goal for most stories.ĭescription immerses your reader in your story, so the ideal times to use it are the moments you want your reader to fully experience. Pages filled with text are exhausting mentally and physically that is why writers use paragraph breaks.

It also gives your reader’s eyes a break. The reader feels like they are reading feaster because they are turning the page more often. Each new line of dialogue is a new paragraph, therefore, the words on the page are spread out more. All from just two lines of dialogue.ĭialogue also adds white space to the page. A reader can also see the difference in age, who is in charge, and how each character is feeling. “James Allen Vase, you put that down right now,” Nana Vase orders.įrom these two lines of dialogue, a reader can tell Jimmy is motivated to keep playing while Nana Vase wants him to stop.

Here’s an example of two characters interacting through dialogue: It shows how they feel about each other, how much they trust one another, what their motivations are, whether or not they’re lying, and more. Speech is one of the most powerful ways your characters interact with each other. Is more than one character present? Then you likely need dialogue.

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