Is Alice Munro an example of what NOT to do?

[James A. Ritchie]

[LMGilbert]

Nobody is an example of what to do, or what not to do. Your five favourite writers probably have distinctly different styles, different ways of following "rules for good writing" and different ways of breaking those rules. If only we could pin it down, eh?

[MookyMcD]

IMO, she's more accurately called an example of what's really difficult to do well.

[Crono91]

Exposition, to me, is when the author decides to explain an element in the story without actually weaving it through the story.

Take a magic system: an author can vote to simply explain how it works. Have some character flat out tell the main character how the world is working.

Or you could weave the magic system through the actual story. For instance, I had a story where the main character, at the end of the first chapter, almost killed himself (and was actually the cause of his younger brother's death) when he discovered magic. He was thrown into the world, rather than told about it first.

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But as James said, there are times for exposition. I actually enjoy it with certain things; as in Jurassic Park, when the author has Ian Malcolm flat out explain how things work.

[MatthewTM]