Text, Context, and Subtext
Understanding the Three Layers of Storytelling
Every written story has three layers in common — text, context, and subtext. These layers contribute to our understanding of a story, but we may not understand each layer’s role.
To use these devices to their best advantage, it’s important to know what they mean, what their purpose is and how they contribute to the richness of your story.
Each layer works together to deepen our understanding of the story’s or author’s message.
Text is the most basic layer. It’s the words we see on the page. Without context or subtext, it’s possible to misunderstand their meaning. To understand how miscommunications can happen with just this layer, we have only to visit any public forum.
We read a post, interpret its meaning and if we’re moved to do so, we leave a comment. It sounds straightforward enough, but if your response is sarcastic it might be lost on some folks who’d take your answer at face value. That’s why we need emojis and acronyms like ‘lol’ or ‘jk’ in forums to help communicate the mood and intention of the text we wrote. Or we use [/sarcasm] after making our point.
Context is the layer that adds information to the text you wrote so the reader understands your message, or what is happening to the character. Context is…
