In The Art of Subtext, Beyond Plot, Charles Baxter writes, “A certain kind of story does not depend so much on what the characters say they want as what they actually want but can’t own up to. This inability to be direct creates a subterranean chasm within the story, where genuine desires hide beneath the superficial ones. The conflict here begins with the self, not the world. Another kind of story depends on the discrepancy between what the characters have wanted and what they actually get.” (p. 37)
Subtext is the elusive soul of storytelling, the story’s subconscious or as Baxter defines it the “subterranean” of the story. It makes sense then to pair subtext with another elusive craft element that emerging writers often struggle with: voice. Marrying these two concepts seems potent as often inflection and tone of the story’s voice transport the reader into the subterranean, the elusive and emotional world beyond plot. When defining voice, I’ve found Elizabeth George’s definition helpful. In Write Away, she states “that the voice of the point-of-view character is not your voice unless you are the character. So, the voice of the point-of-view character is not your way of speaking and it’s not your way of thinking. […] It comes from the character analysis you’ve created. A character’s voice comes from his background.”