 I'm in my own lobby. You are? It's a lobby. It's a game. I just put people in the lobby every time. Oh, it's basically smoking. Yeah. It's funny that until somebody gets hurt, and then some of the kids are working on reading the law, I don't think it's going to do anything about it. You can play here. It should do, girl. Yeah. Hi. Do you play in a band? I mostly just play my, I write songs. Good. Can you play? I write on a uke. I write on a piano and I write on a guitar. I like the uke because it's easy to carry around. Baby. It's my baby. It's my, um, everywhere. Yeah. Okay. Maybe I just want to call this. It's very echoey. What? It's downstairs. Instead of up here, so they're going to bring it up here. Okay. So are they having a meeting? Okay. They're having a meeting. Okay. So we'll just, they'll just ignore us. Yeah. I'm hoping. So just, we'll just pretend there's a curtain here. Great. They're having a meeting. Okay. So we're going to do watch-free work. And I don't have the microphone right now because it's down in the lobby, so we're going to just do this. Um, does everybody know how this goes? What this is? What we're doing here? You don't know? What's your name? Ashton. Ashton? Hi, Ashton. Hi. So you've never, I, yeah, I don't recognize you. Okay. Well, but, you're working. You're working. I know you're working. This is cool. So this is what we do. Usually I have a microphone there. This is great. Like the more obstacles, the better. This is a game that should be called the more obstacles, the better, but it's not. It's called watch-free work. So this is where what we do is we work together. Yeah. So 20 minutes we set our timer. You know, we set our timer for everybody. We all work together. And then, after 20 minutes, you can ask me questions about your creative process. Okay. So it says watch-free work. That's the title. That's the greet and the title. Right, okay. Okay, so it's about then. And you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, everybody else wants to ask me questions about your creative process. Okay. So because we have difficulties or you want to celebrate yourself by telling that you've telling that you've just written a thousand pages a day and you're going to have a party or something like that. OK? OK. So we'll do that. So one of the rules is the more the strategy, the better. And we also have people who sometimes watch online. And you'll also be telling how if they want to get tested by way of Twitter or whatever. Yeah. There's no, we can stand here. This is the performance art aspect of it. It's so cool, I love it. I have one at home. Do you really? No. I had to. You thought I had it? I was like, this is more of a substation than I have. Right up. So if you are watching online, what you can do is you can go to twitter.com and you can tweet at us. We're at Watch Me Work, SLP, and you can hashtag HowlRound, which is H. OK. OK. And you can tweet at us. We're at Watch Me Work, SLP, and you can hashtag HowlRound, which is H. O. W. L. R. O. U. N. D. And you can ask us your questions about your creative process. And you also now can type in on the actual HowlRound website. They'll have a little chat. I'll be watching the chat. I'll be watching the Twitter. It's going to be great. Yeah. We're having fun already. We're having a great chat. Again, so much work done right now. Just show you here. OK. So anybody have any questions about what we're supposed to be doing? Type in. I don't know. I have a little reading to do. And I've just attempted to use that. But then. I know. The ring is not as satisfying. Oh, man. Said the woman. She's the person. Oh. The ring is not as strong. No, it's not. It's actually not. There's something about it. Yeah. OK. Ready? I know, right? OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. I know, right? Let's go. OK. Let's go. OK. OK. OK. Did anybody get anything done? I mean, you all laughed. Like, you did, right? It's magical, right? You think it's only 20 minutes. What am I going to get done in 20 minutes? And then you get something done. Even if it's just a little something. That's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah. Sometimes when I was a teacher at NYU and my students earlier, they were asking, what's your schedule? How do you get everything done during the day? And I was just telling them about the importance. So sometimes you only have 20 minutes. That's it. You know, that's what you do. You can get actually a lot of things done in 20 minutes. You longer, you might be better. But you may be not. You may be not. You may be not. OK. Anybody have any questions? Answers? Issues? Oh, yeah. What's your name? Thank you. Hi. What do you do when you get stuck? What's happening between you and me? What do you mean? Yeah. What's your name? Yeah. You're in the middle of something. You're like blah, blah, blah. I mean, great. And they keep trying to do the same thing. Do you take a break and go do something else? Do you sit there with the stuckness? What's happening between you and me? What do you do? Yeah, that's good. Sounds like, can you try all three of those? Yes. So you get, yeah, right. I eat something a lot. That's what I do. What? I eat something. Do you eat something? I don't want to solve this. Does that help? Do you go for a walk around the block? Sometimes. It's hard in New York because you, if you, like, staked out a claim at, like, a coffee shop, you have to, like, leave your stuff. Right. And then... Right. So then take it and lose the spot. Right. So what is feeling stuck? What is feeling stuck feel like? That might sound redundant. But what is it, you know what I mean? So do you know what it's like? It's flowing. I'll be like, yeah. Are you writing? I'm guessing, right? Yes. Because you're not, like, swimming. No. So you're writing. Yes. And it's flowing. Yes. And it's easy. It's easy. Yeah. And then... Yeah. Have you ever been in a relationship? Yes. It's great. So I'll be like, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, this is bad. This is like... Yeah. Yeah. That's okay. And then what do you do? Do you date someone else? You just say, hi, I'm leaving? Sometimes. Sometimes. You say, let's have a talk. Yeah. And sometimes you just pass it aggressively, don't deal with it for like a week. That would be eating. Yeah. That would be eating. Right? That would be eating. I mean, not like whatever. We all do it, right? Okay, right. Or like calling up somebody who doesn't have anything to do with it and yelling at them. Right. Yeah. But that's okay. But you can like have a... You can want to say, honey, can we have a talk or something? Yes. I mean, that would be like... Yes. The cool thing. Well, I mean, this is great. Okay, but I just used dating as a way to get you inviting, not as a substitute, you know. You could talk to your work. Yeah. This is where I go with that. Like, hey, you know, it was good up until like five minutes ago. And do you have anything to tell me? Like, am I doing something wrong? Or is there something that I've overlooked? Is there a character who I'm really not paying attention to? You know what I mean? Yeah. You could sort of like... I have a lot of things called talk files. I'm talking to the work instead of like actually writing all the work. Sort of a sidebar thing, you know. And you could sort of... You know, like when you're driving, you're driving and it's like late at night or a blizzard or you're in the middle of the day and you get tired. My advice is always pull over to the side of the road and rest. Right? You could do that. You're still on the road. You talk to your work and you say, hey, talk to me. What am I not doing? What am I not hearing? Is it just a rough spot? Should I just write some shitty pages for two days? You okay with that? Let's write some shitty pages. Keep showing up for them, though. You know? Because it's a difficulty. It's like... You do yoga? That would be good. Do you know the pose called kaputasana? Maybe? It's like you get on your knees and then you do a back bend for your knees. Oh, yes. That one. Right. That one. Well, I mean, I don't know. I'm not naturally flexible. So that pose is very, very hard for me. Right? And they tell you and you're like back there. You're doing it and you're like... You're serious. You're stuck. You're stuck. There's a lot of, you know, we carry a lot of stuff. Important stuff. Our backpacks and our dreams and our children and our parents. Our jinx. Right? And you care. And you're on that hot, that walk up Mount Everest or wherever you're going to the grocery store or whatever. And then when you've got to unfold it by doing this back bend, a lot of stuckness. You feel the stuckness. And the teacher says, you're exactly where you're supposed to be. This is exactly where you should be feeling. You're the key. The only way out is through. Just breathe. This is what the teacher says. This is what the teacher in your mind says. Right? So I would just say talk to your work. Still, you know, see if you can manage to sit and keep showing up for your pointed writing time, turn on your timer, maybe lower the bar a little bit. If you used to write for like an hour at a time, over 20 minutes, three times a day. That's still equal 60. And just sit there for 20 minutes. Right? And you show up and then, okay, I can do only do 20 minutes, three times a day. Because I'm stuck and it's painful. Okay? So you keep showing up. You know, maybe at some point you'll have to stop and go to another piece. But what happens often when people do that is you never, not you, but they never get anything done. And they come here and they go, I've got 12 brilliant things and I haven't finished one of them. And I'm like, what are you doing to get stuck? I just start something new. I'm like, well, there you go. You know? Okay? And know that everyone goes through it. Or everyone has that challenge of getting stuck. Not everyone goes through it. And it's the mark of the hero or the heroine, although that word sounds like drugs. I know. It's the mark of true girl power, whatever you want to call it. You've got to go through it. And you've got to go, yeah, bring it. Here I am. Shitty pages. Shitty pages. I'm not ashamed. Because everybody writes shitty pages. Some people just don't fix them before opening night. That's not us. Right? Some people are like, I wrote up. I'm done. I wrote other shitty pages. Where's the dramaturge? I don't know what I mean, right? Okay, but we write shitty pages and then we come back. And we rewrite them. We don't name names, but we all know who we're talking about. One version of ourselves. Fair enough. Right. Because we don't want to, because there are people who, I wrote shitty pages. That's an act of bravery. But then now I have to rewrite them and make them better. They can't do it. They can't do it. If you truly break, you're going to get in there. You're going to roll your sleeves, whatever. You know? Call on your friends. Call your whatever. Get your pictures together. And you're going to rewrite your pages. Okay? Just think of Kapotasino or any other yoga pose, in particular, in Shimano. Well, yeah, that's what it's called. Pigeon. Pigeon, it sounds very bless you. It sounds very like pigeon. I know. Like, we're feeding the pigeon. It doesn't sound like it wants you to cry, right? No. The pose that wants you to cry. That's, I think, the Sanskrit actual translation. We're going to fuck with you now. Crying pigeons. Yeah. If you're someone looking up online, you don't believe me. And if you look online, it looks easy. Like, how hard can it be? You're just on your knees and you just turn around and look at your feet. How hard is that? You've been carrying your parents around. They're all hanging out back there. Good questions. Anybody else? It's writing, you know, a play trying to write. Right. And trying to make sure each character in that play has their own sound about how they speak. Yeah. It's like, because if you, because we all tend, and I say we all, depending on who you're writing about, everybody, you know, we used to say words, but I do know that how everybody delivers differently. Right. And trying to capture that in the writing. Right. How does one go about it? That's cool. That's a great question. You have to tell us your name, though. Oh, my name is Karima. Karima. Great. Karima, that's a great question. Everybody heard, or you can predict, really beautifully. Okay. So, yeah, you've got different characters in your play, and we don't want them to all sound the same. Right. Exactly. We want them to sound like it would be if there was a room full of real people, right? Right. And a lot of times, some writers wait for the actors to come in, because the actors are people that are going to sound different. But it's a great thing to do before you invite actors to your play. And this is what I try to remember. Right. Is that what you want determines how you're going to talk. What you want. Okay. So, and where you've been. Where you're going and where you've been. Right. So those are end points. So where you're going is where you're from. Right. Right. Where you've been, excuse me, is where you're from. Your past. Where you're going is your future. And those two points, like a geometry, make a line. Make your line to drywall. Right. Okay. So say, for example, two characters in a play, for example, both of them are from, say, New York City Queen's, let's just say. Okay. Okay. So one went to college and wants to be a doctor. Okay. And one went to college and wants to be, say, oh, wait a minute. You think you're going to sound different from what they talk about? Yeah. We're going to talk about the sound different. Right. And that's, you see, because we're getting very specific with our people, see. Right. Even if they're from the same name, they're from different names, or this isn't going to be the easiest. But what I want is going to partially define what it is that I talk about. Okay. Okay. For example, a mom who has a kid who is supposed to be such with a kid is going to sound really different from, say, a woman who doesn't have any kids and goes to Mexico every year. Am I different from the talk about? Yes. Is that, is that not clear? It's clear. But let's say they may have different things to talk about, but that's everything that's seen, right? Yeah. There's something they want. It is an action going on because it's something that, that particular character wants. So now the conversation is not really going to be different. It's going to be dealing with what they're going for. Will that still change the language? Yeah, yeah. Because how they go about it, how they, how I go about getting what I want is going to be different from how we go about it. Say you have a kid. Say, say you've been asked to bring a woman together. You both wanted to get some ice cream. Right. Right? Okay? You both wanted to, maybe, I don't know, what would you want? You both wanted to get some ice cream. So there you were sitting in the room. You were talking about how you were going to get the ice cream differently. You're two different people. Okay. Just imagine your characters as distinctly different as you and Ashton are. You and Ashton and Carol and Audrey. You've got four characters in this play right now. Ashton's going to talk about things differently. Maybe he's gotten ice cream before. He's got a plan. He's going to meet where he'll come from. Okay. His backstory. Carol maybe lactose intolerance. Carol doesn't even want ice cream, but she's going to go along with it because, you know, she's not going to allow it to go. You see? And Audrey just got bangs. So, you know, since she wants to chop an amygdala score on her, she doesn't care where it comes from. You get specific with the characters. Even if they're, say, all from Atlanta and all are 25 years old. They're going to want things. They're going to try to get things in a different way. I understand that. I understand that from an acting point of view. Great. Okay. The writing is kicking my behind. Okay. You know, because I can play with the characters, but I want to really round them out and have them sound differently. And like you're saying, of course, if somebody reads it because they're different, they're going to sound different. But I want to have more control of my writing. So therefore, your goal is to do as I'm directing you to do. Sure. My writing. Exactly. So, okay. So try this. Like, do you have a scene with, like, two women, three women? Two women. Like, just give me an example. A scene? Yeah. Like, one of your scenes has two characters. Two characters. Two characters. Okay. Two women. Okay. Okay. Do you have, do you have, like, a different pair of shoes at home? Of course. I'm just asking. Some people, like, I wear these shoes all the time. People think, oh my God. So, you know, I'm just saying. I have a different pair of shoes. Great. Great. Okay. I'm just asking. So, when you get home, that's character one. Shoes. Shoes are those shoes. You can actually get out of your shoes. So we talked about this last time at home. And you can put on a different pair of shoes. And you can walk around and see my character too. Okay. But more different the shoes are, and they're better. So, say character one is, like, total snow. You can see one in the summer kind of woman. Character two is, like, I only wear heels all the time. I don't care if I got to work for the past. I wear my big shoes. Okay. And that, and you're going to feel, actually, even if you don't have to do, I mean, this is what I do all the time. I don't have to change my shoes. I just walk around, like, you know, I'm going to feel a different character. I'm going to feel a different character. I know. But, you know what I'm saying? I mean, her. Now I'm being her. And now I'm being her. And she's got a whole different way of looking at the world. And then on this one right here, she got her heels on the ground. Do you see what I mean? Yes. And you can just actually physically do it. And it can be a fun way of doing it. You can play act, basically. And after you get them in your system, then you don't have to be afraid to walk around in a house like this. You can just have them in your body. Okay. Is that helpful? And it's fun too, you know. And you can imagine them in different outfits, fully imagine the other characters, as much as you can. Okay. Okay. Have fun. Report back, because I want to hear it. Okay. See how that turned out to be. Now, I actually, I do it all the time. I do it all the time. It really does work. I don't know if they teach that in grad school, but maybe they do all the time I'm doing these next week. What's your name? Hi there, Dee. Hey. So quick question. So I have trouble with working on two-degree projects at the same time. Right. And let's say characters from Project B's. Right. Showing up in Project A. Yeah. Right. And I have a hard time like shutting them up, but they really want to talk to me. Right. But I have an idea for this for Project A. Right. How, I guess I need help with figuring out how to come through the mark. Like, come through the mark. Come through the mark. That's so funny that you can't say the words. Yeah. I know. I'm like, what's going on? That's telling, too. Let's go through the mark. So just kind of figure it out. And find them down a little bit, but still respect the character. Right. I hear you. I hear you. It needs me right now, but it's not your design. Right. But still kind of figuring it out. Right. You should say it. Come apart. Come apart. I don't know why. You can say it. Right. Okay. You can say it. You can say it. So imagine that the works are either on different continents, okay, like one work is in New York, the other one is in Australia, or East Coast West, get the far part in each other, in your mind. So it's not just enough to compartmentalize. You have to actually do spatial things with the work, okay. So we'll send one work to Australia, unless your other work is already there. You know what I mean? You know, sit far away, give them something to do, like you're working, tell them that you're going to be working on the story of that work, right? Is it a play? Oh, and one is something. Oh, even that? Great, great. So you get them an assignment and send them away to town. Okay? You can do that. You can also speed up the other project. So the project you're working on is, everything's like chill and everything, but you're on a bullet train. So you're moving so quickly. The other project is just, it can't keep up. So they're back there. So you can compartmentalize that way, this way, right? Out to the sides, that's like spatially. Time-wise, you can send them behind, you can run faster than they are and have them be actually behind you. Let's let you keep your focus. Okay? Does that make, does that make, whatever, yeah, just send them away, send them to the moon. Send them somewhere, right? And tell them before you send them away, like any good parent, you're going to come back and get them in the moon, the week, or whatever, okay? And you expect them to have figured out that little retangling story that we, you know? Okay? Or you expect them to be ready for the next draft or whatever. Right? Okay? It's gonna be awesome. Come on, come on. All right, that's good. Actually, that was fun. Yeah, compartmentalizing, yeah, that's like a, but it's also a skill that you do when you write characters, actually, because you're, that's a version of compartmentalizing, you know? I don't know what you're actually doing, but your mind is breaking apart to create a whole, I think. It's exciting. I told my students today that actually we're writers, but not really to this literature. That's an illusion, I think. I think we're actually writers so that we can understand the nature of existence and we do it through writing. Yeah. Just like, like, what should jockeys do it through writing the horses? You know, it's interesting, because this is all the nature of the mind and reality and all these like that. But at the mean time, you know, we'll just write things. Anybody else? I just have a comment. Last time you talked about the greater you to me about how to not have my own voice of holly be so dominant. Right, right. And you said just be more curious about people. Right. So I started doing that and it was really interesting. I guess what I discovered is it was actually more vulnerable and I felt more of myself in a greater you sense. So that's all I wanted to share. Interesting. Yeah, there were parts of myself that I guess I didn't want to include probably. Right. Like I said, like I'm writing for myself, but it was a limited scope of self. I know. I didn't tell you that before I wanted to do it. I know. Because it would have sounded kind of not great to me. Yeah, it would have sounded really weird. But that is what you find out there. That's what you find out there. More of you. And then what does that mean, actually? And who are you? Really, who are you? It brings up more questions, which then creates more empty space to dive into as opposed to like closing. See? That was not a good job. Anybody else have an interesting experience? If I get a couch open, I didn't even know what an encounter could be. But I thought I'd say that this is what it is. Something from the 60s. Oh, is it an encounter? Because it's an alien. It's an alien. It's an alien? Yeah. It was the beginning of just getting to get things. But it was really cool. Let's see, oh what did you say? I'm writing a lot of stuff and don't finish. I write a lot of stuff and don't finish, but this year I made myself like finish even if I don't like it. Because I find I'm a writer who will keep rewriting. Instead of completing, I'll read it and I'll go back and I'm starting to fix this and that, and I'll fix this and that, and I'll never get to the end. But, see I have a lot, see really I just, I just won't take it. Because I have, because I'm, because what I want to do with my writing, I want my, I want my writing to be really powerful and, and transport, but I don't know how, I know what I want, I just don't know how to get there. I don't, sometimes I wish like it was like math, but you just know if you do this and you do that, you will get this. You know, you will arrive here, but writing is not like that. You know, you don't, it's like trying to, maybe it is like math. Just maybe. Okay, so it's all different. Okay, okay, great, great, great, great, great, maybe it is. Maybe it is. The difference between writing and math is maybe because people have walked, you know, math is a path, right? And not at their arms. Yeah, yeah, okay. So, math is a path, like two or two is four, two points makes a line. You know, you do it there and then go over it, try to answer it square or whatever, right? So a lot of people have done that. They've walked that path, that math path, right? Writing is you're in the wilderness, right? The paths in writing, I was reading a book about the Great Cross a couple of weeks ago, and I came across the sentence, there is no chaos. There is no chaos. Because I thought like, oh, writers, you know, we make, we make order out of chaos. That's what we're doing. That's one of the things that artists do. And this person says there is no chaos, right? They're just our infinite orders, infinite numbers of orders that we discover through our effort. Right? So writing is like math, maybe. But math is a big wide road, like a freeway or a boulevard. Get down and go boom, right? And writing is more like one of those little tiny roads, one of those tiny streets you can't just happen upon. Because you've been walking. You see, there is a path there, is what I'm trying to say. There's a path there, and you find it through your effort. You find it by yourself. And that thing you want, that's your star. Sorry, that's your real star. And that will pull you toward it, the more you lean into it. It will pull you toward it. Right. So there's what I do. I believe, just in my own day to day, that there is a certainty. I think the spirit has never failed. In my experience, this is true. But I always, when I think I gotta quit, because of shit, I work a little bit more. And I always discover it's there, just like math. But we're not all saying two plus two is four. You know what I mean? Everybody says two plus two is four, right? So that thing you want is very, very important. That feeling that you want to create in your work is very important. Keep that feeling alive. That's the fire that you're running home to. That's what that is. That's the use in your running toward it. You have to keep that going. And don't despair. You just have to keep moving forward toward it, right? And just know again that you're not alone. You're not alone. You're all people. All the people who make things, you know, not just about them, you know, all the creative people, all, and I think all people in the world, will all, like, try and get back to the new things. And that's your human. That feeling that you're talking about, right? What is it? You just have to know it's there. You just get back to that. You just have to, like, pull it away. You're very old as I know. And you think you're getting away with that. And it's okay to despair sometimes. It's okay to feel like I'll never get there. And it's okay to feel like, oh, no, we've been going on trip all this time before. And I'm probably feeling later tonight. Or tomorrow morning, I know. Right? We're all there. You're all feeling that. Right. It's true. I'm trying to do a two-minute wave thing. Okay. And it has to, and it's being done in Shakespeare and the Church. Okay. It's like, I don't have that much time. So, and that's the same talking. You don't want, because my thing is that even if it's not chosen, I still want to look at my piece and say I have a good piece. Right. Not just something, you know, I threw out there. And so I'm trying, so I'm like, it's going crazy. First do it out. I have. Yeah. I do have a drive. Because they tell you what to do. Well, they say either a heightened is for real. And they say it could be, you know, heightened language or whatever. So I'm playing with the language my way. Because I have to, to a certain extent. And, but it's just, that's what I was asking about characters trying to get the sound because they don't want everybody to know. Val, you know, and, you know, you want something different and they're trying to play with that, you know. So, and I'll see you. Huh? Anybody else who can go? Great person. Are you going or meeting? Awesome. We're going on this. We're calling her. All of you are going on this. We love you. No, we're good. Okay. So when will we be back, not next week, but... April 16th. April 16th. We'll be back for lunch and work, so. And we'll see you then. Thanks for coming. Enjoy your meal. Thank you very much.