technique - Where in the writing process do you work in subtext?

In the BBC Sherlock fandom there are many lively discussions about how a lot of the story takes place in subtext: Person C is a "mirror" for Protagonist A, water symbolizes emotions, drinking tea means X and drinking coffee means Y, the phone represents the heart, and so on. Writer William Goldman has a set of "writing commandments," one of them being "don't always write 'on the nose' — actions should have more than one meaning."

So when writing a story, at what point do you plan for these items? Writing one plot with a few twists and subplots is already complicated. How do you insert mirrors, symbols, and subtext? Do you have a separate thread in your mindmap or outline alongside the main thread in the outline form? Write the whole thing and work in the subtext in the third draft? Is there a particular point in the process when it's easier?

Answer

I think a lot of subtext inserted into fiction is when it represents something that the writer wishes to portray, but cannot.

In one of the examples of Sherlock, like the phone of Irene Adler representing her heart, she is shown throughout the episode to be incredibly heartless and unemotional. She works for Moriarty, and targets indiscriminately using her 'talents' in order to gain money and power.

However, had she truly been this way, then the ending would not nearly have worked so well (or even made sense at all), with the reveal that

she was in love with Sherlock.

Removing the representation removes the significant subtext needed to show the difference between what the characters believe is happening, and what is really trying to be portrayed in the story.

So with having to represent her character as cold throughout the episode, and needing to show her as vulnerable and in love later, the phone is the bridge between the two. The phone was the way to show that even though she thought she had all of the power in the relationship,

she had given her heart to Sherlock long before, and his name was literally the key to it.

It's the same with water representing emotion: if emotion is present in the story then there isn't anything else that needs to represent it. People being "mirrors" to other characters focuses the audiences on a particular aspect of the character that cannot be overtly shown without simply coming out and saying "hey, look at this!"

So if the author wants to represent that two childhood friends are growing apart throughout a story as they get older, but wants the characters to believe that they are as close as they ever were, then they can insert a tree house into the story that they played in as children, but falls into disrepair over the years.

Then when they eventually fall out, the reader isn't completely shocked at the fact they went from best friends to indifference: they instinctively understand that they have been growing apart for years and the climax was just the straw that broke the camels back.

I think later drafts might be better to insert such symbols or subtextual metaphors, so that whatever is needed to be represented is fully fleshed out and a suitable choice can be made to represent the missing link within the narrative. Possibly the best time would be after beta readers can give feedback, so that anything that they feel was not very well established can be worked upon with something that is not overtly part of the story.