1. Give Your Character An Objective
We all have a goal, whether we realize it or not: "big picture" goals (buying a house) and "small picture" goals (going to the bathroom). In the above example, we can see that the boy's goal was to ask the girl out, while the girl's goal was to let the boy know that she was not interested in him Your characters must have something that drives them The only thing that will drive them is a goal: a goal Also, having a purpose will automatically add context to everything they say
2. Give Your Character An Action
Now that the character has a goal, you need to give him the means to achieve it. Try not to have your character try to achieve their goal by deliberately asking for it Instead, let them express what they want, using body language or tone of voice. In the example I shared with you, the girl blows a raspberry on the boy to show that she is not interested in him Raspberry blowing (albeit childish) is an action a girl takes to achieve her goal (making it clear to the boy that she is not interested in him) His action also gives a clue to his subtext Giving your character action allows the reader to read between the lines of your story – and reveal what the character really wants without you having to explain what the character really wants.
3. Make Your Characters Talk In Gibberish
It might sound strange, but when you replace all your character’s dialogue with gibberish, the subtext is revealed (or at least hinted at). For instance:
Boy meets girl.
Boy asks: “Je janga pota blub?”
Boy smiles. Girl frowns.
Girl says: “Glooby.”
Boy asks: “Jin go ploopa?”
Boy walks towards girl. Girl steps back.
Girl blows a raspberry.
Even though we have no idea what they’re saying, it’s pretty clear to us that this girl doesn’t like this boy. How do we know that, if all they did was talk in gibberish? SUBTEXT. If you replace your character’s dialogue with gibberish and it’s impossible to know what’s going on, then it probably means you have to develop more subtext. On the other hand, if you did a great job of developing the subtext of the story, then your reader should have a general idea of what’s going on in the scene—even when the characters are talking nonsense.
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