Subtext creates depth to writing. It allows the writer to address and unify the themes in her novel. However, writing subtext isn’t always easy. The types of subtext an author brings to her novel should be deliberate and well chosen. The subtext has to mean something. It can’t be thrown in haphazardly because the novel requires it. There are a number of ways subtext can be brought into your novel.
Instructions
1. What is the novel about? Is it a romance? Is it a satire about modern politics? Is it a spy thriller, a mystery, or sci-fi? Or is it a slice-of-life, literary novel? Determine what your story is about first.
2. What subtext do you want to add to your novel? For instance, if your novel is about a grandmother who feels abandoned by her family after she is placed in a nursing home, then the subtext of your novel is about how our society treats the elderly. If your novel is a sci-fi thriller about a society that forces poor women to become breeders to supply children for the wealthy, such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaiden’s Tale, then the subtext of your story could be about reproductive rights for women. Look at your story’s plot and determine the subtext in it.
3. Look for ways in which the subtext of your novel can be addressed. Subtext can be addressed through your novel’s plot, characters, scenes, dialogue, literary tropes (metaphors, similes, etc.) and other literary elements. For instance, using one of the examples above, the elderly woman in the nursing home discovers that her roommate is being treated awfully by one of the hospital attendants. She reports the attendant to the hospital director, but her complaints are condescendingly ignored. This plot highlights the story’s subtext: that the elderly are often neglected and their needs ignored in society.
4. Symbolism is another literary element that can be used as subtext in your novel. In the Great Gatsby, the green light at the end of the pier represents the novel’s subtext about the American Dream and Gatsby’s own desire to achieve it at any cost. In another scene, Gatsby shows the narrator, Nick Garroway, his collection of tailored clothes. The expensive clothes represent the shallowness of the society Gatsby longs to belong to. Each of these symbols highlight the novel’s subtext about the moral costs on those who struggle to achieve the American Dream.
5. Be subtle. Don’t use cliches or overly familiar literary tropes to address your novel’s subtext. If your novel is about good vs. evil, don’t create characters or plots that are simplistic archetypes. For instance, the “good” character battling evil might have a drinking problem. The “evil” character might belong and donate to various charitable organizations. Always try to upset your reader’s expectations. In the example of the elderly woman, your character might be someone who has lived a fiercely independent life. Perhaps she was a journalist. Her investigation into the way the nursing home staffs its nursing attendants and her efforts to report that to the general public will make far more sense then, but it can also add even more subtext to your novel since it will show that the elderly still have something to offer to society and should not be ignored.
