An Insiders Guide to Screenwriting with Katie Torpey

Bringing Out The Story In Us

Anyone who has dipped their feet … or even just their toes into the waters of screenplays and scripts will know that it isn’t a bed of soft sand. So when you see an advertisement from the HamletHub that Katie Torpey, an award-winning Screenwriter/Filmmaker, is going to be conducting scriptwriting classes at the Ridgefield Playhouse, it is okay to jump on that brand new sofa you just had delivered.

Across the parking lot, down a flight of stairs, tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the playhouse was where we met once a week for 8 weeks. Fifteen complete strangers from different parts of Fairfield County sat across from each other in a neat circle outlined by folding chairs. Maybe personal experience or pure fiction, but if we were in that class it was because we had a story we wanted to share. Katie provided us with the foundation that was needed to translate this idea floating in our minds into a screenplay format. Through discussions, hand-outs and sample scripts, we learnt about structuring a story across acts, building characters, plots and conflicts while at the same time moving the story forward without compromising any of them.

Every session would start with a discussion of a movie or a TV show we may have watched the prior week. What did we as an audience expect at the start and how did we feel at the end. What worked and what didn’t from a technical and structural point of view. It wasn’t long before we realized that to write a good script, we needed to watch movies - a lot of them. And I can guarantee you than none of us will ever again watch a movie without questioning its structure, analyzing its characters and dissecting its plot.

With every passing week, we each had formed a clear picture of our story’s flow and many of us even had the first 15-30 pages written. Brainstorming and reading our drafts with the group was a very bonding experience. In a way, it gave a glimpse into a very intimate part of our being – our minds.

We may have walked in as strangers, but we surely walked out with an invisible tie that connected us all. Taking on anything new can be rocky at first but the key is knowing where and how to tread. And that is precisely what I gained from this class.

While I hide away in my nook typing the rest of my script, for those interested, Katie Torpey is also releasing an online digital screenwriting product in April 2017 called “How to Write a Screenplay in 40 Days.” Please send an email to Katie@katietorpey.com for more information.