Avoiding Exposition Dialogue, or is it even necessary to avoid?

[Metemponychosis 1,236]

I'm not sure this is the right place to star this topic...

Anyway...

 

I'm in the process of writing a fic in which part of the premise is that the Equestria from the show is different from the "real" Equestria. And because of that, in order to properly set-up a scene relatively in the beginning, I needed to make a lot of exposition that in my first draft ended up in about 7,000 words of dialogue.

 

It's about differences between stuff the Mane Six have done in the show and in the AU and it's weird because the characters don't know what each other knows, becoming a long talk. I felt it was a bit boring, even when I added a few jokes here and there with the way the characters are exchanging words with each other. So I thought that I needed to come up with another form of exposition. Initially I thought of presenting information by having the main character visit a sort of museum where the deeds of the Mane Six are recorded in murals, statues and mosaics so I can balance the dialogue with descriptions.

 

So, thoughts?

 

Also, I need to keep peeking inside the head of the main character and because of that I decided to go with first person. But I'm much more comfortable with third person because it let's me describe the main character (I specially like the pony body language). Does anyone think it becomes distracting if I keep describing the character's thoughs while using third person? Any tips?

 

Thanks.

[Jeric 46,834]

The mural idea is a better one.

 

POV ... Nothing wrong with 3rd person and seeing insight into the MC's thoughts as long as you restrain yourself from telling too much. It's not annoying ... and 3rd person is used in Harry Potter with a fixed view on Harry.