You think the reader needs this...
Our final lesson guides you to re-think exposition, backstory, and world-building in your early chapters. You feel like you have to explain all this stuff in chapter two -- but you don't!
Here's a challenge for you: go through your first three chapters and look for paragraphs of exposition-type material that you can shrink down.
You might ask -- how do I know whether it is exposition or not? One tip: is the information directly relevant and significant to the current challenge of the protagonist's simple job? Is this something the protagonist would think about as they try to make progress on that job? Or is it something they are being prompted to remember, hear about, get told about -- if so, probably you should shrink it!
I really love the idea of sharing info as gossip! Definitely going to use this in my book -I can already see it will work perfectly, thank you!
I found this very interesting and persuasive–thank you!
But I’d like to run something by you. I have come across writing advice about “microtension” (also interesting and persuasive), which possibly conflicts with your clues approach. This suggests that when you raise little questions, (or clues), you should give your reader the satisfaction of an answer right away (and ideally within that answer is another question/microtension).
Perhaps both concepts are possible? I’d love to hear your response.
I absolutely think both options are possible — questions that receive answers quickly and questions that are left open.
But I also wonder if micro tension is about a different thing. Like the resolution that is needed in the moment is about the logic of the scene, not about giving the answer.
For example:
He held the door open for Mrs. Lancet.
“Glad you could make it,” he said.
She smiled. “You don’t deserve to be in this meeting.”
He was shocked. He tried to respond, but two men from accounts joined them and there was no polite way to continue the conversation.
–
to me, this satisfies the microtension rule and my rule of not explaining things too early!
Thanks!
Absolute genius advice. You explain everything so clearly. You make it seem so simple, but most people would never think about this stuff in such a clear-cut way. Thank you so much for sharing. You have an excellent teaching style.
Thank you so much, Chris. I care about giving good explanations so this is very moving.
I was very aware or my backlog of backgrd info, so welcomed your information. Even tho I am writing memoir, I can employ your suggestions and still tell the truth.
These three bonus videos of The Lightness Project are so valuable. Thanks so much for adding them, Daniel. They shed so much light on what to include in the first few chapters and what to tweak and leave out. You have the best teaching style.
Love this module!
Great mini-module! Thanks for this technique. Little clues can be tantalizing.
Hi David. Loved the mini modules and the examples. Thank you.
All three lessons make perfect sense. I’ll be using these ideas down the road.
I’m now excited about my story because of project, flash forward and the clues. I still have to manifest them in my story, but yes I can see it!
Great!
The Lightness Project describes how to keep the opening of the story light, how to bring the reader along unencumbered by heavy exposition and backstory. For my part, your breakdown of the elements and how to craft them into the first chapters left me feeling confident and smiling. It was like discovering a delightfully intriguing, curated art gallery therefore now, it’s back to the breach! Thanks!
Yay! Thank you Daniel, well done. Really well thought out and satisfyingly supported.
Funny thing is I wrote using this approach for my magazine writing for years…but hadn’t even considered it for my novel! You explain it so well, feels like I’ve bumped into an old friend.
I’m chronically disorganized. l started my novel by trying to establish the opening location and all 6 pov characters in one swell foop of an expository disaster. 14 chapters later, I felt I was only 5% along the way of my true story…and still didn’t know my characters very well! A classic example of what you’re warning us against.
Now, I’ve already picked a scene I sketched in, just for fun, months (years?) ago that will come much later in the book, a fraught moment for the protagonist that’s chock full of crunchy clues to get the reader’s submandibular glands a-pumping.
So helpful, many many thanks.
Oh no! I have a prologue exactly like the one you described as a BAD prologue and my chapter one also skips ahead two years. Yet the prologue is also an intense blast from the past AND ambassador of the middle. It even mirrors my climax scene. How do I know if it needs to be eliminated? As the incident in the prologue shapes my MC and everything she does, the scene is important and would have to be a flashback later in the novel if I were to eliminate it. I don’t think I can just dribble in the information. You make it sound so simple, but it never is, is it?
I mean all my advice is meant to be “medical” — if you feel like you have a problem, you get advice from a doctor. If you don’t, the doctor’s advice never comes up. If you like this prologue, and it makes the writing of the rest of the book easier and — now or down the road — your early readers like it too — then go for it! I would never advise anyone to eliminate parts of the story that seem to be working.
I do think the principle is valid — that the character’s internal problems and backstory are less pressing for the reader than the A plot or project that PPN, the full course, teaches, and so they probably should be dripped in in most cases. But how that relates to a particular book has to be solved afresh each time.
I’m curious — how long is the prologue?
Daniel! I wasn’t expecting a repy and I’m thrilled you took the time. This goes to show how much you care about your clients and if I could afford it, I’d buy PPN just for your personal touch. I own the jump start course and Writing Great Chapters and I’m finding both helpful.
To answer your question about my prologue, it’s 900 words. Way too long. I’ll seriously consider cutting the prologue out. Thank you for making me at least consider the possibility. If I decide I need to keep it, can I label it chapter 1 instead? Do you know of any published books that have a prologue-like chapter 1 and then skip ahead two years in chapter 2?
Thanks for your help!
P.S. My prologue is similar to the scene in Harry Potter, which is shown as a flashback when Harry was a baby and Voldemort attacked him. The MC and antagonist also interact in my prologue, so I think it’s part of the A story. The first chapter picks up two years later with both the MC and same antagonist. Not sure if this changes your answer but it might help many of us struggling with the same problem.
Hi Julie!
If I’m understanding you correctly, you’re referring to the vision / flashback that Harry Potter has of the pivotal backstory scene where Voldemort bursts in on his parents and kills them.
But… just to be helpful here… that particular scene appears in the Harry Potter saga very late, am I right? We have to get through multiple books before we experience it. The first novel does not begin with it — rather, we see the aftermath, the impact, the effect — first on the wizarding world itself and then – as the years go by – on young HP himself.
So I feel like JK is offering us a useful model here… perhaps? The origin scene can actually come late in the telling, not at the start. (While I have many reservations about Rowling’s post Harry Potter political advocacy, her storytelling skills in the HP books are undeniably impressive).
Indeed, what exactly happened in that scene (how HP survived) is a complete mystery to the wizard characters at the start of the story + unknown to HP himself as he was a baby at the time). It’s the mystery that energises the story, not the presentation of the scene itself.
Is this helpful?
Yes, you nailed it. The prologue is my MC’s origin scene! I’m still not convinced I should eliminate it but thanks to you, I’ve worked out a strategy. I’ll keep the prologue for now, but also dribble what happened in the prologue into the chapters. Repetition is good, right? Then if I need to eliminate it in the future, it’ll be easier. Thanks for the help!
Brilliant. Useful, succinct. Thank you!
I already got the message about not dumping in backstory, and have managed to keep it out but I have long been plagued by how to introduce some it and this segment has given me a path forward. I’ve set my next writing goal to be: Mine my backstory details for those potentially juicy bits that can be used as clues, gossip and/or unexpected advice. Thank you.