Heavy Exposition Will Kill Your Novel

I recently purchased a fantasy novel that I had been eagerly anticipating for many months. Naturally, I put everything aside and settled down to give it my undivided attention. Unfortunately there was something about it that caused me to lose my excitement early on. While the novel was well written, I found myself a little over seventy pages in realizing that nothing had happened.

Don't get me wrong, the prose was exceptional, I learned a great deal about the author's world as it once existed, and there was an amusing passage that was as witty as the dialogue of any Monty Python film, but the sad fact remained--nothing was happening. There was no direction, no conflict, no obstacles of any sort. In other words there was no story, just a couple of wasted hours reading the musings of a semi-interesting character who had done nothing to encourage me to keep reading.

I closed the book in irritation, which got me thinking about every novel that I've ever hated. Now, there are many ways that a novel can suck: some suffered from poor character development, a great deal were tainted with unnatural dialogue, a few butchered an otherwise compelling story with pitiful examples of deus ex machina, and a few offenders had believable characters making unbelievable decisions. There was one thing they all shared however, and that was that their exposition was early and often; as a result, the pace of the novel suffered and it failed to draw me in.

Your completed novel is likely 60,000 words
 or more. Do you really need to saturate the reader
with exposition in the opening pages?

I'm a relatively forgiving and patient reader. Many people, however, are not. Don't allow exposition to kill your novel. One of the easiest ways to lose me as a reader is to dump too much exposition at the start of a book. You have a great deal of space to work in the subtle nuances of your characters and their background. Why is it necessary to hurl it all at me from the get-go?

When writing, a good question to continually ask yourself is: would the reader be lost if you scrapped this chunk of exposition? If the answer is no, then is it really necessary to put it in right now? Surely there are alternatives to be considered.

Granted there are always exceptions to the rule, but what I'm trying to drive at is that exposition is tricky business. Too little exposition and the reader is left scratching their head, while too much bogs the reader down until they grow frustrated and either skim your writing, or stop reading altogether. To toss too much exposition the reader's way early on could very well kill their desire to finish your novel.

The sooner you can create a sense of urgency, the better. When I read, I need to know that the characters are driven towards a goal. At that point I'm likely invested in finding out the resolution. Work the exposition in light doses, sprinkling it here or there, and pay attention to whether or not it damages the pacing of your work. Don't even consider keeping your meaty exposition if:

a) It lags the pace of your novel
b) Your reader has yet to develop an interest in the outcome of your character(s)
c) The exposition is not critical to the reader's understanding

Failure to adhere to these rules could leave you with a very frustrated audience, or worse yet, no audience at all.

My question to the readers of this blog: what turns you off of a novel? Cheesy dialogue? An unbelievable plot? Clunky exposition? Share your thoughts!