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Keep It Simple Sweetheart
How to grab an audience and change a nation.
Sometimes, as writers, we make things too complicated. I’m writing a screenplay, and it’s easy to throw too much exposition into the mix. My writers’ group members are happy to point that out to me. I have only written two screenplays, and have learned through trial, error, and harsh but friendly critique, that the less you tell and the more you show, the better your work will be. Action speaks louder than words. But simple, strong language sets the stage.
Last night, as I watched season three of “Hap and Leonard,” I heard dialogue that is the epitome of simplicity. Hap, who is Caucasian, asks his friend Leonard, who is Black, “Why do Black people hold onto the church? I would think they would lose faith after everything that happens to Black people.”
Leonard answered, “Because the white man won’t take church from us.” So straightforward and simple. One line of dialogue carried a whole history within it.
Granted this pithy interchange didn’t go into detail about the fact that slave owners forbade slaves to practice the religions they brought from Africa. Nor did it address the issue of Black people being forced to “become Christians,” so slave owners could use their version of Christianity to ensure docility. Even many modern Black parishioners don’t give this history a lot of…
