glamorous model, but who is also just human, and suffering under the pressure to be beautiful.
Images can also be simple, just tiny highlights in your larger scene: A tree in the night could suddenly look like a face, portending danger; a character who longs to be pregnant could see the faces of babies in her mashed potatoes, and so on.
Of course, you can always opt to work with the more abstract world of symbols. The great mythologist Joseph Campbell said, "The function of symbols is to give you a sense of 'A ha! Yes. I know what it is, it's myself.'"
Symbols elicit meaning without having to be explained; they add a subtle touch of texture to your narrative.
The Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges was very fond of using symbols—like labyrinths, hexagrams, and even a book itself—to represent the complexities of human thought and spiritual mystery.
If your theme is about finding peace, you might plant a dove in the eaves outside a scene, or use an olive branch or a white flag somewhere along the way. The key is to plant your symbols subtly so that the reader doesn't feel as though this subtext is being waved in his face in an obvious manner. You don't need your character to say, "Look, a dove, that makes me think of peace!" A symbol could just turn up as a design on a character's shirt, or on the cover of a book on a desk in someone's office.
Innuendo
It is inevitable that characters in your fiction, as in life, will come across truths that they don't want to admit to themselves or others. Sometimes, this information is obvious to those around them first.
It's important when developing each scene that you plant seeds of things to come later on. Innuendo is a great way to deal with plot developments that haven't come to pass yet; it also helps round out your characters, since innuendo can come in the form of teasing or accusation and usually elicits high emotion.
For instance, say the princess of a medieval kingdom cannot let on that she is in love with a peasant boy because it is a match that can never be. There's nothing more wickedly juicy than a scene in which this piece of information, which she can't accept, is pointed out to her by someone she'd rather not hear it from—perhaps one of her ladies in waiting, who is supposed to keep her opinions in check; or the princess's sister, who will inherit the crown if the princess abdicates it.
"Nice tights," the sister might say to the princess when the peasant boy stops in to deliver a herd of sheep.
The princess, of course, will be shocked and outraged. "As if I'd noticed!" she might say with a rosy hue of indignation on her cheeks.
Innuendo can go further than teasing. You can use it to suggest that someone is responsible for murder or robbery, or to suggest that a character wants another character dead or gone. Innuendo is a way to subtly point fingers so that the reader's attention begins to move just slightly ahead of the scene at hand, layering complication into your scene.
Unconscious or Uncontrollable Behavior
Characters will do all kinds of things intentionally in your scenes, from tenderly caressing an injured animal, to jumping out of flame-engulfed buildings. But there is a whole world of behavior that you can employ in scenes that adds subtext not only to the scene at hand, but to the reader's understanding of the characters and your plot.
A character with a secret history of having been locked in closets for punishment as a child might break into a sweat each time he is in a confined space such as a car or an elevator. Perhaps you don't reveal this detail about the character's past until near the very end of your book, but you can plant seeds in the reader's mind through subtext. If your character sweats each time he's in the car, the elevator, or even a small New York apartment, this registers in the reader's unconscious without having to be plainly stated, thus creating a question that the reader is curious about (why is he sweating?), but
Images can also be simple, just tiny highlights in your larger scene: A tree in the night could suddenly look like a face, portending danger; a character who longs to be pregnant could see the faces of babies in her mashed potatoes, and so on.
Of course, you can always opt to work with the more abstract world of symbols. The great mythologist Joseph Campbell said, "The function of symbols is to give you a sense of 'A ha! Yes. I know what it is, it's myself.'"
Symbols elicit meaning without having to be explained; they add a subtle touch of texture to your narrative.
The Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges was very fond of using symbols—like labyrinths, hexagrams, and even a book itself—to represent the complexities of human thought and spiritual mystery.
If your theme is about finding peace, you might plant a dove in the eaves outside a scene, or use an olive branch or a white flag somewhere along the way. The key is to plant your symbols subtly so that the reader doesn't feel as though this subtext is being waved in his face in an obvious manner. You don't need your character to say, "Look, a dove, that makes me think of peace!" A symbol could just turn up as a design on a character's shirt, or on the cover of a book on a desk in someone's office.
Innuendo
It is inevitable that characters in your fiction, as in life, will come across truths that they don't want to admit to themselves or others. Sometimes, this information is obvious to those around them first.
It's important when developing each scene that you plant seeds of things to come later on. Innuendo is a great way to deal with plot developments that haven't come to pass yet; it also helps round out your characters, since innuendo can come in the form of teasing or accusation and usually elicits high emotion.
For instance, say the princess of a medieval kingdom cannot let on that she is in love with a peasant boy because it is a match that can never be. There's nothing more wickedly juicy than a scene in which this piece of information, which she can't accept, is pointed out to her by someone she'd rather not hear it from—perhaps one of her ladies in waiting, who is supposed to keep her opinions in check; or the princess's sister, who will inherit the crown if the princess abdicates it.
"Nice tights," the sister might say to the princess when the peasant boy stops in to deliver a herd of sheep.
The princess, of course, will be shocked and outraged. "As if I'd noticed!" she might say with a rosy hue of indignation on her cheeks.
Innuendo can go further than teasing. You can use it to suggest that someone is responsible for murder or robbery, or to suggest that a character wants another character dead or gone. Innuendo is a way to subtly point fingers so that the reader's attention begins to move just slightly ahead of the scene at hand, layering complication into your scene.
Unconscious or Uncontrollable Behavior
Characters will do all kinds of things intentionally in your scenes, from tenderly caressing an injured animal, to jumping out of flame-engulfed buildings. But there is a whole world of behavior that you can employ in scenes that adds subtext not only to the scene at hand, but to the reader's understanding of the characters and your plot.
A character with a secret history of having been locked in closets for punishment as a child might break into a sweat each time he is in a confined space such as a car or an elevator. Perhaps you don't reveal this detail about the character's past until near the very end of your book, but you can plant seeds in the reader's mind through subtext. If your character sweats each time he's in the car, the elevator, or even a small New York apartment, this registers in the reader's unconscious without having to be plainly stated, thus creating a question that the reader is curious about (why is he sweating?), but
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