With creative writing, and even with art and photography, a text or work can be more powerful if it shows the thing (the person, event, issue, landscape) without directly mentioning it. It’s not just about leaving room for the imagination, but about adding depth by going beyond the obvious. Subtext and hinting is expressive and entails more work, thought, and observation. It also offers fresh new perspectives.
For example, an obvious way to describe a forest would be to say that it is full of trees—but what if you don’t mention the trees, and instead look at the ground and the soft buildup of dead leaves that twitch as beetles scramble about under them. Likewise, there can be gentle beauty when describing stripes of light on the bed, rather than saying ‘it was morning’, or by showing the woman dropping her bag in the middle of the hallway when she gets home then sitting down on the floor, rather than saying ‘she was sad.’
Subtext is most often talked about in dialogue, where there is tension going on in between the spoken words, that tells the real story. The characters greet each other in the street, say they are well, but their hug is quicker than usual, the words are hurried, their eyes miss each other, the sky is dark grey, its very windy and stray rubbish crashes into their legs. These hints tell us that something isn’t right between them. The rushing suggests something is coming.
So hinting, indirectly showing, and subtext can be great for building tension, implying meaning, and revealing motivation and feelings. It can also be wonderful for sensitivity. An empty bird cage may be more powerful and moving, than directly showing the dead pet bird.
Choose one or more of the following and show it (by writing, drawing, painting), without ever mentioning what is in brackets:
- A world without borders (world, borders, countries, migration).
- Sunset (colours, lighting, sky)
- A tall tree (leaves, branches, roots)
- The last date. For some reason, at least one of the characters knows it will be their last date. Maybe they are moving, or sick, or planning to break up. (that it’s the last date, nor the reason why it is).
- A gravely ill person (their body or that they are sick)
- A person in a room (a loved one who has just died)
- Violent intent (the perpetrator, their weapon)
- Insomnia (bedroom, night time, tiredness)
- Wisdom (dialogue or spoken words)
- Two people disagreeing about getting an abortion (abortion, hospitals, health, choice, babies) – this one is inspired by Hemmingway’s Hills like White Elephants.
- Flirtation or sexuality (dialogue, condoms, clothing, skin, bed, kissing, touching, massage or anything else that is obvious – try to use just expressions or just every day objects)
- Collective anger (protests, rallies, broken things)
- Two contrasting people who want two different things (what they want)
- Age (wrinkles, physical limitations, memories)
- Night time (stars, moon, darkness)
- Trauma or fear (the person experiencing that)
- Something has gone wrong – hint at it almost as though it were a mystery. The thing that has gone wrong can be that someone has lost their sense of self, or a COP conference has failed again to take decisive action (what has actually gone wrong)
resistance words 