Subtext

So over the weekend, I posted this Great Scene from the movie Sideways:

MAYA
Can I ask you a personal question?MILES
(bracing himself)
Sure.MAYA
Why are you so into Pinot? It's like
a thing with you.Miles laughs at first, then smiles wistfully at the question.
He searches for the answer in his glass and begins slowly.MILES
I don't know. It's a hard grape to
grow. As you know. It's thin-skinned,
temperamental, ripens early. It's
not a survivor like Cabernet that
can grow anywhere and thrive even
when neglected. Pinot needs constant
care and attention and in fact can
only grow in specific little tucked-
away corners of the world. And only
the most patient and nurturing growers
can do it really, can tap into Pinot's
most fragile, delicate qualities.
Only when someone has taken the time
to truly understand its potential
can Pinot be coaxed into its fullest
expression. And when that happens,
its flavors are the most haunting
and brilliant and subtle and thrilling
and ancient on the planet.Maya has found this answer revealing and moving.MILES
I mean, Cabernets can be powerful
and exalting, but they seem prosaic
to me for some reason. By comparison.
How about you?MAYA
What about me?MILES
I don't know. Why are you into wine?MAYA
I suppose I got really into wine
originally through my ex-husband. He
had a big, kind of show-off cellar.
But then I found out that I have a
really sharp palate, and the more I
drank, the more I liked what it made
me think about.MILES
Yeah? Like what?MAYA
Like what a fraud he was.Miles laughs.MAYA
No, but I do like to think about the
life of wine, how it's a living thing.
I like to think about what was going
on the year the grapes were growing,
how the sun was shining that summer
or if it rained... what the weather
was like. I think about all those
people who tended and picked the
grapes, and if it's an old wine, how
many of them must be dead by now. I
love how wine continues to evolve,
how every time I open a bottle it's
going to taste different than if I
had opened it on any other day.
Because a bottle of wine is actually
alive -- it's constantly evolving
and gaining complexity. That is,
until it peaks -- like your '61 --
and begins its steady, inevitable
decline. And it tastes so fucking
good.

And my comments on it were this:

So what is Miles really talking about? In the External World of this screenplay universe, he’s talking about wine, but in the Internal World he’s talking about — himself. “Pinot needs constant care and attention… only the most patient and nurturing growers can do it… tap into Pinot’s most fragile, delicate qualities… only when someone has taken the time to truly understand its potential… coaxed into its fullest expression… the most haunting and brilliant and subtle and thrilling and ancient.” In that moment, this is Miles’ beatific expression of his own self-image, a misunderstood person, unappreciated novelist, and an unrequited romantic.

Now let’s look at Maya’s monologue to see who she’s really talking about: “It’s a living thing… continues to evolve… actually alive… constantly evolving, gaining complexity.” Again these words resonate about the speaker as Maya works as a waitress, however she’s evolving by taking college courses, learning about wine, and has aspirations about taking that up as a career.

In dialogue, subtext is where characters talk about Subject A (in the External World), but mean something about Subject B (in the Internal World). This scene from Sideways offers one of the best examples of subtext in recent memory.

In comments, Kalen wrote this:

This is, without question, the best Daily Dialogue article I’ve read on this site. I know you’ve written a lot, Scott, and I know many are really good. But this one, this one is money — BECAUSE IT’S SO FREAKING TRUE!

Think about how often we have these types of conversations in real life, where we’re talking about something on the surface but only using it as a facade to mask the subject we’re really talking about, which is often our inner battles and emotions that exist inside our heads. We’re constantly trying to express ourselves but more often than not we’re either not entirely comfortable with just coming out and saying it, or we don’t know how because we’ve never done it before. Using an external, everyday subject to underhandedly talk about another deeper, moral issue is, in my opinion, one of the hallmarks of great writing. This scene exemplifies that.

To which I responded with this:

Thanks, Kalen. In the dialogue class I teach as part of the Core curriculum, I spend a great deal of time talking about subtext. It’s easy to say, “Hey, write more subtext,” but how? The key is, as you might expect I’d say: Go into your characters. Specifically find out what their unconscious needs are and WHY they are unconscious. Also their CONSCIOUS needs, but why they may restrict themselves from expressing them. That’s one key to subtext, simply discovering what it is that lies hidden within the character.

Another thing: Creates obstacles that restrict a character from expressing their feelings directly and clearly. They can be INTERNAL obstacles, primarily of a psychological or emotional nature, or EXTERNAL obstacles, social circumstances which prevent on the nose speech.

A third thing: Look for BOBs (Bits Of Business) character can talk about and through which the subtext can emerge, such as the Sideways wine example. Characters can project their feelings onto the object. It’s like a talisman in a way, a physical object with a symbolic meaning.

Those are three ways to approach writing subtext.

So with all that, I figured why not a larger discussion on subtext. Why do you think it’s important? How do you go about writing dialogue with more subtext, less on-the-nose dialogue? See you in comments!

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