 Drama: November 06, 2024 Issue [#12816] |
This week: What Lies Under Edited by: Joy  
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"Within forty minutes, the voice inside my head was screaming, 'What have I gotten myself into?'"
Cheryl Strayed
"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass".
Anton Chekhov
For me really good acting is about subtext.
Clive Owen
"The gasping pools were choked with ash and crawling muds, sickly white and grey, as if the mountains had vomited the filth of their entrails upon the lands about".
J.R.R. Tolkien
He watched their flight: bird after bird: a dark flash, a swerve, a flash again, a dart aside, a curve, a flutter of wings.
Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
I like bringing little subtle complexities to a character. It's all about the subtext. No one can really describe or fully know another human being, even if they get a hook on them. It's more about instinctively knowing whether you like somebody or not.
Ray Stevenson
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Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about what can be implied or shown as a metaphorical meaning in an action or dialogue.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
If I told you a joke, then I added, "Let me tell you what I mean," and then, I over-explained that joke, I bet you'd be bored stiff. You'd even want to cover your ears and run away from me, wouldn't you! This reaction would be because the joke was in what wasn't said or described, and your fun depended on your active part in grasping its nuance and delicacy.
In the same vein, most successful fiction depends on suggestions beneath the surface of dialogue or narrative. It is what a character means but doesn't say it outright. It is also in implied meanings of events and symbols. Why is this important? It is important because you are giving your readers the thrill of discovery and insight.
This may come easier to the writers and directors of plays and movie scripts because this hinting at a significant something is mostly shown by the acting. In the visual mediums, we can see the characters' expressions and the setting and the environment, and we may even be swayed by a theme music. Us fiction writers, however, we have only our pens and paper or keyboards, as the case maybe.
So, let me try to explore a few ways we can do this in our stories or longer fiction.
 In Dialogue: We can downplay or understate, and insert double-edged meanings and comments or ambiguity. We can also use miscommunication between the characters, as when they don't fully understand one another or when real-life interactions can take place. This lets us writers create dramatic irony and add tension as the result of a few or several misunderstandings.
For example, we all knew that Forrest Gump was not a real person, and still we felt so moved by his words.
Body language: Some body language can be symbolic like a character arranging real-life objects to gain some order in his internal chaos. Then, unreliable narrators also create another dimension or subtext, as well as when the internal conflict is understated.
For example, a character may insist, "I am fine!" while she grips at something or looks away.
Settings: Locations, like a city or a farm, can reflect the character's internal state, as well as the weather and the environment. This contrasts or reflects the inner landscape of that character.
"Come to a place known for flip-flops, lobster pots, and porch swings. It’s a place to relax, a place to feel at home." Miracles of Marble Cove by Camy Tang
Objects and Symbols: These can be personal holding emotional weight or they can be something in nature. It could be a photo frame or the sun in the sky.
For example: “Shooting stars are not stars at all. They re just rocks that enter the atmosphere and catch fire under friction. What we wish on when we see one is only a trail of debris.” From My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Patterns and Repetition: When the character repeats something through his words or actions, it can take on a new and different meaning each time such as when Forrest Gump started with, "Mama always said..,". This goes for repeating imagery also, as these can create a mood or symbolize something.
Contrasts: We can place characters with opposing views and traits in the same scene or in the narrative, and we can also give the same character contrasting thoughts.
For example, "It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy—it increased her value in his eyes....
There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion." From, The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
If you haven't done so already, I hope you consider adding under and overtones, subtext, and hidden agendas into your fiction, so your readers can become active participants in uncovering the hidden meanings in your stories.
Until next time! 
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 This Issue's Tip: Sometimes, just one sentence with meaning can contain the meaning of a whole written paragraph or a page. Take "We'll always have Paris" in the movie Casablanca. Rick could have said instead, "What a shame, Ilsa! We can’t be together again. I am hurting but I need to be high-handed and you need to stick with that other guy. So don’t forget our time in Paris. Think about us, always.” See, if Rick said the second thing, we would never remember it, but "We'll always have Paris!" will be in our minds, possibly taking even newer meanings with our own remembrances.
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