the craft. the balance of description, dialogue, and exposition.

I rarely consider myself formally trained in writing. But that might be somewhat of an alternate reality when I think about it. I haven’t trained in other vigorous ways that maybe some other writers have. But, I, of course, had many English classes in school that included creative writing in high school. In college, I had a concentration in music recording and business, but it was still technically a communications major. And I did that little stint in J School where I decided that news was not for me.

But I guess, ultimately, I’ve learned the most about what it means to tell a story through reading and watching a lot of TV and Film. At the center of it, I noticed that great storytelling is the perfect balance between description, dialogue, and exposition. Being intuitive with that rhythm comes from seeing how seamlessly other writers have done it, for me.

The best place to start here is sharing a little information about these elements.

Description - This is all about setting the scene, right? And it differs so much depending on what you’re writing. I saw this funny tweet from @daniellenicki the other day that said:

Original Sentence: Jill enters the building.
Screenwriting edit: Jill enters.
Novelist Edit: Jill glides gently into the still room. Wooden floorboards creak below her feet in response. Jill remembers the first time she walked into this room. It was dark. Ben was there…

The novelist edit here is all about description. Where in screenwriting, so much of the scene is already there. We see it. In books, we have to paint the picture for the reader.

Dialogue - These are the actual words coming off of your character’s mouths. [see Rush Hour for reference.] And while dialogue is fairly intuitive for me, I know that it can be a hindrance for some writers. Major keys with dialogue are one, reading it aloud. Honestly, if it sounds crazy when you say it, it probably sounds crazy on the page. Two, dialogue should move a story forward or reveal something about the characters. Dialogue should be necessary and not solely filling space.

Exposition - This is at times the tricky part for me and all about your narrative. This includes backstory, the inner workings of your character, historical context, etc. Where this can get sticky is knowing how much is too much. Sometimes there is backstory on your character that you need to understand who they are, but doesn’t necessarily need to be included in the story. Yet other times, you may be leaving out important details that will help your reader connect and resolve certain plot points.

The fact of the matter here is that a great story has all three and your job as the writer is to weave in and out of these elements with precision and grace. Easier said than done, right?

Some great tools that I’ve picked up along the way have been to limit dialogue as much as possible. This can depend on the genre you’re writing for sure. My debut is a bit more dialogue heavy because it’s a romance and at the end of the day, those stories often lend themselves to film and TV adaptation, etc. So it has a different feel. However, if you’re working on literary fiction, notice how little dialogue is often involved. Genre fiction tends to be written in first person which can lend itself to more dialogue. While literary fiction tends to have a third person all knowing narrator.

When it comes to description, have you ever read something that went on and on about the setting? Like they got so into the details of the shag rug that you forgot what the point of the original story was? Yeah, don’t be that guy or girl or person. Lol. But practice! One of the best ways to get great with description is to work to describe real life things. If you have to start thinking too hard about more description for an everyday thing, that’s where you should probably stop! It’s too much!

I’m also challenging myself to describe characters in less obvious ways. Specifically when it comes to physical traits. You say that someone is tall or thin, or old, but great writers dig into more robust ways to describe these attributes. A fave line of mine recently from a work in progress was “his lips looked like they had a secret to tell me.” This is a jump from “he had beautiful lips.” Or maybe you say something like, “his hands were rough in mine, calloused from his work in construction.” It all depends on what you’re trying to get across. But I like how it forces me to be a bit more creative with description.

As for exposition and finding your balance there, I’ve learned to again, keep what’s most important to the story at the forefront. Exposition helps to summarize what the reader needs to know. The beginning of Good Morning, Love begins with a routine outing between Carli and her boss. It’s important to set the scene immediately that Carli is someone who works a lot, outside of normal office hours, and desperately wants to be doing something else. This is all baked into the exposition.

The balance between these storytelling elements is essential to the pacing of your story. Again, depending on the type of story you’re writing, you need to be able to get to it, but also create suspense and an experience for the reader as well. You don’t want to be as concise as a journalist per say. But you still need to evaluate the value of each piece of your story. Is it imperative or are you just focused on stringing together really pretty phrases and five dollar words you’ve learned? A harsh reality but, believe me, I’ve had a crash course in this debut novel writing experience.

Writing/Job Opportunities

Dancing in the Rain is a fellowship for writers of mid-grade or young adult (YA) literature. Candidates should be working on a chapter book that provides inspiration and hope for those struggling with the hardships and challenges that life often metes out. The successful application will demonstrate insight, honesty, literary merit, and the likelihood of publication. Prior publication is not a requirement. The deadline is midnight CST on Monday, June 27, 2022. The fellowship winner will receive a one-week residency at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Residencies must be completed by the end of the year 2023.

Ploughshares at Emerson College is accepting submissions for their Emerging Writers program.

Apple News and the National Association of Journalists (NABJ) have partnered to give a recent graduate or early-career journalist the opportunity to work at the forefront of news and technology.

Bomb Magazine is hiring an Associate Editor.

Grove Atlantic is hiring a Publicity Assistant.

Leaf Group is hiring a Senior Editor for eHow.