No, your teachers weren’t wasting your time when they droned on about subtext, they were showing you where the power lay. Great stories, scenes and dialogues draw huge energy from implicit meaning, the truth that’s not being said. The tension between surface and substance pulls us in. Think of Ross and Rachel, or the political intrigue of Game of Thrones. Their surface words rarely match their actions or feelings. And we love it because subtext makes us part of the story. It’s the stuff of life.
There’s a subtext to this whole glossary that relates to me and my business. It’s kind of related to Show (Don’t Tell).