Is this a cheap trick?

[TheWritingGroup]

In one of my current works in progress, I introduce a character who is a history teacher by profession, specifically so he can several times accidentally slip into lecture mode and explain things I want the reader to know. Too cheap a trick?

I'm thinking of having my protagonist, who is a physician, start giving counter-lectures just to gently let the minor character know what he's doing.

-Annie

 

[NotWise]

It sounds a little iffy, as in, "if you do it well, then it'll be fine."

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I think you'd have to be very careful with that. A character who shares the occasional "fun fact" to help the audience along is different than someone having to read a lecture.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Works for me.

 

[lovecraft68]

Does have a little ex machina feel to it, but if you're not heavy handed with it as in his explanations flow naturally and don't seem like "and now we pause for this infomercial" you should be fine.

I often use the device of a character's friend talk about something that happened so the reader knows without it coming from a flashback or the MC's rambling thoughts

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I think you'd have to be very careful with that. A character who shares the occasional "fun fact" to help the audience along is different than someone having to read a lecture.

I didn't mean a literal lecture! When the islanders dance:

Urua whispered, "This is Ori. Our dance traditions were destroyed by the missionaries. We learned this from our Tahitian brothers and sisters."

He's whispering to not annoy the other people watching the dancers.

-Annie

 

[lovecraft68]

He's whispering to not annoy the other people watching the dancers.

-Annie

That's very believable. You can be in a movie or show and some nitwit behind you has to explain everything to whoever they're with.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

That's very believable. You can be in a movie or show and some nitwit behind you has to explain everything to whoever they're with.

I might know a person who used to do that well. In fact, I might be in their head right now.

-Annie

 

[lovecraft68]

I might know a person who used to do that well. In fact, I might be in their head right now.

-Annie

My younger daughter does it in horror movies. I tell her "You're doing it again." and she gets offended.

 

[iwatchus]

As a college professor myself, I am often apologizing for dropping into lecture mode when I talk to friends and family. I would have your character apologize at least once if they ramble on for long.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

To

As a college professor myself, I am often apologizing for dropping into lecture mode when I talk to friends and family. I would have your character apologize at least once if they ramble on for long.

I definitely do this. My character Liz also does it, differently from how Urua does.

-Annie

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I didn't mean a literal lecture! When the islanders dance:

He's whispering to not annoy the other people watching the dancers.

-Annie

That makes more sense.

 

[Britva415]

In one of my current works in progress, I introduce a character who is a history teacher by profession, specifically so he can several times accidentally slip into lecture mode and explain things I want the reader to know. Too cheap a trick?

I'm thinking of having my protagonist, who is a physician, start giving counter-lectures just to gently let the minor character know what he's doing.

-Annie

“Cheap trick” isn’t quite what I’d call it, but it does sound kind of clunky.

Some questions: Why do you want readers to know these history facts?

Why could you not simply deliver them as the narrator instead of having a character do it? Maybe because you’re writing in first-person and the narrator doesn’t know them?

Are you doing this because it’s less that the readers have to know them, and more that the MC has to somehow come to know them?

 

[THBGato]

As a college professor myself, I am often apologizing for dropping into lecture mode when I talk to friends and family. I would have your character apologize at least once if they ramble on for long.

I get asked. My SO will literally go:

"T, what's the deal with Kosovo?"

or

"T, why do we use the phrase "Blue blood"?"

And I'm not a college professor, just insufferable.

 

[ElectricBlue]

In one of my current works in progress, I introduce a character who is a history teacher by profession, specifically so he can several times accidentally slip into lecture mode and explain things I want the reader to know. Too cheap a trick?

I've always thought, when people bring questions like this to the forum, they already know the answer, but for some reason, need convincing.

 

[StillStunned]

In one of my current works in progress, I introduce a character who is a history teacher by profession, specifically so he can several times accidentally slip into lecture mode and explain things I want the reader to know. Too cheap a trick?

I'm thinking of having my protagonist, who is a physician, start giving counter-lectures just to gently let the minor character know what he's doing.

-Annie

If you don't want him to become Professor Exposition, give them an actual role in the story. Give a reason to be there: the other characters need his expertise for something later on, but until that happens he's a huge annoyance. Getting distracted by anything that catches his attention, not being able to keep up with the others, getting kidnapped by bad guys, refusing to engage in some activity because he considers it unethical or something.

Doctor Jones Sr from "The Last Crusade" springs to mind.

 

[MajorRewrite]

I like stories that have a subtext that educates the reader about something. Mystery writers seem to do it fairly often.

It’s only a Cheap Trick if it’s live at Budokan.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Why could you not simply deliver them as the narrator instead of having a character do it? Maybe because you’re writing in first-person and the narrator doesn’t know them?

Exactly. Story is first-person. In a way, his repeating Urua's words is the narrator delivering them to the audience.

I've always thought, when people bring questions like this to the forum, they already know the answer, but for some reason, need convincing.

It’s not that they already know the answer; they’ve already decided, but still seek validation. No dissent will sway them, though: artistic hubris.

Or perhaps I just wanted to start a potentially-interesting discussion?

If you don't want him to become Professor Exposition, give them an actual role in the story.

He has one. I wasn't summarizing the entire story in the post at the top of this thread.

-Annie

 

[SimonDoom]

With a mix of judgment and artfulness you can pull almost anything off. If I were thinking about doing this, I would ask myself just how necessary it is to explain things, and to explain no more than is absolutely necessary. I think authors often make the mistake of wanting to explain things that don't need explaining.

 

[StillStunned]

He has one. I wasn't summarizing the entire story in the post at the top of this thread.

But you also said:

In one of my current works in progress, I introduce a character who is a history teacher by profession, specifically so he can several times accidentally slip into lecture mode and explain things I want the reader to know. Too cheap a trick?

That's what I was responding to. If he already has another role - one that's connected to his profession and other associated characteristics - then he's not there specifically to provide exposition.

In my series "The Rivals", Sligh is a scholar, and he provides exposition and worldbuilding as needed. But that's his whole point: he's too clever for his own good, and became an explorer, thief and conman because he was bored and needed a challenge. And he's balanced by Avilia, who's an adrenalin junkie. Their differences are what the whole series is about.

If your character's history expertise and lecturing are simply tagged on as an excuse, then yes, it's a cheap trick. That doesn't necessarily mean you can't make it work, of course. As @SimonDoom says, just be judicious about it.

 

[SimonDoom]

A great example of a successful exposition scene is the one near the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark where the two government agents meet with Indy and his colleague and they realize the Nazis are looking for the Ark. It's about 5 minutes long, and if it were done wrong it would have ground the movie to a halt. But by having 4 different characters in the scene and each of them learning something and interacting with one another, the scene works. It was clever to have two agents, who sometimes interrupt one another, rather than just one. It creates tension and expectation rather than dragging everything down.

A key to an exposition scene is to make sure that the people receiving the information are absorbing it and reacting to it. Make the scene as interactive as you can. Avoid long monologues and instead cut back and forth from one speaker to another.

 

[Cacatua_Galerita]

The original question made me think of The Man from Earth (2007), which didn’t stop as cheaply as just one convenient historian.

The central character of this one-room screenplay also shares the set with a biologist, a devout christian, an anthropologist, and an archaeologist. Each of whom interrogate/interpret/expound the storyline in tag-team fashion.

The convenience of the gathering only became blatant after I was too invested in the story to care.

A minimalist sci-fi masterpiece.

 

[Bazzle]

In one of my current works in progress, I introduce a character who is a history teacher by profession, specifically so he can several times accidentally slip into lecture mode and explain things I want the reader to know. Too cheap a trick?

I'm thinking of having my protagonist, who is a physician, start giving counter-lectures just to gently let the minor character know what he's doing.

-Annie

I always chuckle when reading a novel and you can see where the author suddenly goes into Wikipedia style to explain vital historical facts that are required for plot.

I've always called it the editor moment. Where they have clearly gone "you need to explain this in more detail".

Kate Mosse novels have a habit of doing it.

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

It's not a cheap trick at all - it's a well-established and common trick, lol.

One of my favorite Warhammer books is about an Inquisitor named Eisenhorn, and one of his entourage is a guy who is a literal encyclopedia walking around, and any time the Inquisitor asks him a question he gets a long data dump that invariably ends with "shut up" or "I don't care." It makes me laugh every time he does it.

 

[Britva415]

Some people are using the expression "cheap trick," even if to say "it's not." I myself used the word "clunky." So I think the crux really is, how necessary is it for the reader to have this information/data/description/worldbuilding?

When it's really unnecessary and ponderous, that's when it's clunky and maybe even cheap.

How cheap it is depends on how much of it is just the author performatively flexing their own knowledge or imagination, without any regard for Chekov's Gun.