Exposition

Ahhh, exposition. Something so necessary and yet so unnecessary. Something that can enlighten readers and also drive them out of their minds. You must use the power of exposition wisely.

On a more serious note, it's definitely true that exposition is needed and yet also gets in the way. Many writers add in needless exposition, while others seem to lack the needed details.

It's challenging to get exposition down. You can't start a story off with too much exposition, since the reader will likely become bored and set the book done. In addition to that, if the first chapter or so is just exposition, you're only going to confuse your audience with too much information all at once.

Instead, you should only include a bit exposition in the first few chapters, and sprinkle a bit here and there throughout your book. Exposition should always be there, in one form or another.

We writers are familiar with exposition being just an overload of details about the world and background of the story. However, exposition can just be a quick explanation of something about the world throughout the story. Why are the leaves pink? Why do the people hold a celebration on this certain night?

You don't need to go off on long tales about why the leaves or pink or why there's a celebration. Yes, you want to add enough to where it makes sense, but it can just be a short explanation. You don't need to go into the entire history of your story just to answer something simple--or even something complex. 

Exposition like this can be told through dialogue, as a story or advice or just a comment. It doesn't have to be anything big and can even be one sentence just explaining different aspects of the world.

As for back stories, the exposition here works differently than that of world-building. You don't need to put in lots of nonsense words just to fill pages and show your readers how much time you put into creating your story. Or whatever it is you're adding all this useless exposition for.

What you can do instead is write all the exposition out as you normally would. As you continue writing your story, try to add in clues or even just bland statements of why something is the way it is. Afterwards, go back to the beginning and cut out all the useless exposition. Only keep in the necessary bits that readers absolutely need from the start. Most of the time, it's only a few sentences that you would need to keep, as the rest is built throughout the story.

On the other hand, you don't want to have a story be only of dialogue and some actions. You want to describe the world that the characters are in, to immerse your reader and explain why characters are acting in certain ways as a result of this world.

In terms of backstory, you also don't want to add no background and leave your audience confused the entire book. Why is that war happening and why does it matter? Why is that character living with the other character? Answer the simple and necessary questions, so readers can follow along easily.

Exposition is tricky to handle, but if you have a good grasp of flow, it should be easy enough to use. You want to engage readers right from the start--put in an action scene instead of a long backstory. Explain things as you go along, and only those bits which are completely necessary. 

Writers should always be working to cut down how many words they're using, and only add in enough so their story can be understood. Most of the time, it is exposition which drags down a writer. Learn to get rid of it, and you will have a much better story.