The best movies all share this in common: they inspire emotion.
Emotional stories grab audiences. People rave about the stories that make them feel fear, joy or sorrow. These movies win awards, pile up profits, and become lifelong favorites.
And all professional screenwriters know the foundational tool to make this happen: SUBTEXT.
In real life, people rarely say what they mean.
Near the end of WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, Sally tells Harry, “I hate you,” but it’s obvious to the audience that she means exactly the opposite – and that fills it with emotional power.
That makes it feel real. That’s Subtext.
When Subtext is missing, characters feel flat; scenes feel superficial and emotionally dull. But when it’s there, it immerses and hooks your audience, making them fall in love with your story by engaging them at a deep, subconscious level.
And by learning Subtext, you can become a master at engaging audiences!
“The difference in my writing has been phenomenal. I’ve been learning to be a writer for as long as I can remember. Thanks to this series of courses, I’m finally realizing the level I believed I was capable of, but couldn’t quite achieve before. ”
-Judy Mills (Optioned Screenwriter)
This class presents a step-by-step model to demystifying subtext and elevating your screenwriting. Every day of the class you’ll see new skills and then immediately put them to use in our assignments.
By the end of the ten days, you’ll have learned:
With Subtext in your skill set, you’ll know exactly how to write the depth that captivates producers and audiences alike.
“How I wish I’d found your course seven years ago when I wrote my first screenplay! I saw immediate change in my writing technique. Applying your subtext approach instantly revealed how quickly my writing could grow. It’s been an amazing journey up those Ten Subtext Assignments Steps!” – Suzye Marino
Day 1: Subtext and Its Revelations
Day 2: Creating Plots for Subtext
Day 3: Designing Characters for Subtext
Day 4: Subtext in Relationships
Day 5: Designing Scenes for Subtext
Day 6: Symbols as Subtext
Day 7: The Cover-up
Day 8: Language Patterns For Subtext
Day 9: Multiple Meanings
Day 10: Subtext In Your Scripts!
Ben Wilson
Hal – your stuff has given me a detailed process to develop subtext – that’s what I needed.
Margo Myles
I learned how to enrich and expand the dialogue and agendas of the characters to guide each scene to unfold and build into the next, until the conclusion of the story.
Jane Bernard
Learning about the different levels of subtext throughout a script was helpful. The most valuable insight is the understanding that subtext creates empathy between the audience and the character which makes the story pop. Thanks.
Ann Jagger
I was dumbfounded to learn there are so many different ways to create amazing subtext. Lots of those ways are relatively easy too. I watched my boring dialogue come alive, and I’m just a beginner. In less than two weeks, I’ve elevated my writing 100 fold using these skills.
If you’re interested in standing out above your competition, you seriously need to consider taking this class. Whether this is your first screenplay or your tenth, honing your ability to write killer subtext takes your script to a new level that could get you noticed and help fast track your career as a screenwriter.
Elizabeth Aaron
Yes. I’d say if you want to bring more depth to your screenplay in general, the Subtext Secrets course is a quick way to dive deep in understanding how to do that.
Sharon Leighton
The idea that subtext is not just found in dialogue, but set up through plot and character, was a breakthrough for me. Now I can see how it works. I’m not confident of my own ability to handle it yet, but I am more confident than I was and I can see that I will be able to improve by practising these skills on my own.
I would say that if you have any questions or confusion about subtext, this is the place to go. All my questions on the subject were answered, and I now feel I understand what subtext is and how to go about using it.
James Tichenor
Yes. This class provides useful tools and a coherent way of looking at subtext that makes it more accessible on a ready basis to the practicing fiction writer.
Seat Barrett
Yes, I would recommend this class. Subtext Secrets is an absolute must have, must learn and must experience in order to write the kind of movies with the kind of plots and kind of characters that say the kind of things in the kind of scenes that make an audience go “Wow, that is an incredible writer!” “How in the hell did he/she come up with that?!” “That movie was amazing!” “I’ll never forget it!”–
Jacqueline Devlin
If you thought you knew subtext, but found it difficult, if your characters seem flat, if you’ve been accused of “on the nose” dialogue, Hal Croasmun’s subtext course can cure that!
Noree Nictoria
Yes – it can make the difference between two scripts on the same subject, and being intrigued by the world of one, but not the other. So much of what makes the characters’ lives interesting in buried in what they aren’t saying underneath what they are saying, what they are and aren’t doing, and things you can (or can’t) see happening in their environments.
Michael Christopher
I had already been writing with some subtext, but nowhare near the degree of what’s covered in the class. The class is very comprehensive considering it’s centered around just one word, subtext. It brought home how subtext can make a night and day difference in the story.
I would recommend this class because it may be the single most important aspect of interesting writing.
William Beasley
I finally learned how to use subtext. In most of my writing, my dialogue was direct without using this valuable tool.
I would recommend this class to others to learn how to give your characters dialogue deeper meaning and how to construct better plots.
Clorine Jackson
This class is really terrific, it explains so much and gets you writing to make a better story in your writing efforts and helps to extend your ideas. I was told my TV series I wrote some time ago needs development, so now I know exactly what they meant when they said that. This course is an important step I think, and I can’t wait to apply it to all the scripts I have written so far.