Exposition or expository dialogue is dialogue that isn’t really intended for the characters, but is to communicate necessary plot information to the audience.

The character may or may not need to know the information, but the audience really needs to know it in order for the story to make sense to them. Thus, it often sounds unnatural or unmotivated. Here is an example of that.

JOE: Hi, Dan. It’s nice to finally meet the man that single-handedly built this newspaper from nothing and then exposed the corrupt political officials in this town.

DAN: Thanks, Joe. And your work to bring the school systems up to standard in spite of the gang problems is nothing to sneeze at, either.

The author clearly wants to communicate the character’s achievements, but there is another way to do it; show, don’t tell.

In this case, show the audience the character’s achievements, don’t do it in dialogue. If you don’t want to take the time to show the character’s doing the achievements, find a way to visually present the result.

At a minimum, have the information come out conversationally. Don’t have your characters declare it to another character for no reason and make sure it is something the other character would want to know.

Here are some different ideas regarding exposition from various sources.

Billy Wilder said, “If you see a man coming through a doorway, it means nothing. If you see him coming through a window, that is at once interesting.”

It’s similar to Blake Snyder’s “pope in the pool” idea. By that he means to surround the exposition with a startling or funny sequence. The “pope in the pool” specifically refers to a scene in a story where the pope, in swim trunks, swims laps while the exposition is recounted. Something we’re not used to seeing makes the normally dull exposition more interesting.

And above all, can the exposition be revealed in action and imagery? Can someone do something and achieve the same thing as someone saying something? Then choose doing. As one writer pointed out, The Terminator did a great job of this. We got a ton of exposition while the Terminator was chasing the hero and the damsel in distress. We barely noticed we were getting a data dump, but we got it!

Exposition can occur when talking about feelings as well, not just plot mechanics. In other words, are you explaining feelings or showing them? Syd Field writes in his Screenwriter’s Problem Solver, “Words and phrases like nervous, scared [etc] all explain feelings, they don’t show them. When that happens, the dialogue becomes too direct and tells us what the characters are thinking and feeling. … There is no subtext in the scene…”