Writing Politically Correct

Submitted by bobgunner on Tue, 08/23/2011 - 09:08

• Blog

I am finishing up a screenplay project that has probably been the hardest project I have ever written because it requires I write it politically correct.

How I ever found myself so interested in an incident that was one of the saddest days in racial relationship history is a mystery to me.  But I did.

I have one friend who out-and-out said that he did not see how I could write this project, because he felt I could not accurately depict both sides of the story.

I told him he was wrong, I have been a journalist all of my life and have pride in presenting both sides of the story, leaving the reader (or movie audience) to evaluate and make a personal judgement of the facts.

To tell a story correctly when it involves historical events that happened so long ago, one has to really do their research and pick the best representation of the facts and timeline as possible, while still entertaining.

I spent two years just reading and researching the event to the best of my capability.  When I began the actual writing, was when I realized that I had to be some what politically correct in the language and slang terms of those days.  These days people get offended real easy.

Now that I am almost finished, I have come to realize that some offensive words and phrases are needeed when producing an epic of historical fact.

Writing a historical drama is alot like time travelling, and your readers/viewers need to realize that you are re-creating what things really were at that time and place.  I think I have handeled it well, but I am sure some will still be offended to some degree. To them, I suggest that they realize that heavily sugar-coating the way things were does not make it better, sometimes the knowledge of exactly how wrong an incident was handled and what the results were, is an important lesson requiring personal opinion.  Opening a new window to such stories is exactly why I love being a writer.  And I hope others feel the same.