Writing Subtext: What Lies Beneath

Everything is not as simple as it seems. This applies to both life and art, especially when it comes to cinema: after all, in scripts, especially outstanding ones, besides the text, there is always a subtext. Linda Seger, a brilliant film connoisseur and authoritative screenwriting guru, has worked on more than 2,000 films and advised filmmakers around the world. The uniqueness of her book is that, although we all intuitively understand what subtext is, no one before Linda Seger undertook to systematically describe it. To unravel the subtext means to understand the hidden motives and intentions of the characters, to learn to read the language of the author's metaphors and statements. The author briefly, clearly and with many examples from films teaches to detect subtext in allegories, omissions, analogies, facial expressions and gestures of characters, in intonations, pauses and even in scenario genres. This is the first step to understanding something important not only in the script, book or movie, but also in ourselves. For many, Linda Seger's work has become not only a professional guide, but also a real life textbook.