Ask the Author: Peter Gilboy
Answered Questions (1)
Peter Gilboy
Understand subtext. That's the meaning BEHIND what is said. In real life we are almost always speaking indirectly. We may not say, "I don't like you," but rather, "You again?"
How about this: "What did you do to your hair?"
If a guy at work asks a woman out to dinner and she says, "Only if we go Dutch," what is she really saying.
Subtext is the 3rd Dimension in writing. I had a writing teacher who once told me, "If your characters are saying what they mean, your story is shit."
Example: In the film, Maria's Lovers, it opens with a young man in uniform and with a duffel bag getting off a train and trudging up the coal town hill to his shabby home. He opens the door. His father is sitting there at the table.
Father: I thought you were dead.
Son: I was in a POW camp.
Father: Why didn't you escape?
No need for flashbacks to all the times the son dropped the ball, or came home with bad grades, or disappointed the father in some way. We already know their relationship going back years. Done in 3 sentences.
That's Subtext.
How do we learn subtext? Sit in a coffee shop and listen to what people say. Listen at home, carefully. What do people say when they come in the door exasperated? "I'm exasperated?" Hardly ever. Listen for what they really say: "You won't believe what happened again." Or, "I'm ready for a drink."
Listen everywhere. Get the feel for real life speaking. Then our characters will be much more interesting, and real.
Writing in subtext also makes your readers ACTIVE as he or she discovers the meaning BEHIND your characters words.
How about this: "What did you do to your hair?"
If a guy at work asks a woman out to dinner and she says, "Only if we go Dutch," what is she really saying.
Subtext is the 3rd Dimension in writing. I had a writing teacher who once told me, "If your characters are saying what they mean, your story is shit."
Example: In the film, Maria's Lovers, it opens with a young man in uniform and with a duffel bag getting off a train and trudging up the coal town hill to his shabby home. He opens the door. His father is sitting there at the table.
Father: I thought you were dead.
Son: I was in a POW camp.
Father: Why didn't you escape?
No need for flashbacks to all the times the son dropped the ball, or came home with bad grades, or disappointed the father in some way. We already know their relationship going back years. Done in 3 sentences.
That's Subtext.
How do we learn subtext? Sit in a coffee shop and listen to what people say. Listen at home, carefully. What do people say when they come in the door exasperated? "I'm exasperated?" Hardly ever. Listen for what they really say: "You won't believe what happened again." Or, "I'm ready for a drink."
Listen everywhere. Get the feel for real life speaking. Then our characters will be much more interesting, and real.
Writing in subtext also makes your readers ACTIVE as he or she discovers the meaning BEHIND your characters words.
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