Annerocious over at
her cheeky screenwriting blog recently posted a darn good explanation of
subtext. It illustrates nicely, for any writer, how to “show not tell.”
She begins:
“Writers
of spec screenplays often make the mistake of explaining things to readers, as
if there is no other way of being understood.
Subtext
is the opposite of that.
Since
the easiest way to demonstrate this is to write two scenes, one with subtext
and one without, that is what I did.
See if you can guess which one
has subtext.” [Click here.]
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Coming up:
This is great. In fiction, it's often seen as improbable expository conversation to get something across to readers. I.e., "As you know, Mary Lou, your Aunt Ethel has ten million dollars."
ReplyDeleteLOL - good scene.
ReplyDeleteWhew, I got it right.
ReplyDelete