Craft Glossary · term

Exposition / "the iceberg"

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Plain English: Background the reader needs (history, rules, relationships) and the art of delivering it invisibly. Hemingway's iceberg: most of what the author knows stays under the water; the prose shows the tip and is stronger for the unseen mass.

Rule: Deliver exposition on a need-to-know basis, late, and in motion — woven into action and conflict, never in a standalone lump. Trust the reader to infer; withhold to create questions.

Fail: The info-dump / "maid-and-butler" exposition; front-loading backstory before the reader is invested; explaining what the scene already implied (the over-explanation tell).

See: Dialogue — exposition & small talk · Opening / hook

Arjuna Badger Press · Craft Library

Glossary · Doctrine · Anti-patterns · Triptych form · LLM tells

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