If you’ve ever tried to write a story, you may have encountered the writer’s eternal problem: how do I get all the information that I know about these characters, settings, themes, and plotlines onto the page so that the reader has the context they need to fully enjoy the story?

What you’re grappling with is exposition, a narrative device that provides background information to the audience and helps readers understand the context of the story. It can be delivered through dialogue, narration, flashbacks, or a character’s thoughts. Effective exposition feels seamlessly integrated into the story. Ineffective exposition may overwhelm or bore the audience before they can get to the meat of the story. 

Despite it being so necessary for stories, storytellers often find delivering exposition effectively difficult because it’s the kind of information that is much easier to tell rather than show. That’s why one of the hallmarks of a good storyteller is how well they are able to get across expositional elements in their work. It’s all about balance: without the right amount of exposition, the audience will not have enough information to understand what is going on in the story and why. How much is too much depends on what kind of story it is. 

The good news is that you can effectively deliver exposition without info dumping, by utilizing  dramatization and making it feel necessary to the conflict. This can be done in a number of ways, including through dialogue, narration, internal monologue, and special devices. Continue reading to get a deep dive into these techniques and more tips on exposition!

Key Aspects of Exposition

Now that you know what exposition is, let’s explore more thoroughly what components make up expositional information. This will include: 

1. Character Backgrounds: Any information about the characters’ pasts, motivations, and relationships in the story. 
2. Setting: Any details about the time and place where the story occurs, including cultural, social and historical context. Stories that take place in a time and place familiar to the audience may require only a bit of exposition, but more fantastical or complex stories will require more. 
3. Plot Background: Any explanation of the events that took place before the current narrative timeline. 
4. Worldbuilding: As discussed in our Worldbuilding 101 blog, exposition for fantasy and science fiction work, among other genres, often includes descriptions of unique elements such as magic systems, technology, or societal norms. 

All creators of stories should know these details of their work inside and out. After all, you created these characters, this world, and the events that take place within it. The trick is determining what your audience needs to know in order to understand the story. 

Maribel’s Tip: One rule we know works here at Brink is EKT—Everybody (in the world of the story) Knows That. If you’re about to share something that everybody in the context of the story would already know, don’t. It takes away from the realism of the story. For example, an employee would never explain their own job to their boss (unless they were being really sassy or something), because the boss should reasonably know what they do. If you need to explain this information for some reason, it makes much more sense for the employee to explain it to a new hire who doesn’t have that same information. 

Types of Exposition

Exposition can be broken down into two types, which can be used by a storyteller depending on what’s needed in the story. These two types are: 

1. Direct Exposition: The storyteller explicitly provides background information, often through narrative summary or a character’s internal monologue. 
2. Indirect Exposition: The storyteller reveals background details through dialogue, actions, or events, allowing the reader to infer information. 

Both types of exposition can be dramatized and used effectively in a story. What’s important is determining which type best suits your story at any given moment. For example, although the general rule of thumb is to show rather than tell, sometimes doing so might slow a story down too much. Or, it may add to the suspense, tension, or dramatization of the story to actually have that information told. Whatever your choice is, the important thing is that you have a specific reason behind why you shared the information in that way. 

How to Dramatize Exposition

Now that you know more about exposition, let’s get into how you can make it fun and relevant for your audience. In general, there are four major ways to do this. We’ll outline each one and utilize examples, both good and bad, to show exactly how each of these work. 

Exposition Through Dialogue

By relaying exposition through dialogue, you can make it feel actionable, natural, and important. Conversations between characters offer more than just talk—it is a way to show characterization, move the plot along, and, in this case, provide background information. However, you still want to avoid blatant info dumping. For example, poor execution of exposition through dialogue can look like: 

“Alaina! My dear sister, how are you doing? Ready to pop?” said Maria as soon as she entered the room. 

Alaina gave her sister a brief hug. “I can’t believe you came all the way from Upstate New York just to see me go into labor.” 

Maria whipped out her cellphone to begin recording. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world, are you kidding me? We are sisters after all. I’m just so sad that Mom can’t be here.” 

Alaina’s shoulder slumped. “I know, me too. Things haven’t been the same since the car accident.” 

This is obviously an exaggerated example, but it does work to show you what NOT to do when utilizing dialogue to relay exposition. Let’s break down why:

• EKT: Both characters present know that they are sisters, so why would they reference it not only once, but several times over the course of the conversation. This is something that could easily be portrayed not only through actions but also through the narration (said Maria, Alaina’s sister.)
• Lack of showing: Alaina is in labor, but rather than showing that through physical cues, she simply tells Maria that she is. Again, this falls under EKT: why would Maria even be there if she didn’t know Alaina was in labor? 
• Elephant in the room: This also goes back to EKT, but the elephant in the room is the mom not being there. While we have no additional context for this story, imagine that this is the opening scene. It doesn’t seem true-to-life that these two sisters, who would both be fully aware of an accident preventing their mother from being at the birth of her grandchild, would mention it in such an obvious way.

Here’s the same scene done with a little more subtlety while still getting across the same context: 

Maria flung open the hospital door so hard it bounced back and nearly hit her in the face. She rushed to her sister’s side.

“Wow, you got fatter,” she said. 

Alaina rolled her eyes, wincing as she sat up against the pillows supporting her. She put a hand over her swollen belly. “Gee, thanks.” Her eyes darted back to the door. “It’s just you?” 

Maria gave her a tight smile and sat down on the edge of her sister’s hospital bed. “Mom’s not feeling up to it.” 

Alaina blinked rapidly to clear tears from her eyes but nodded. “I understand.” 

Maria grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Don’t worry. You have me! Who else could you possibly need?” 

The side of Alaina’s mouth twitched up into a smile. Even if their mother couldn’t be there, at least she wasn’t alone. 

In this version of the scene, the audience gets a lot less information about exactly why the mom cannot be there. Nonetheless, they can infer that there is a reason and that it will be revealed at a moment in the story later on. Meanwhile, the mystery adds tension, keeping the audience engaged and ready to learn more. 

Exposition Through Narration

Narrators can be used to effectively express important exposition as well. It all depends on the narrative voice utilized in the story. For example, TV shows like Gossip Girl, Desperate Housewives, and Veronica Mars utilize voiceover to include narrative voice that exists somewhat outside of the story. Sort of like a third-person omniscient POV, although the voice isn’t always completely omniscient. This has the effect of providing important context and details for the story, such as giving us information the other characters don’t have yet, or allowing us to see inside their head. 

Narration is also used in other forms of storytelling, of course, and the type of narration utilized to tell a story is one important overall piece of your story. A strong narrative voice is an excellent way to deliver exposition by weaving it seamlessly into the narrative flow. The important thing here is to balance showing and telling in order to keep the reader engaged. Take a look at this example from the pilot episode of Desperate Housewives (mild spoilers ahead!). You can also view the video version of this scene here—make sure to read along!

What did you notice while reading and watching this scene? How did the voiceover (and the narration happening through the actions on screen) deliver effective exposition? What did we learn about the character of Mary Alice, where she lives, who she is, and what she’s doing? This is how exposition can be delivered while also building conflict and tension, hooking the audience in without giving away too much—but preparing them with enough information for the context of the story. 

Exposition through narration might also look like a typical fairytale opening: Once upon a time, there was a kingdom…—and then going on to describe the kingdom, who lives in it, and introducing our main character. This is a good way to start a story that has a lot of lore or background the audience must know to even get started. When done poorly, this kind of exposition through narration will really drag the narrative down and make the audience feel that they’re being spoon fed too much information. It’s best to use this technique with a specific purpose in mind, and sparingly. 

Exposition Through Internal Monologue

Internal monologue can also be an effective way to relay background information while keeping things dramatic. A character can reveal how they’re really feeling, what they think of other characters, and what their plans are to the audience only, perhaps thinking of private information that adds to the conflict of the story. The main benefit of internal monologues are emotional stakes. While a character may not express what they’re actually feeling openly, if the audience knows, then they may prepare themselves for conflict based around the character’s true emotions further down the line. A great example of this is found in the opening of “The Pillars of Creation” by Walter Thompson: 

No one’s told the bus driver about Dad, so we still get dropped off near the old house, at the corner of Myrtle and Patterson. We don’t mind. Nat and Ben get amped up on the drive out from school, squealing and shouting with their friends, bouncing on the worn leather benches. They need the walk, just shy of two miles, to settle into the cool dark side of their afternoon, so that Mom gets them when they’re at their lowest low, needing a hug and a Coke and two hours of ESPN. The whole way, they run circles around each other: pushing and yanking, pelting pinecones, kicking shins. Edward stays ten yards behind them, never looking up, as if the twins are tugging him along with an invisible string. He puts on his headphones and stares at the asphalt as he goes. The headphones aren’t hooked up to anything; he just tucks the end of the cord under his belt. He takes the “noise-canceling” thing more seriously than other people because his world is full of more noises than theirs. 

Here, the narrator’s internal monologue sets off the story for us by hitting us with the most important information in the very first line: the father’s death. Then, we meet the narrator’s siblings, whose actions as described by the narrator tell us more about their ages and personalities. These little details will come back later on as plot points. The audience is engaged from the get-go because of the implied emotional circumstances and we’re looking for signs of grief and drama throughout the text. 

Internal monologuing is perhaps one of the easier ways to get exposition across, but it can be difficult to get it right and not simply dump a load of information on the audience. The trick is to do exactly what the passage above does: dramatize the information and make it relevant and resonant later on in the story. 

Exposition Through Special Devices

Aside from these narrative tactics, there are other ways to express exposition in a story. This could be through a letter that a character receives, a journal entry they write, or flashbacks to a previous event. You can use these devices to break up the narrative and present background information in a more creative way. Plus, these devices can serve the story and character development. For example, let’s say you use a journal entry written by a character to share expositional information. This tells us that, at the very least, the character is self-reflective. We also get the chance to take a peek directly inside their mind and voice through their journal entry. 

The letters shared between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, and other characters, in Pride and Prejudice serve great expositional and character development purposes while also moving the story forward. For example, let’s take a close look at Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth after she (spoiler alert!) rejects his marriage proposal in Chapter 35. I won’t share the letter in its entirety here, as it’s very long, but will focus instead on a few choice moments. Firstly, Darcy writes:

“At that ball, while I had the honor of dancing with you, I was first made acquainted, by Sir William Lucas’s accidental information, that Bingley’s attentions to you sister had given rise to a general expectation of their marriage. He spoke of it as a certain event, of which the time alone could be undecided. From that moment I observed my friend’s behavior attentively; and I could then perceive that his partiality for Miss Bennet was beyond what I had ever witnessed in him. Your sister I also watched. Her look and manners were open, cheerful, and engaging as ever, but without any symptom of peculiar regard; and I remained convinced, from the evening’s scrutiny, that though she received his attentions with pleasure, she did not invite them by any participation of sentiment. If you have not been mistaken here, I must have been in an error. Your superior knowledge of your sister must make the latter probably. If it be so, if I have been misled by such error to inflict pain on her, your resentment has not been unreasonable.” 

Here, he references Elizabeth’s accusation that Darcy was the one who stopped the romance between Mr. Bingley and Jane, Elizabeth’s older sister. We learn information that we did not know before: Darcy had a conversation with another character, who implied to him that Bingley and Jane would get married. This expositional information is important because it provides context for Darcy’s later actions, which he explains. We also learn several important things about Darcy’s character that Elizabeth and the audience didn’t necessarily know before: he is a loyal friend in trying to protect Bingley’s feelings and he is not afraid to admit fault. 

The letter goes on to explain what actually happened between Darcy and Mr. Wickham, which is also expositional information. The delivery of this information is simple but telling. While it could be considered an info dump under normal circumstances, Jane Austen has set it up so that it doesn’t feel as such. Here’s why it works:

1. Set precedence. In Pride and Prejudice, the letter from Mr. Darcy explaining himself follows several others, setting the stage for letters to be important pieces of information within the story. If this were the only letter in the entire novel, it might come off as a deus ex machina and work much less well. 
2. Expand on characterization. This letter tells us so much more about who Darcy is as a person, unfiltered through Elizabeth’s point of view since the words are his own. We’re able to see firsthand how many of Elizabeth’s conceptions of him spring from his struggle to communicate with her—as well as, of course, their shared trait of pride and their personal prejudices against each other. 
3. Amplify existing tensions. The information provided in the letter adds additional drama to pre-existing relationships, making the reader eager to see what will happen next. This ensures that instead of feeling like an information dump and deflating the stakes, it raises them in anticipation of further scenes. 

In Summary: Four Tips for Effective Exposition

Now that you know different ways to dramatize exposition, here are a few general tips for tackling it in your story: 

1. Show, don’t tell. Incorporate exposition into the story through actions and dialogue rather than lengthy explanations. 
2. Keep it relevant. Ensure that the information provided is essential to the plot and character development. While you may know more information that the audience doesn’t, if the audience doesn’t need to know that information, you can keep it to yourself! As the creator, you’re always going to know more than your audience. 
3. Spread it out. Distribute exposition throughout the narrative rather than dumping it all at once. This prevents the audience from getting bored or feeling that the story is dragging. 
4. Engage the reader. Make exposition interesting by adding conflict, tension, or mystery, as we’ve outlined above. 

Keep these tips in mind as you approach writing exposition to help your story stay afloat!

Exercise

Write a scene in which you share crucial background information about a character only through one of the above tactics: dialogue, narration, internal monologue, or special devices. 

Get Off to a Great Start With Your Story

With these techniques to express exposition in your story under your belt, take a stab at each one when writing your next story. Remember, exposition is best delivered through dramatization and techniques that serve more than one purpose in the story. Of course, there will always be times when it is more efficient to share background information directly, but these are generally far and few inbetween. Don’t let exposition scare you away from writing your best story. In your first draft, let all the information you know flow free and then go back to see how you can better express it on the page. 

Looking for more writing tips and advice? Check out the rest of the Facts of Fiction series to learn about the storyteller’s journey from beginning to end.  

What Is Theme? 

Have you ever asked yourself: Why am I writing this story? 

In storytelling, the answer to that question is usually the theme. Theme is an essential part of ensuring a story feels impactful, layered, and relevant. If the plot is the events that take place throughout it, the theme is its topic and message. 

Literary themes are the underlying meanings of a story as explored by the author. They are presented through the other elements of the story, such as character, voice, language, and conflict. Together, all the elements of a story add up to explicate and explore the story’s themes—most stories have more than one. 

Knowing the themes your story is trying to explore may not come immediately or even as you finish up a first draft. But once you take a step away, reread what you’ve written, and ruminate on its meaning, themes should begin to emerge naturally. Further drafts should aim to emphasize, elevate, and enhance these themes without making them either too obvious or too vague. To get started on thinking about themes, learn about five of the most popular literary themes and how best to utilize them in a story. 

1. Good vs. Evil 

Despite being one of the most popular and well-explored themes of all time, getting good vs. evil right can be difficult. Stories that explore good vs. evil look at the moral conflict between opposing forces. Often, these forces are depicted so that one is good and one is bad, with the audience rooting for the good side to win. 

But good vs. evil as a theme is best explored when it is not clear exactly what is good and what is evil. Characters who are considered “good” can still make poor choices and do bad things, just as characters who are considered “evil” can do good things. Classic examples of good vs. evil in stories may seem to explore this kind of conflict only on a surface level: the wicked queen poisons the good princess; the evil witch lures the innocent children into the forest; the ugly ogre blocks the way of the chivalrous knight. Underneath, however, all stories that seriously explore good vs. evil as a theme should seek to expose the truth of human nature and its complexities. Even the most villainous of characters need to have motivation for what they do, and all characters and conflicts should have layers of depth. 

Good vs. evil is found across all genres and mediums as a theme. In literature, it can be found in stories from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Both novels explore good and evil on multiple levels and in very different but effective ways. In film, good vs. evil appears in most action and adventure films, including those such as the Star Wars series, as well as in sagas like The Godfather. Television has series such as Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and The Sopranos. Even video games, such as the Mass Effect series, and comic books, like Batman, feature themes of good and evil explored on multiple levels. But what do these examples do right and, perhaps sometimes, wrong? 

The Dos and Don’ts of Good vs. Evil

Do: Explore this theme both at a high level (such as through epic battles) and at a personal level (internally in characters), as Tolkein does in The Lord of the Rings. To really get at the heart of this theme, it should play out in multiple ways throughout the course of your story. 

Don’t: Take it just on a surface level, making everything black and white. The best stories explore how good and evil is found in all of us and in everything. Nothing is truly just good or just evil. Your characters and plot should reflect this in small and big ways, showing how ambiguous the concept of good and evil really is. The TV series Game of Thrones does this well, with characters taking actions throughout the series that can be considered good or bad for different reasons. 

Do: Subvert expectations. This means to set the audience up to anticipate something they have already seen many times before, and then pay off that anticipation in an entirely different way. For example, let’s say you create a character who is very hero-coded: they get the vocation to the hero’s journey, have special powers, and are seemingly “good.” Then, instead of making them the hero of the story, they become the villain instead. You can surprise readers and capture their interest while still exploring your theme. 

Don’t: Fall into clichés. Subversion is one way to avoid this, but make sure you don’t just make your evil characters dark, ugly, and pointlessly cruel in opposition to a “good” character who is light, beautiful, and constantly kind. These characters are tropey at best and offensive at worst. Add complexity to yours!

2. Love

As one of the most popular themes of all time, love shows up in many ways: romantic, familial, platonic, and more. Using love as a theme means diving into the complexities of relationships, the pitfalls of communication, and the ways the humans interact with each other. Love is a great theme to use if you’re particularly interested in depicting different kinds of character relationships. It can also be used as a great motivator to set many different story lines into action—why did that character do that thing? Because of love, of course. 

Countless works across different genres and mediums explore love as a theme in profound and diverse ways. Literary works such as Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and the ubiquitous Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare depict some of the greatest love stories of our time. Movies like Titanic and The Notebook also heavily feature love as a theme. Love appears in music, artwork, TV shows, poems, and so much more. 

When utilizing love as a major theme in your work, think about both the good and the bad that it can bring. While love can bring people together, it can also tear them apart. It is a powerful force that has the potential to change things dramatically for your characters and plot. In using love as theme, think about these three things: 

1. What does love say about your character(s)? The best works that feature love as a major theme use it to analyze the internal workings of particular characters. How they love, who they love, and what they do about that love is an essential component of who they are as a person. 
   
2. What consequences does love have in your story? If your story is ultimately about love, then there must be some kind of consequence or cost associated with it. Whether love is viewed very positively or very negatively, or somewhere in-between, since it is such a powerful force, it must have some kind of effect on the conclusion of the story. In Harry Potter for example, Harry’s mother’s love saves him from being killed, setting off every following event that happens in the story. Thus, love is the ultimate consequence for both the protagonist and the antagonist. 
   
3. What forms does love take in your stories? Remember, not all love is the same. In a story, it’s a good idea to contrast forms of love with one another to highlight how they work and what message they’re bringing out in your story. For example, let’s say one character has unconditional love for another. In order to show this, have another character show what conditional love looks like in contrast. 

3. Redemption

Everyone loves a good redemption arc. An antagonist making up for their wrongdoings? A hero overcoming their fears? It’s a tale as old as time, and a very effective one at that. 

Stories about redemption show how people can overcome failures, wrongdoings, or mistakes. This theme is inherently intertwined with the concept of transformation, since in order to find redemption, characters must go through some kind of personal transformation. This is why these stories are often centered on one character who goes through a character arc in which they learn to overcome a past mistake and make up for it. An iconic example of what this might look like is Jean Valjean from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Valjean starts the novel by stealing silver from a priest who has helped him. Wrought with guilt after the kindness of the priest, Valjean vows to spend his life making up for it and becomes a beloved father, savior, and overall good man. Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender is another great example of a well-executed redemption arc. He begins the story as the bitter, exiled prince of the Fire Nation who is desperate to capture the Avatar and restore his honor, and he ends the story having fought his father and sister head-on in order to restore the world to balance. 

But redemption stories don’t always have to end on a good note. For some, the message may be that nobody is beyond redemption. For others, it may be that some people are irredeemable. The message that you chose to give in your story depends on where you want it to go. When taking on a redemption story, ask yourself:

What Makes a Compelling Redemption Arc? 

1. Character Growth and Transformation: A character who is able to overcome whatever it is that requires them to be redeemed is the apex of a good redemption story.
   
2. Acknowledgement of Faults and Mistakes: Usually, redemption stories require characters to face their faults, mistakes, or past wrongdoings head on. This acknowledgement is a crucial step towards seeking redemption and often involves feelings of guilt, remorse, or regret. 
   
3. Facing Consequences: Redemption often involves characters facing the consequences of their past actions, which can be the reason why they realize they need to be redeemed. These consequences may look like punishment, societal judgment, or personal repercussions. 

Remember, while characters who are looking for redemption may seek forgiveness from those they have wronged, the point of redemption is not always to be forgiven. Sometimes, redemption is found in other ways and you, as the storyteller, get to decide how that is. 

4. Coming of Age 

What does it mean to “come of age”? In literature, coming of age stories focus on characters’ physical and emotional transition from adolescence to adulthood. An extremely popular theme that has been explored by various works across genres and mediums, coming of age stories lend themselves to rich storytelling opportunities. They are also often taught during middle and high school as students themselves begin to make this transition. 

Books such as The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and the aforementioned To Kill a Mockingbird both explore the coming of age of their main characters. Films like Stand By Me (1986) and Lady Bird (2017) also explore this theme. TV shows that focus on a younger cast, such as Stranger Things and Reply 1988 are also coming of age stories. All of these works seek to capture the complexities and universal experience of growing up, from facing challenges and uncertainties to having moments of self-discovery, friendship, and personal transformation. They are marked by how much the characters change throughout the course of the story as they grow up. 

Coming of age is a popular theme for short fiction as well, as seen in The Pillars of Creation by Walter Thompson. Three things found in this story that often define this theme type include: 

1. A Young Main Character: In order to work as a coming of age story, it must center around one (or several) young character(s) who start out still having childhood innocence and naivety and who must discard that over time as they become adults.
   
2. An Inciting Event: Similar to the Hero’s Journey, coming of age stories are often marked by some kind of event that transpires, forcing the character to change from adolescent to adult. In The Pillars of Creation, this is the narrator’s father dying. 
   
3. A Struggle to Grow: Stories should never make it too easy on the characters to go through what they must go through. Coming of age stories, in particular, usually highlight the struggle it takes to shed that childhood innocence and become an adult and accept all the burden that comes with being one. 

If you’re considering writing a coming of age story, think about what you went through as you became an adult. Coming of age stories are popular because they feel so universal. Lean into those memories and get writing!

5. Revenge

You have to be careful with revenge, as if you let it get too far, it may consume you… 

As a theme, revenge drives intense, gripping narratives that also explore what justice truly is and what the cost of vengeance is on the soul. These stories are often fueled by intense emotions of anger, hatred, betrayal, and a desire for justice, driving the protagonist or antagonist to seek retribution for perceived—whether real or not—wrongs. 

Stories of revenge also often delve into moral ambiguity, raising questions about the morality of seeking revenge, the consequences of violent actions, and the ethical implications of pursuing justice through personal vendettas. Revenge narratives often explore the theme of cyclical violence wherein acts of revenge lead to further retaliation, perpetuating a pattern of retribution and escalation. 

The best stories that ruminate on revenge should involve complex character motivations, explore justice and retribution, and seek to determine if revenge can be taken too far—and what happens when it is. Consider exploring these famous examples of revenge narratives if you’re going to explore revenge as a theme: 

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: Considered the greatest revenge story ever written, this iconic novel follows protagonist Edmond Dantés’ quest for vengeance against those who wronged him. It showcases the psychological and moral complexities of dedicating your life to revenge and the consequences that follow. 
  
• I Saw the Devil (2010): In this South Korean action-thriller film directed by Kim Jee-woon, an NIS agent embarks on a quest for revenge when his wife is brutally murdered by a psychopathic serial killer. The story and its horrific conclusion reveal the consequences of what can happen when your thirst for vengeance is greater than your morals. *Warning: This film is extremely violent and not for everyone, take caution before watching. 
  
• Vinland Saga: Written and illustrated by Makoto Yukimura, this Japanese manga series follows Thorfinn, a young boy whose father is murdered by mercenaries. As he grows up, he trains in hopes of killing those who murdered his father. Thorfinn’s journey shows what can happen when you dedicate your life to revenge and the twists and turns that follow. 

Exercise

Choose a theme outlined above. Write down a list of words and comparing/contrasting notions that come to mind when you think of that theme. Then, write a passage or short story that utilizes those words in order to express the theme throughout.

Staying On Theme

Whatever your story is, it must have a deeper meaning—a message that you’re trying to speak to your audience through its other elements. This message is your theme (or, in some cases, themes) and everything in your story should layer up to explore this theme in multiple ways. You can start out with a theme in mind and imagine how you might tell a story that speaks to it, or you can start telling a story and then go back and figure out what messages appear along the way. Take a look at the kinds of stories F(r)iction publishes to see if you can figure out the themes of each!

In an interview with Write or Die, you mentioned that you consider yourself an artist over a writer. How do you think the role of an artist differs from the role of a writer?

To me, there’s really no difference between being an artist and being a writer. My writing is part of my art. Writing is just one part of the art I make and love, so therefore I think of myself as an artist. My favorite art of any kind understands and celebrates the lineage and inspirations it comes from, so whatever I craft, whether it be writing or not, I always seek this approach.

Ren’s coming of age in your debut novel Chlorine is so heartbreaking and raw, yet oddly comforting. There aren’t many stories that describe the violence of coming of age as a queer girl of color in the US this honestly. How important was it for you to center Ren’s identity as a cultural “other” in your exploration of the pain of girlhood?

I don’t view Ren, or queer girls of color in general, as a cultural “other”—if anything, I view her, and me, and us, as the center, which includes all the complexities of who she is and who we are. If anyone wants to view her as an “other,” that’s their own conundrum to work through. I wrote this exploration centering her and her experience.

You’ve mentioned that you’re fascinated with imagery of “weird, queer transcendence,” and that this played a role in writing Chlorine. How would you compare Ren’s transcendence to Cathy’s lingering longing for Ren evident in her letters? Do you think Cathy is unable to transcend, either similarly or unlike Ren?

To me, Cathy transcends in her own way: she’s in love with someone else. To be in love is to be terrified; to be in love is to choose the terror despite; to be in love is therefore to transcend. Yet being in love with another is a common form of transcendence in the way Ren’s viscerally weird and strange transcendence is not. So, comparatively, Cathy’s arc pales.

There are at least two distinct forms of cell death: pain-free programmed cell death (apoptosis) and inflammatory unplanned cell death (necrosis). Menstruation is necrosis meaning anyone who has a uterus literally goes through a process of death and rebirth every month. Unfortunately, Ren still struggles with painful periods, even at her most dedicated to competitive swimming. Can you tell us a little more about how you sought to link the violence of menstruation with Ren’s bloody transformation?

Thank you for that interesting fact. Cell Death would be a great band name! I think there was no way for me to write a coming-of-age girlhood-driven story involving body horror without including menstruation. To me, it’s biologically violent, gushing out blood and stomach pain like it’s no big deal, and, as you said, it’s a monthly bloody transformation, so when writing fictional bloody transformations, I just can’t leave it out.

You’re also a fantastic short story author. In “Bloody Angle,” the narrator explains their vengeful cannibalism by citing Newton’s third law: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Racism plays a crucial role in “Bloody Angle” and Chlorine. When expressing your characters’ anger towards prejudice, did you ever feel pressured to justify their actions to people who wouldn’t understand?

Thank you! I never really feel pressured to justify characters’ actions to people who wouldn’t understand because I’m never really thinking about people who refuse to understand. When I write, I’m thinking about me and my friends and my community and my family and everyone/everything else I care about.

Yes, there was some need to justify the reactive acts of violence—the murders in “Bloody Angle” and the body horror in Chlorine—but the justification is more so to explain the character motivations and plot. After all, the narrator in Bloody Angle says, “If you are struggling to understand… my story is not for you.”

You’ve expressed how Chlorine came from a place of cathartic anger, while your short story collection and novel in-progress come from a place of love and understanding. How did you allow yourself space to safely express your anger without letting it consume you?

Art has always been the safest channel for my emotions. The making, the gazing, the understanding—it’s incredibly life-affirming and lifesaving. It’s because of art that my meanest inclinations and worst rages do not consume me, so just by allowing myself to listen to the art I then become free.

You have a beautifully curated Instagram account, @chlorinenovel, to share updates and related artistic influences you enjoy. What forthcoming books, movies, music, or other forms of media you are looking forward to consuming?

I can’t wait for the new Jackie Wang book, Alien Daughters Walk Into the Sun, to arrive in the mail. In 2024, I’m excited to read the new Akwaeke Emezi novel, Little Rot, and the new Hanif Abdurraqib book. I’ll be seated at every new Hansol Jung play in theatres, and I’ll be the first in line at the cinema when Julia Ducournau’s next film with A24 is out.

If you could give your past self one piece of advice about the publishing industry or process, what would it be?

You can say no.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Writing and being a writer are two different things. One is to focus on the work, and one is to focus on the community, the success, the end product. Neither are wrong, and both feed into each other, but I do think deciding which path is more important to you will make everything else come easier.