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Ernest Hemingway developed this into his famous 'Iceberg Theory,' but the technique predates him. The key is understanding that readers enjoy inferring meaning. When you trust them to recognize what's being avoided, you create a collaborative reading experience.

Practical steps:
1. Identify the central tension before writing dialogue
2. List everything characters would avoid saying about this tension
3. Create a parallel conversation about something mundane with unusual intensity
4. Add 2-3 'pressure leaks' where the real subject almost emerges
5. Let one character come closer to truth than the other—asymmetry builds drama

The breakthrough moment carries exponentially more power because readers have been waiting. The longer you delay this release, the greater its impact.

The Echo Technique transforms simple callback references into windows of psychological revelation. In Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment,' Raskolnikov repeatedly distorts his conversations with Porfiry in his own mind, each misremembering revealing his paranoia and guilt more clearly than any internal monologue could.

The key is calibration. Too obvious a distortion breaks believability; too subtle and readers miss it entirely. Aim for the emotional truth of how the character heard the words. A mother who heard 'I need space' as 'I don't love you anymore' reveals her deepest fear.

Advanced application: let the reader witness the original conversation, then encounter the distorted echo chapters later. This builds trust with your reader as a co-conspirator who understands the characters better than they understand themselves.