In a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog, DiAnn Mills discusses the art of subtext and how to use it in fiction. “Subtext refers to characters who talk about one thing but really mean something else, and they both know it,” she explains. “The subtext is the real conversation hidden by surface talk and is the core of the communication.”
Subtext can convey sarcasm, heartbreak, or humor, and can create unpredictable outcomes and emotions. Characters use subtext when stating the facts outright would be embarrassing, hurtful, or threatening. For the writer, subtext provides information to the reader; adds tension and conflict; reveals plot and character; raises questions; foreshadows the future; and encourage the reader to pay attention, Mills says.
“Subtext is especially effective when characters have opposing desires and yet are forced to communicate with each other,” Mills adds. “Better yet, when they’re put into a situation where they must work together to achieve a common goal that’s crucial to each, for different reasons.”
“When we humans speak, we are not merely communicating information but attempting to make an impression and achieve a goal. And sometimes we are hoping to prevent the listener from noticing what we are NOT saying, which is often not merely distracting but, we fear, as audible as what we ARE saying. As a result, dialogue usually contains as much or even more subtext than it does text. More is going on under the surface than on it. One mark of badly written dialogue is that it is only doing one thing, at most, at once.” – Francine Prose.
