Delegate Guidebook

all, but rather in making certain that by
action-reaction, action-reaction, what
the characters are doing in a struggle
to get what each of them wants out
of the scene captures interest. The
dialogue becomes tactics characters
are using in their struggle to get what
they want. When the audience is
involved in the give-and-take of the
tactics of the characters as they say
and do outwardly what they say and do,
when the audience is involved in the
inner struggles of these characters one
against the other, then the dialogue, as
you put it, will sparkle.
Writing for subtext sounds easy to
the beginner, where the expert knows
both how important it can be and how
challenging it is. What help can you
offer writers who want to write with
more resonant subtext?
I’m not certain writing subtext sounds
easy to anybody, beginner or not. In
fact, I know from experience when I talk
about writing for subtext, young writers
are paralyzed, they have no idea what
I’m talking about and don’t have the first
idea about going about doing it.
In my book, DIALOGUE: THE ART OF
VERBAL ACTION FOR THE PAGE,
STAGE, AND SCREEN, there are six
chapters or more where I take various
scenes apart to show how the actions in
the subtext build a scene progressively
as the dialogue is the outer expression
of that. The way to create subtext
underneath what is being said is to pay
attention to what the characters are
actually doing and actually thinking and
feeling in their desires while they go
about doing it.
What the character wants and how the
character goes about trying to get it is
the inner life of the scene. This includes
the motivations that drive that intention,
even down to the subconscious mind.
The secret, so to speak, of subtext is to
just pay attention to it. To realize what’s
really going on inside of a character
consciously and subconsciously and
what they really want at this moment and
to identify that with a scene intention.
You have to ask “What does this
character want at this point in their life?”
“What do they want to get in this scene
as a step toward their object of desire
(i.e. what they want overall in the life of
their story)?”
By identifying the desire in the scene,
the source of conflict and antagonism
against that character’s desire, and stepby-step
thinking of what that character
would do inwardly that they express
outwardly in the dialogue, connecting
to the inner actions of the characters in
their struggle to get what they want in the
scene, creates subtext.
And then, common sense says the
characters have tactics, they have
strategies. They don’t say out loud fully
and completely what they are thinking
and feeling. They don’t turn around and
say “Look, what I really want from you is
that you will show me a sign of love and
commitment in our relationship.” Nobody
says things like that. Or, if they do, it’s
not actually what they want (laughs). It’s
just a tactic to get something else.
You have to figure out what the character
really wants, why they want it, what’s
stopping them from getting it and then
what would they outwardly do to cause a
reaction in the world that would get them
what they inwardly want.
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