At 12:07 AM 2/18/99 -0700, David Johnston wrote:

A certain amount of exposition is a good idea, but it's better to 
integrate it a little more into the plot.  Optimally, a character's 
personality should be revealed by their own words and actions and by
what other people say about them, rather than by the omniscient 
narrator.

There are some prominent authors, though, who can get away with
heavy exposition and background prose.  It depends ultimately
what you are trying to convey in your work; what facet of the
story do you want the reader to focus in on more.  Clancy's
characters are well developed, but his primary focus is on
developing his highly intricate plot to a pivotal culmination.
Ralph Peters attempts to dramatize nightmare scenarios for
future wars, and David Weber balances pretty decent character
development with a primary focus on unraveling his sprawling
space opera and view of interstellar war and politics.

I dare say the Leo Tolstoy and Victor Hugo were two of the
worst violators of the minimal exposition prose ban.

-The Reverend Prez

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|    Presley H.   | Political Science / Computer Science |
|    Cannady II   | and Electrical Engineering Undergrad |
|<revprez@mit.edu>| at the Mass. Institute of Technology |
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