[01] Core Standard: Three Laws of Dramatic Exposition
Every piece of disclosed information must obey dramatic exposition:
1. Boundary of Action
Worldbuilding facts should never appear as background encyclopedia entries; they must appear as the Boundary of Action that constrains or costs a character.
2. Proof through collision
Never state your thesis directly. Stage the collision so the reader steps inside the conflict and reaches the conclusion firsthand.
3. Sustained tactical dialogue
When characters speak at length, every single sentence must operate as a targeted attack or defense move aimed at the other speaker.
[02] Craft Execution: Realism & Immersion
Sharpening believability and reader immersion:
1. Metaphor in insider detail
Supply the specific physical action or object habit that only an insider to that world would perform without explaining it.
2. Ban "As-You-Know" dialogue and info-dumping
Exploit cognitive asymmetry.
Have an expert lose patience with an outsider, or force a newcomer to pay a steep price for misunderstanding a domain rule.
[03] Desk Audit: Three-Question Line Audit
Interrogate every line of exposition before keeping it on the page:
[Check Pressure]
Is this fact forced out of the character only because they are under acute pressure?
[Check Causality]
If you cut this explanation, does the physical action in the very next beat become incomprehensible?
[Check Shift]
Once this information lands, does a character's standing or value position immediately change?