Give Them Something To Read In Between The Lines

'If what's happening in your scene is what's happening in your scene, you're doing something wrong.' It's vital to give people something to read in between the lines.

Somebody much cleverer and more successful than I once said or wrote words to that effect.

And ever since, I've tried to heed them.

It's all about subtext, innit? Reading between the lines.

Having two people just talking about what they're talking about doesn't make for interesting reading or viewing.

There's got to be, as Alfred Hitchcock suggested, something like a bomb ticking under the table, or something that the audience knows that the people in the scene don't.

Something that makes what they're saying mean more than just what they're saying means, if you know what I mean.