I never want to dumb it down. If there's any simplification, it's just a simplification to make sure that the reader understands the point that the character is trying to make.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I feel character description from a book can mislead you and actually make you fall off course when you're representing a character using a script.
The simplification of anything is always sensational.
I always tell my students to complicate your characters: never make it easy for the reader. Nobody is ever one thing. That's what makes characters compelling.
What I really don't like is oversimplification.
When you think of a great twist or a red herring or a way of misdirecting the reader, it is good, but you know that they are just tricks at the end of the day, and the way to keep interest is to write characters that people care about.
I find my readers to be very smart, and there is no reason to write dumb.
It's the writer's job to disarm the reader of his logic, to just make the reader feel.
If I write something down, it's normally just a sharp one-liner.
I think the idea is to try and understand everything about the characters and where the character is coming from, from their point of view, why they say what they do. And not, 'Oh, but I would never say that. Why does the character say that?' But then making it as personal as possible.
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.