Continuing with the analysis of Chapter 3, I’ve yet to touch on the true purpose of the chapter. In my outline, this was when the reader finds out everything Rob is accused of and why he’s running for his life.
I knew that the townhouse chapters were going to focus primarily on Rob and Preston’s relationship, and the tumultuous history they shared, but the driving force behind that history was all the activities Rob partook in to make a fast buck. All of the crimes are brought up during the chase chapters, scattered throughout Dig Down, but some activities, like drug smuggling, don’t get brought up until Chapter 18. At this point, I felt it would be too late to spring this on the reader, so I needed to incorporate this into the book sooner. Once again, Chapter 3 was up to the task.
This was a tricky thing to pull off. As a writer, you don’t want to dole out information by dumping exposition on the reader. An exposition dump is when a writer gives the reader all the relevant information in a clump of paragraphs. When done poorly, it will be written as Preston telling a Rob information theyhe would already naturally know, like “I’m angry at you because the news says police are after you because you are involved in stock manipulation, insider trading, drug smuggling and prostitution.”
At this point, all the reader knows is that Rob is on the run for some reason. If I’ve done my job right, there should be a sense of intrigue and mystery about why Rob’s running. Outlining and writing the scene, I needed to keep those feelings going until I revealed what the charges were.
To do this, I didn’t have Preston inform Rob he was mad, but convey his anger with his icy silence. This reinforces the hostility Rob encountered at the end of Chapter 1. The TV that Rob mutes has his face on it. This suggests that what Rob is running from has made headlines. Preston continues to give Rob the silent treatment as Rob examines the townhouse. This was done so that, in addition to blocking the entire townhouse sequence, establishing the curtains, portrait, paperweight, and characterization of both characters, ideally, the readers would keep turning the pages to find out what the crimes were.
Only when Rob makes for the portrait does Preston break his silence, first turning the volume up on the TV, then shouting his frustration at having to hear all about Rob’s activities, and only then, a quick rundown of what he’s accused of. While I’m delivering exposition here, my goal was for this to be delivered as a payoff to the reader, answering the question they would have from the start of the chapter.
I immediately tried to make sure the reader didn’t dwell this exposition by offering a new source of intrigue for them. I did this by teasing two new bits of information. One, I had Rob insist he was innocent. Two, I had Rob correctly guess which congressmen were condemning him, and then calling them hypocrites . At this point, the reader will realize that although I may have told them what Rob is accused of, they don’t know who was actually involved and how they were done. The chapter then ends.
If Chapter 3 has done its job, the reader wants to find out how all these parties are involved, and they’ll continue reading.