Tara Maya's Tales

"I think you've mistaken me for someone else. I'm not that man." Subtext is the art of saying the unsaid and thinking the unthinkable. There are several techniques that authors use to convey this. Among others: 1. Secret dialogue. 2. Actions speak louder than words. 3. Catch phrase or repetition. In this post, I'll discuss the first, possibly most common technique, secret dialogue. Secret Dialogue In the Fever series , by Karen Marie Moning , feisty heroine Mac and sexy antihero Jericho Barrons have to work together to defeat the Unseelie before they take over the world, starting with Dublin. Unfortunately, they don't trust each other--and they don't communicate very well. At least not openly. They have whole "non-conversations" however, through silent understandings, exchanged through glances and conveyed to the reader through italics. This one is from Faefever , the third book: We looked at each other and for a moment those ...

Updated May 16, 2022 We all live in a Yellow Obmarine. Subtext in dialogue is the opposite of the obvious; it's dialogue in which what goes unsaid is as important as what is said. The opposite of this is not, but should be, called obtext . Screenwriters have a term for dialogue in which characters say exactly what they mean: "on the nose." I'll stick with obtext. Sad to say, obtextual dialogue, one obvious and true statement after another, usually sounds unrealistic, because people seldom say exactly what they mean, or all of what they mean. There are two places you can see obtext used to good effect: children's stories and comedy. In children's stories, characters say exactly what they mean, because this is what children themselves do. That's why they walk up to the obese woman and ask, "Why are you so fat?" or ask the man with long hair, "Are you a daddy or a mommy?" or comment on their baby brother's drawing, "It...