It goes beyond just that it’s not natural–that that’s not the way people actually talk. On some level, we hate to hear people say exactly what they are thinking. But that morning proved to be a huge writing lesson for me. Now, I’m sure Disney has some good shows… actually, I’m not so sure, but again, I’m not the target market. And it was THE WORST piece of crap I’ve ever tried to listen to. If a character was thinking it, the character just said it. If one character was in love with another, they’d say, “I love you.” If that character wasn’t in love back, they’d say, “Well, I don’t love you.” Then one would say something like, “I’m hungry,” and a friend would respond with “Let’s go eat.” Now, those weren’t the words exactly, but that was essentially the level of the dialogue. What I realized before long was that the reason it was making me so nuts, and was so absolutely miserable to listen to, was that all the characters were simply saying exactly what was on their minds. I realized I was hearing a writing lesson in what not to do. There was something about the way the characters were talking that started driving me absolutely crazy. Now, I realize I’m not the target market for a Disney channel show, but this was beyond that. I have no idea what show I’m listening to, but I find myself getting really annoyed by this show. I’m exhausted from a late night, can’t find the remote within arm’s reach, so I just lay there and listen to it for awhile. Instead of just turning off in the middle of the night once the little computer goes to sleep, this TV switches over to the Disney Channel and that’s what I wake up to. I hook up my little chromebook to the TV to put on Frasier and we fall asleep. We were staying at a hotel a year or so ago which means a TV we’re not familiar with. Okay, so here’s why this is all connected to subtext. I’m not sure that’s a great habit to get into–sleeping with the television on–but it works for us. Also, the scenes are always consistently in either Frasier’s radio station or his home–no dramatic flashes of light to be distracting. First of all, we’ve seen all the episodes so many times that we no longer get caught up in the story and it becomes something like gentle background noise. When we’re ready to go to sleep, we put on the 90s sitcom Frasier. We finally stumbled across the perfect solution for my wife and I. So we tried the TV which would alternate between being too loud and having too many flashing lights or differences in scene lighting. I used to listen to music, but, as a musician, my mind would get all caught up in the lyrics and chord progressions and the arrangement to quiet my mind enough to sleep. I don’t know about you, but I can’t sleep if it’s too quiet. After all, we’re storytellers, so it’s always better to try to teach a concept through story, I think. Now, rather than give you a textbook definition of what subtext is, I want to share with you how I really learned about what it is how it works. We’re going to be exploring a technique today that we’re calling “The Third Thing.” It’s a way to imbue your writing with that all important, and often mysterious, quality: subtext. Today, we look at one surefire way to add subtext to your dialogue–we’re talking about “the third thing” Subtext can be the difference between polished prose and an amateur-sounding story.
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