This is
one of my favorite writing subjects. Sub-texting is about all the ways we speak
without directly saying what we mean. It is what gives dialogue its zing.
Because, let’s face it, dialogue that is straightforward and says exactly what
it means is not only unnatural, it’s boring.
Sub-texting
is the way a man and a woman court each other by looks, by hints, by posture,
but never speaking their attraction out loud. It’s the way an argument takes
place seething under the surface, implied, but never actually confronted head
on. It’s the way someone lets you in on the fact they’ve got a secret without
actually saying so. In short, it’s what makes both real life and fiction
tantalizing.
Ways to Include Sub-Text in Fiction
Have a character speak without words.
About
two-thirds of communication is non-verbal, so you can rarely communicate what
is being said using only dialogue. However, just throwing in a shrug or a wince
isn’t enough to make for interesting sub-text. What is the character unable to
say? How do they use their physical selves to hint at it? Or, even better,
perhaps they have something they’re desperately holding back. How can you use
their own bodies and faces to betray them? Its’ important to remember that
dialogue is a form of conflict, and sometimes this may even be internal
conflict within a single character.
To make
for compelling sub-text, find interesting ways of describing non-verbal
communication. For example, in The Blue Sword, McKinley doesn't write that Corlath is angry and refuses to
answer. Instead, she has Harry think about “a silence so rigid that speaking into it was like
chopping holes in a frozen lake.”
Have a character intentionally misdirect the
conversation or say something different than they mean.
Did I
mention that dialogue is conflict? One way a character pulls off conflict is to
avoid giving another character the answer they’re looking for, whether because
of an inner or outer struggle. The reader will be left with the sense that the
character has information they can’t share. For example, in Paradise Valley, Domingo in response to
Miriam’s kiss looks at the horse “with something akin to love” and tells Miriam
to thank her father for the gift of a saddle. Miriam is hurt. But the reader
knows the look of love is for Miriam and that he can’t respond to her because
it would offend her father.
Have a character answer a question that
hasn’t been asked.
Good
dialogue in real life involves a fair amount of mind reading. In other words,
someone asks a question, but the respondent has to work out what kind of
information the questioner is really seeking. This can make for snappy dialogue
in fiction. A character may ask a question, but under the surface is the real
question they’re too afraid to ask, don’t know how to ask or don’t even realize
they want to ask. When the listener picks up the question that’s hanging in the
air instead of answering the spoken question, it creates an element of surprise
as the conversation zigzags around the reader’s expectations.
Have a character pick up on an answer that
hasn’t been given.
The
questioner can hint at the answer the respondent is unable to supply herself. In
Still Missing, when the police
question Annie as to why she stayed on at her abductor’s cabin for two days
after she was free to go, Annie won’t give a straight answer. Finally the police inspector says, “We found a basket and some baby clothes, Annie.” In this way,
he tells her that he already suspects the answer. Annie stayed on because she
was looking for her missing baby. This keeps readers on the edge of their seats.
They know about the baby, but waiting for the police to draw out the confession from Annie, first in hints and then in bits and pieces creates tension.
Ultimately,
you want to achieve two things with subtext. You want there to be an element of
mystery, which you achieve by letting the reader know that some things are
hidden just under the surface. And you want to create the kind of complexity
that mimics real life. Giving the reader something to read between the lines is
a way of doing this.
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