Now that's a tough one...every advice would be highly appreciated. I think that would be another great monthly series - Analyzing Subtext Scenes or so (since you're analyzing scene description this month...which is another great lecture btw!!) Thanks for the help

The first two things that hit me: 1. If your dialogue sounds like something off a daytime soap opera, you've NOT mastered subtext. 2. If your dialogue is like ... like a snug, little Speedo leaving nothing to the imagination, you've NOT mastered subtext. But those tips fall more into the what-not-to-do category. Tips FOR writing subtext?? An occasional trick I'll use in drafting dialogue is to imagine a tape recorder in my character's head, recording. And I get to listen to their exact, raw, true thoughts -- that brutally honest, shoot from the hip stuff, and that "Oh how I wish I could muster the courage to say this if I wasn't such a pussy" stuff. To name two spins on a character's responsive thoughts. There are many more, of course. Then, having that knowledge of what he/she really, truly thinks and feels, I find that "something else" he or she can talk about, think about, feel .. and then say. So .. I guess one tip is: find that "something else". The other trick is the ol' "Elephant in the Room" --- if you can figure out what that is, then you'll know what to circumnavigate with the dialogue. Come to think of it, I like this second tip better. I fear the first -- the inner tape recorder -- might tempt some of you to consider using Voice Overs. And I loathe Voice Overs, so God forbid I lead you down that road!!

I love writing subtext - I think about the issue/theme/whatever that the characters are trying to discuss and then I embed it in a scene where they are talking about something completely different, but referencing back to what they are really thinking - as an example - using a cooking scene where the couple is discussing the missing ingredient in a recipe but what they're really talking about is the missing ingredient in their relationship. Love this stuff!!