How to Use Subtext, the Most Powerful Story Writing Tool You Have

hello everyone and welcome to the Eternal English major your source for story analysis and free creative writing lessons I'm Mariah and today's video is about subtext now subtext is easily the most misunderstood Concept in storywriting and it's the most misunderstood because it's the most guarded now what I mean by that is accurate useful information about how to work with subtext is very hard to come by and it's hard to come by because people who know how to work with subtext tend to keep that information to themselves they don't want you to know about it why because subtext is easily the most powerful tool of writer has and it doesn't matter what you're writing literary fiction genre fiction what whatever it's the most powerful tool at your disposal now why why is it so powerful what can subtext do everything everything subtext will help you write the story it will help you come up with character descriptions setting details dialogue story events everything and it does this by imposing certain limits on your story that will help you create a sort of pth palette just like a painter works with a color palette or an interior designer works with a color palette subtext will help you come up with a story palette or a collection of possible words possible events possible images out of all possible images uh you know developing writers are often taught that specificity of detail is very important and it is but which details should you choose which details out of all possible details what should you call attention to what should you ignore without knowing how to use subtext this question of what to describe and what not to describe can become overwhelming I believe uh it is the number one reason why so many developing writers just give up because working with without subtext paralyzes you it steals your voice now working with subtext gives you language uh it sort of hands it to you on a silver platter it helps you make stuff up like that it will also give your story that rich layered literary quality it will help your story sound professional and again uh this isn't limited to literary fiction all types of fiction benefit from subtext and all the different film genres benefit from subtext too why subtext gives your story meaning and is probably what is most responsible for making you want to read a story again if your story has subtext it can be analyzed uh that's usually what English majors are doing when they are writing papers right they are trying to make sense of the subtext film Majors do a lot of this too now reading a story without subtext is like listening to a child describe a movie uh have you ever asked a child to tell you what a movie was about don't do it you'll be there for hours but that's what they are doing all these children who like to talk about the movies they've seen uh they are telling you a story without subtext so for all these reasons a developing writer who understands subtext and knows how to work with subtext is Miles Ahead of a developing writer who doesn't even understand what subtext is let alone knows how to manipulate it uh it's like one has a PHD and the other is in preschool so what is subtext well uh in order to talk about what subtext is we have to talk a little bit about story structure now a good story tends to have two major components I like to call them macro structure and micro structure now macro structure can be described as the big picture or the plot of your story uh some people like to call it the top story and by that they mean what is visible or obvious to the reader or viewer it's whatever is above the so-called surface of the story uh it's what a child would describe when they tell you what a movie is about this happened and then this happened and then this happened and so on uh you can also also say that macro structure is the bones of a story so macro structure is obvious it's visible it's big as the name suggests micro structure on the other hand is hidden it is as the name suggests small this is your stories subtext some people like to call it the bottom story or what lies below the surface of the story uh some people like to call it the DNA of the story you can also say that if macro structure is the bones then micro structure is what the bones are made of you can even call Micro structure the fingerprint of your story uh all these are excellent ways of describing it but here is my own personal way of thinking about it okay okay picture a dancer moving across a stage let's say the dancer is doing one specific move over and over again to get to the other side of the stage so let's say that the dancer is skipping across the stage or let's say that the dancer is Galloping across the stage or jumping across the stage so we can say that that the dancer is moving in two ways they are moving from point A to point B and they are performing another very specific movement uh whatever it is uh maybe maybe they are doing jazz hands or something okay so as they are moving from point A to point B uh they are doing something like this all right so everything I've just described is how most stories tend to move or behave uh there is a linear movement from point A to point B which is your macro structure or plot and there is a smaller movement which is your micro structure or subtext now this is very important uh the smaller movement must be the same from the beginning to the end you must must commit to whatever the smaller movement is you can't be changing it up in the middle of the stage or in the middle of the story if this is how you start then this is how you finish uh you must commit to your subtext so what does this mean in Practical terms how does this translate to actually writing the story well uh I'm going to show you and if you're anything like me when I was first trying to figure this stuff out the next part of the video is going to change your life so for those of you who have watched my story structure video you know that I don't like to use terms like the need the want the flaw uh I don't think they are especially helpful instead uh I like to ask myself what stupid thing is my protagonist trying to do because just by asking that very simple question you also without consciously doing so touch upon the want the need and the flaw so I ask myself what stupid thing is my protagonist trying to do and then I build my story around that uh if you haven't watched that video It's called four simple steps towards better story structure uh I'll link it in the description box check it out I I think you'll find it helpful especially if you feel like you haven't mastered story structure yet so once you have decided on whatever stupid thing your protagonist is trying to do then you can come up with your story's subtext for example say that your protagonist is a woman who starts an affair with a married man Even though she'd rather have some someone alter herself so she's not 100% happy with the situation it is you might say a negative situation but she continues to see this man because the dating scene is unpleasant uh there aren't a lot of single men she has connected with maybe she doesn't want to be on the apps and quite frankly who can blame her so she continues to see the married man even though it's not ideal now in order to land on your subtext you have to make a connection between this very specific negative situation and something else more abstract for example dating a married man is like being hungry all the time you are never satisfied or or dating a married man is like being buried alive because your relationship isn't out in the open or dating a married man is like being locked up in a dark room uh again because you have to keep your relationship out of sight so you have to make some kind of connection between the stupid thing your protagonist is trying to do and something a bit more abstract and you have to commit to this connection now how does this help generate story details well I'm going to guide you through a brainstorm that is filtered through the subtext so let's take one of our previous examples dating a married man man is like being buried alive so what I did before I started filming was come up with some possible words or ideas that have to do with being buried alive and I did it off camera just for the sake of saving some time so this is what came to my mind uh this is what I think of uh when I think of being buried alive uh I think of dirt uh I think of a shovel I think of the word dig uh I think of the phrase dig yourself out of that one uh I think of safety coffins uh you know where Bells were attached to coffins so uh if you were buried alive by accident you could ring the bell uh I think of Darkness I think of suffocating uh I think of hidden the word hidden uh out of sight the word unseen uh I think of muffled sounds like how everything above ground would sound to me if I were buried alive uh I think of Uma Thurman being buried alive in Kill Bill that great scene uh I think of Edgar alen Poe and some of his stories uh and I think of that phrase uh that weather reporters sometimes use uh being buried under cloud cover uh and then other similar phrases uh come to mind like uh being buried in my work or being buried in a book uh and finally uh I think of someone burying evidence from a crime scene and really we could go on and on here but this seems like a good enough amount for our purposes so uh now we're going to jump to the next step which is this uh once you have your list go through it again and try and relate each item to your protagonist and story World in general so uh the first item on my list is dirt uh maybe my protagonist lives in a basement apartment with a so-called Garden View or dirt view or sidewalk view so she is literally below ground uh maybe when she is with her lover uh it has just rained and there is this very characteristic smell of wet soil in the air or um maybe at some point in the story she has a gritty taste in her mouth uh maybe she notices the dust on the furniture or a mud stain on her pant leg okay uh let's go down to shovel uh maybe she sees a shovel somewhere maybe there's one in the garden leaning against her window uh maybe she actually sees someone digging a hole and maybe this person sort of looks like her lover or has something physically in common with him and it gives her pause all right let's keep going um uh maybe she lives in New York maybe she uses the subway one day uh another underground spot by the way and she overhears a woman saying let's see you dig yourself out of that one okay uh safety coffin uh maybe she watches a horror movie where someone is ringing the safety Bell or maybe she works on a film set and they have to capture the shot of the ringing Bell okay uh let's do Darkness maybe she wakes up in the middle of the night and it's so dark in the room she can't find the light switch uh maybe she trips on a cat toy uh and that has a bell on it so we hear the sound of a bell just like the Bell on the safety coffin okay uh suffocating uh maybe after a love making session with her lover in her little Garden View apartment she feels like she can't breathe and she has to climb on the Furniture to open a window okay uh let's do hidden uh out of sight uh unseen uh maybe she's being playful with her lover in their bed and he playfully covers her with the bed sheet or uh maybe in a moment of Despair when she is alone and waiting for him to call because she can't call him uh she buries herself under the bed clothes now uh you can go on and on with this and you should you should exhaust each one of these possibilities and I mean really really lean into them uh but now for the final step we will go back to our original list and come up with some opposite terms so uh instead of dirt uh we have clean let's say okay and uh instead of shovel I don't know what the opposite of shovel is I'm just going to say vacuum now uh just to save some time I'm going to go go ahead and uh read all the opposite terms that uh I've come up with so uh I've got um uh clean I've got vacuum uh light deep breaths fresh air a breath of fresh air out in the open clear sounds uh cops digging up the evidence Uma Thurman breaking out of the coffin and a sunny day so once you have your opposites listed go through them just like we did with our original list and once again try and come up with relevant details for your protagonist and story world so clean okay maybe we see her dusting or maybe uh she's trying to wash the mud stain off her pant leg um maybe we see her vacuuming maybe we see her brushing her teeth to get get that gritty taste out of her mouth uh or perhaps she's watching a crime mystery on TV and uh the police are digging something up uh maybe she yearns for the light maybe she sees a poster advertising a sunfill holiday in the Caribbean and on the poster is a woman lying on a lounge chair on the beach and perhaps the protagonist notices that no part of this woman's body is touching the sand so you can see how in only a few minutes time you can come up with loads of interesting relevant images and story events that you can weave through your story all thanks to subtext but remember subtext isn't enough your story needs bones too so so check out my story structure video if you haven't already it's called four simple steps towards better story structure all you need is right there now my next video uh will be about coming up with story ideas so make sure to subscribe I have a lot of great stuff planned okay thank you so much for watching see you next time bye-bye

Channel: The Eternal English Major

Views: 1,158

Keywords: how to use subtext, how to write subtext, how to come up with story details, how to make stuff up, how to write relevant meaningful story details, how to brainstorm a story, advice on using subtext, subtext writing tips, how to write character descriptions, how to write setting details, how to avoid writer's block, the major components of story structure, writing advice, writing tips

Id: y0TMJ0odTCs

Length: 19min 27sec (1167 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 08 2023