Photo courtesy of Phu Son Nguyen

Welcome to Special Edition Wednesday! Today’s post is written by a man with a name you’re already familiar with, but don’t worry; there’s no big revelations today. Greg is a Dorchak by blood, and living proof that talent is hereditary. He writes from Texas and a background in writing, producing and acting, make him a prime go-to guy for all the screenwriting advice you could need.

Greg’s advice applies to more than just screenwriting. In it are the basic tools for writing anything.

You’re welcome to try to get him to tell embarrassing stories from Deb’s childhood, but while we’re waiting for those, here’s some of the tidbits of screenwriting wisdom he wanted to share with the Sirius team and friends.

We’re proud to have for this week’s Special Edition Wednesday, writer and actor extraordinaire Greg Dorchak!

We’ve all done it. You go to see a movie and half an hour into the film you’re thinking to yourself, “Holy cow. I can do better than this!” The story has holes in it a mile wide, the dialogue makes you laugh–and not in a good way, the characters are boring, and… isn’t there supposed to be a plot?

To be fair, a lot of those problems can be attributed to many factors. But for the most part, the screenwriter is to blame for a really horrible film–and conversely to credit with a really good one. The reason being that if you start with a really great script, somebody else has to work overtime to screw it up.

Start With a Great Story

Let’s say you tell a friend, “Hey, you’ve got to see SuchandSuch – it’s awesome!” They ask what it’s about, and you say, “X.”

That “X” is the premise, and if that little blurb doesn’t interest your friend, they may not go to see the movie. That “X” is what you have to start with when deciding to write a screenplay. Let me give some examples of X:

• A psychologist tries to help a young boy who claims he can see dead people.
• A group of bachelor partiers wake up in a Las Vegas hotel room with no recollection of the night before.
• A journalist for a major newspaper goes undercover as a high school student to write a story on what a First Kiss feels like.

Now, whether or not any of those particular ideas interest you, these are what the screenwriters first comes up with – the story. This is the most important part of the writing process; the better your story idea, the easier it is to make a great script from it.

Once you have a solid story idea, flesh it out in 4 or 5 five broad strokes:

Story: A psychologist tries to help a young boy who can see dead people.

1. Psychologist, Bob, wins an award for helping children, but loses a patient the same night from neglect, career is ruined
2. A year later, Bob is given case of child, Bill, who claims to see and hear dead people
3. Bob tries to bond with Bill, finds claims are actually true
4. Bob learns Bill’s dark secret, figures out how to help
5. Bill is cured, Bob is redeemed

Once you have this rough outline of your story, then the real fun begins.

Flesh It Out

Flesh out your story by filling in the spaces between your broad strokes with more detailed information. An important thing to keep in mind here is that nothing is written in stone and unchangeable. Your story will start to take on a life of its own, the characters will do things you didn’t expect, and if you have an epiphany for a really cool twist at the end, go with the flow.

Remember–this isn’t going up on the screen yet. This is you putting together a story. More than likely, no one but you will ever read this rough stuff. Have fun with it, and don’t be afraid to explore the possibilities.

After you have fleshed out your story and tweaked some of the broad strokes, you will use this fleshed-out outline as a guide when you are actually writing the script, referring back to it as needed.

Write The Script

Okay – you’ve done your outline, the story sounds really good, and you already have some scenes planned out in your head – go ahead and write those first to get you going. Don’t worry about writing out of order – the important thing is to get going, and a blank page can be quite daunting. So write those two or three scenes you see in your head. Write the end first if you want – just get going. All writers write differently, so don’t let this bother you.

As you start, you will probably be doing what I like to call Brain-Dump. This is where you just write and get everything out onto the page. Write what you can each day, and the next day read over what you wrote the day before, and then get into the new material. You can go back and tweak and rewrite later. Just get your story out.

When you’re done writing, put the script aside for a day or two. Don’t think about it; let it sit. When you do come back to it, you’ll do so with a fresh eye and brain, and then you can wade through it and edit as necessary. When you’re done with that edit, believe it or not, you will have what is called a First Draft. You’ll be proud of yourself, and think this is the awesomest thing ever written.

It isn’t. It’s a first draft, and as good as it may be – it can and will be better.

Take that first draft and have some friends read it, listen to their feedback. This doesn’t mean you have to do everything everybody says, but listen to the feedback. Sometimes you will hear the same thing over and over again, like: “the lead should not kill the puppy.” This could be something you want to change; if enough people don’t like it, it might need to come out. Listen to all thoughtful, constructive criticism, it helps you be a better writer.

Some Leftovers

This is all a very, very basic starters article. There is a lot more that goes into screenwriting once you decide to give it a go for real. But it all starts with desire and a good story. Most screenplays will average around 90-120 pages – shorter lengths for comedies, longer for dramas, and scripts tend to run about a minute a page. You can look online to find books and articles and classes, with info on how to properly format, etc.

Another thing you will need to do is find a site that has scripts to read; read as much as you can. Start with scripts of movies you have seen so you can see how a page comes to life. Once you have your script at about a third draft or so, it may be ready to enter into competitions–there are many very good ones. Find them online, submit to one or two and see how you do, maybe get some professional feedback and see where you need to put in more work and where you’re already doing well.

Don’t get discouraged. Write, and don’t judge yourself; let others do that for themselves. You just tell your story.

- Greg

Greg Dorchak is a writer, cartoonist, and actor living in Austin,TX. He was surprised to find another Dorchak in Las Vegas who is completely unrelated to him yet just as talented. He has been writing screenplays for 15 years and has also written and performed sketch comedy with improv troupes over the years. He is now starting to produce his own films, and is writing and illustrating children’s books. See more at www.blueyak.net. By the way, he and Deb are cousins.

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