 everything done. I'm looking at everything done. Everything. So now here we come to the dialogue part and we're going to stop at exactly 4.25. No, 5.25. What is it? 5.25. Not 5.26. So if you have questions about your work and your creative process and I'll keep the answers really fast but not unhelpful. I like children. If you have a question or you're just like fine with your pencil, you're just like yeah Adam. So if one is writing something and one is having a problem like with a scene that like they wrote and finished earlier and it's like but the whole piece isn't finished. Would you recommend like taking the time and I mean like this one this earlier perception is like driving the rider crazy. Would you recommend just going back and revising it just to not be crazy even though it's not finished? Or would you recommend like just going through and finishing the piece and then coming back? How do you think I would just say? Finish the piece. Yeah so Adam's like yeah. So he's written here. Adam comes like he's a regular. So he comes. So so this week Adam's asking if one is writing a piece and a scene before sorry to make your business loud like but the scene before scene before is you know you're on you've written scene two and now you're on scene two. And scene two is driving me crazy. Should you stop go back to scene two so that you make scene two perfect or should you go on to the end and then go back and rewrite. And it's a joke right? It's a joke question. I would say go forward go forward out of west go west go keep going to the end because then you're really going to know what that scene should be. Right now it's driving you crazy probably because one you're already crazy. Two you're nervous because we all are working on things right? We're all nervous I'm nervous because you think like maybe I'll never get it done. Maybe it'll never be good. All those concerns we have and three I don't know. But all those reasons are making you want to go back and make something perfect and we talked about perfection it's the desire of a smaller mind. Right so forget being perfect just get done you can make it better later. It's a mirage. You know if you've ever been like have seen a mirage you know we're just like a bad like boyfriend or girlfriend. Oh I should have been with him. And I'm gonna work it out please. This is gonna make me sound even more crazy but like how do you kind of put down the voices that are saying like go back. No no no because they're there right and they're talking to you and they're saying come on Adam. Like lost wife. You know we want to say you know sister talk to the hand you know like Indiana Jones and the temple of whatever the first one. We had to close his eyes whatever it's called whatever it's called. Thank you. Okay yeah Raiders right and you know they said keep your eyes closed when you open the box. And all the people were like him he was smart which is why he's now with those new Star Wars. He kept his eyes closed and all the demons were looking he just like. I will not be tempted. Actually there's a more beautiful thing attempting you and you can't see the beautiful of that thing. It's the end of your play and it calls to you a small voice. You have to listen to that small voice. I guess that was my real question I guess. How do you just not listen to that you know or say look I'll deal with you when I'm done. Yeah. Voice me out of voice of your character. I have a lot of that in my work what they're thinking and what they're saying. And the thinking sometimes becomes part of the saying for the audience but it's not a model. It's kind of like a reality that's beyond the reality of here and now. When does when how do you curtail that how do you control that and yet allow it. I'm having a difficulty with reality. My character is often for this other world. But the other world and the reality come together in their confusion of their journey. But often audiences are kind of like wanting the reality version but here and now the tangible as opposed to the psychological. How do you as a writer find a way to keep the audience engaged in the psychological reality for theater in a way that keeps the story moving forward and yet honors the story of the mental world. Okay so my characters are fantasy people. They like to run off into fantasy. Okay your characters are characters who enjoy fantasy. Because the reality of the world around them is a bit much. Right. Do you find a way to keep the audience in a proscenium stage or even a black box engaged when those girls keep on intersecting and jumping in in a way that's effective for the audience not just effective for the character. Right. So you make you this is true for maybe everything. Maybe it's a unifying theory. I don't know. You you invest it with urgency and stakes. That's sufficient. Even if the storyline is completely degrading. Sure. Sure. That's called though. What is that? Sure. There are I mean for you example. Think of Hamlet. For example. Right. At the play. Yeah. Okay. You know. Okay. I know. I know. Where is this going? I don't know. I'm not sure either. Think of Hamlet. Think of Hamlet. He has a mental problem. What if he thought he enjoyed to think of other things we could say. What if he thought he was say a grave digger really. What I'm saying is every time we cut to the grave digger we're seeing a story line with stakes. What I'm saying is invest the storyline with stakes. So you have character A and he likes to imagine himself as character B flat. The life of character B flat must have stakes. That would be best actually. That's how Shakespeare did it. I mean it was like connected. You know what I'm saying? Then like Alaskan York. You know you're dead. I don't know. He flips whatever. Whatever he's saying. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So he contributed. It had something to do with character A. That's like the best. Or you can just have running parallel tracks or something like that. Okay. But that's the best when they contribute somehow or A is contributing to the story of B flat somehow. The choice that A makes. Well the fantasy world is an extension of their own mind that it's not a cop out. But how much of it have you written? Okay good. So you just have like how many more pages? So just finish it and then see. I mean you got it mostly done. I mean it's a cop out. That's such a good one. I don't know. You wrote like 90 pages, 150 pages. No it was just a reticule. They took it to another realm and they accept it. But the audience knows what? The audience is given this visual that says yes this is not real. I don't know. Really? I don't know. Like fight club? Didn't you know Tyler Durbin wasn't real until he was like not real? No I thought he was really grand hit with some other clubs. I was like yep. I thought he was really grand hit with some other clubs. I thought he was really grand hit with some other clubs. I was like yep. I was so fine. She's part of this. And you're two. I don't know. One self in her process comes across censoring herself, myself. I am being challenged with that because I'm writing for myself. I see myself as the one performing it. And so I'm not allowing myself to, because I can, the character is so far from myself. I'm censoring myself and I know it. How can I stop myself from censoring myself? Like the stuff that's coming on the paper is just so, I'm like whoa. Am I really going to get there and say that? But I think it needs to be said. But I feel like the work is, I'm giving a work injustice because I see myself up there saying these things and anticipate reaction. And so I feel like my piece is struggling because of that. Or should I just take away the fact that I'm thinking well should I convince myself that someone else would do the work and they could say it. And then finish it like no, I'm going to do it. If you can believe that, you know what I mean? If you can trick yourself into believing that, that's a great way to do it. To say I'm writing this for someone else and tell those voices in your head that are trying to shut you down. It's not going to be me. It's going to be somebody else do that. Another thing is to write fast. We talked about the censor. The censor is really slow and uses a walker. And they're really shrewish. Their voice penetrates, you know, your quietest moment. But they're really slow. They're not elderly. They're just slow. Because they have a lot of thoughts. You know what I mean? So you can get by the censor by writing very quickly. That's another helpful thing too. But yeah, you can tell yourself that someone else is going to perform it. You can actually, I don't call up a friend and say, this is actually, I'm writing something for you. I don't know how deep you've got to get into the land of make-believe to get your work done. You can just also say like if you'll have, talk to the hand. Just talk to the hand. Like, shut them down. Imagine there's someone talking to you. Oh, I didn't know what people are going to think about you. Just, you know, I don't know what kind of language you're comfortable with. But you know. Shut the fuck up bitch. This is stuff that doesn't even come from the paper. You know what I'm saying? Excuse me, I'm writing. Yeah. You know what I mean? You don't think of all kinds of... Oh, excuse me. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm, I'm... Hi. You're pretty great. The first year is now I know. I just said, who are you guys with? I'm English, but... Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. And just keep writing. Like, keep showing up every day. We'll weaken the resolve of that censor. It was very helpful, but not now. She or he is really good when you don't even rewrite it. But not now. Not now. Anybody else? Yeah. Good to see you again. What do you do when you sort of fallen out of love with an idea? What do you think? Like, are you in the middle of writing it? Yeah. I'm like 30 pages in and I don't love it. And I did love it and I don't love it. So, well, they're different. It sounds like dating, yeah. Or marriage. So you either... Well, both are very different. Well, there's a moment in every relationship where you go, am I really going to stay with you? Because you're like, I don't know, don't wash your socks every day somewhere. You know what I mean? Or you have to say, do I really not want to be with this project or am I scared? My guess is that you're scared. I'm just guessing. Something about it is scary. Something about it. So we have... Or you don't love it and that's easy. You just cut it off. It's scary then it becomes interesting because then we have something to work with. Right? I think the suggestion is that it's just feeling very, like, routine. Like, feeling like, oh, I'm going to wake up today and write that scene. Yeah, boredom is a way that we mask fear. I don't know. He's so bored. You're like, oh, I don't know, he's so bored. He never takes me to the Eiffel Tower. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? I mean, really, boredom is a way that we mask fear. Just so you know. And whether you are really bored or scared, I don't know. But I would say everything you're feeling, just entertain the possibility that maybe everything you're... Because you're a really good writer because I know of you. Yes, you are. And so maybe you're just scared. There's something there that frightens you. So if you're truly bored, you have enough craft. You have high level of craft as a writer. You can just keep on keeping on and get the shit done. Right? Get the stuff done. Get to page... How many pages? 120, 90? 120. 120. Okay, how many are you now? 30, 40. 30, 40. Good. Make a deadline for yourself and just get the stuff done. Just get the pages done. And then... Just do the boredom. I'm bored. So what? Because then you have to learn something else. Like, hey, even if you're bored, what does Joyce Carroll say when my soul is as thin as a playing card? She's great. She's right. You're okay with me, you know. Girl puts out big time, right? So when my soul is as thin as a playing card, somehow writing makes it better. That's a horrible paraphrase of her brilliant quote. But she shows up regardless of her mood and gets the writing done. So I'm sure there have been many times when she's been bored. Right? But the boredom is a natural thing. That's not like the world's worst side. It could be fine. No, it could be fine. And sometimes we have work for hires that we do. Maybe it's like that. And sometimes, you know, we're bored. Sometimes we fucking hate the producers. Ha! I hate the producers. So what? I'm going to do it anyway. Because then you are becoming a professional. And that's what we want to become. Regardless of how much money we get paid, we're becoming professionals. This is your calling. What? This is your calling. Hello? It's calling to you. It's calling to you. Come on. Pass the boredom. Pass the fear. Pass the... I want to know if this is a good idea. Pass the... Oh, I'm going to have to fix the second scene and get it perfect. Your calling is calling to you. I'm in class right now. Yeah. And I don't know what it's about. And I'm wondering how do you figure out what the play is about? We have a lot of good characters and conflict. But at the end, you're like, what am I writing about? What does that mean exactly? What am I writing about? What does that mean? What am I writing about? I mean, what the play is about? What does that actually mean? Like what the story is? What the story is? Or am I saying anything? Or am I just got a lot of characters that are just confused? I'm making faces because I'm not on camera. Am I saying anything? Lauren, have mercy. I don't know if I've ever said anything. I don't even think about what I'm saying. You know, I'm thinking about what I'm saying right now. We're talking. But you know, like a play. I just want to park saying. I don't know. But I tell you what the story is about. I can tell you the story. Okay. So, because I stand the level of story. And I leave meaning in all those important aspects to the scholars and the literary critics and the people who read my play. That's not for me to know. It's a need to know basis. And I don't need to know to write the story. Okay. Okay. So, here you are saying what's my story about? Now we're talking about something you can do something about. Okay. Once upon a time there was a woman who was in the army. Was in the army. And she got out. And she got out. Yeah. And some things happened along the way. Yeah. Okay. Tell me the story. What is it about and the themes and the place in cultural history and all those important things that are spoken about once your play is up and running and all that. Leave that to the scholars. It's not. I feel it's not. You don't need to know that to write your play. Okay. Good. Okay. Yeah. You're free. You're free. Okay. Oh, thank you. It's good to see you. I'm sorry. Not my class this semester. It was fun having you class this semester. I'm here though. Okay. You come visit us. I'll watch you. Okay. This is good. You're good. Hi. This is from Texas. There may be longer. Keep her Texas. Every week. Every week. Keep her Texas. Hey. Hi. I'm one of Carol's students. Hey. Nice to meet you. What's your feeling? I do a lot of time writing. Yes. At home. Turn everything off. Put the phone on the moon. Do not disturb. Turn everything off for 20-minute increments at a time. Sometimes 30. What is your... What do you think the next step is? Do you go to 45 minutes? Or is it like exercise moving up slowly? Because that's, to me, the most magical time when everything is off. Wow. So if you can... That's a great question. Everybody hear that time thing? 20 minutes. I think 20 minutes is a really magical amount of time. And if... I don't know your... Other things you've got going on in your life? A lot. Okay. So 20 minutes... So if you can have 20 minutes here, there, here, there, then you can add it up at the end of the day. And you've got like an hour done. And you've got two hours done or whatever you can do. Sometimes it's hard for us with a lot going on to manage three hours. There's nothing totally about three hours or an hour. Okay? The most important thing is what you're doing right now. Setting the time, setting your timer, putting your phone, as you said, beautifully on the move. Okay? I would suggest... Yeah, so then that... I would suggest that when we use a timer, I didn't use one today because I forgot mine, but usually I use a regular egg timer, like a kitchen timer and not your phone because as I said, your phone is cracked. So sometimes crack is great. Oh. Crack is really... Crack is what? And it's true. Crack is really bad, but I was making a joke. Yeah. Yeah, true. Yeah. Or in the phone? Oh, you in the phone? Yeah. Okay, your phone is cracked. It looks like it's really wonderful and as the gateway to the entire universe, it's not. The universe, the gateway to the universe is right here. That small school voice within that thing you were born with, you got it already. The phone, it really helped you. Except if you need to know the meaning of a word like sui generis, but so 20 minutes often is great. It's great. If you want to do an hour block or something like that, cool. But that doesn't... I do 20 minutes blocks. I have a lot going on too. So if I want to do, for example, I told people I dropped off my son to take care and then I come home and I do like 20 minutes of songwriting, miraculously, and stuff actually works. I've gotten so much stuff done with little 20 minute blocks. Okay, thank you. Sure, thank you. Yeah, Dallas, Texas. But I feel like next week I'm going to say I'm actually from Florida just to mix it up a little. Because every week you say I'm from Texas. Well, that's because it's true. It is. Okay. Go, Texas. Yeah, go, Texas. It gives us a chance to say go, Texas. Okay. Who's next? Nobody. Oh, we have... Hello. Hi there. You're great here. Okay. So I'm sort of between projects. Yeah. I have a play that I've been in between drives. Right. And I feel like I want to start something new and have a box full of ideas and paint them all. Oh. And so I'm kind of like, what do you do when you're stuck? I feel like in my writing I'm sort of rich at a level where I need it to be better. So I don't want to start all these ideas that are... Right. Right. You know. Right. I feel like I'm richer than that big step of challenging justice. Right. I suddenly fell off the wall and my eyes wandered from your face. I'm sorry. But that's a really good question. So if you have a box of ideas and you haven't started anything yet and you just look at them and you think, well, I came up with these ideas when I was in a different place. Sounds like you're in a different place now. And you want to start something new. You can just take your notebook simply and write out, here are some fun ideas for plays, for example. Here's some fun ideas. I always wanted to write a play about... Or here's 10 stupid ideas for plays. You write those out. That works too. Sometimes you let yourself up with hope a little bit. You know. You can do that. I would say that, if you really feel like before you open the box and I don't like any of those, great, fine. Don't look at them. Maybe come back to them at another time or burn the box. If you're not going to use it, you want it to take up space in your life. But if you kind of think, maybe let a light come in. Yeah. Maybe you might think, then you can keep them for another minute. Does that sound helpful? Just can't or not? Maybe not. Something else. You mean something else, right? Like you're in between products so you're feeling like I'm witty. What are you waiting on for the rewrite? Oh, no, I do have to do it. I'm waiting for the director to read and get back to me. You know, I have time. Oh, that's great. She's nice. That's really, really great. Yeah. I just feel like I want to fill this gap with something. What do you want to write about? Anything? Yeah. Whatever you know. What do you want to write about? Just pretend like you know. Just pretend like you know. Something political and urgent. Good, political and urgent. How does the main character look? What is it? Random? Probably a woman. Probably a woman, right? Is she like of this country or what country? Well, I live in Australia. Okay. So she's probably not from there. Okay. So she's from somewhere other than Australia? Yeah. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Does she have kids or no? Or is she... She might. Yeah, I think she might. Uh-huh. Okay. And is she like running for office or not? That's a good idea. I mean, I'm just saying. What do you think? She's running for office. Yeah? So maybe your next play can be an urgent play by the woman running for office in a place other than Australia. Cool. See, you like that, right? Okay. So tell me how you did this. Sometime you just have to pretend like you know, yes. because the actual reality is you actually do and what we do a lot of times we do this and we tell I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Like that. Like you really just pretend like in American Football which is a game that you don't want to play. Asian foot desse. I don't know. American Football. Like that. And if you really just pretend like in American Football, They're trying to make the touchdown, and they can't, right? And they call out with kicker, and they punt. So you just kick the fucking ball. What? Goal, whatever, I've got a touchdown. Whatever it's called, whatever it's called. But there's that fear, isn't there, that there's not that much time left. Do you know what I mean? Well, we're getting older, right? So you don't want to spend, it's like, you don't want to spend. Yeah, you don't want to spend, you know, like, am I wasting my time? I mean, you don't want to kind of go, I don't want to write a whole play. But we each have these voices. This is singing too, isn't it good? I'm bored with my project. Time is moving along, we're all getting older, you don't want to waste your time. I don't know what the audience is thinking. It's all the same voice that's trying to shut you up. That's all it is. It's just clutter in your mind. And depending on who you are and where you are in your life and career, your voice is going to say things. So if you're 20, maybe it's not, I'm getting old, but it's, do I matter? Maybe when you're 40, it's getting old. I mean, it doesn't matter. It's like a relative of one of those holidays and you're just like, you know what I'm saying? You just get up from the table and you suck. We have to learn that that's all it is. It's just that mental, it's vritti, what we call, you know, the vritti, clutter. Just the chatter of the mind. And no matter who you are and where you are, we all have it. And what we have to do is work in spite of it. It's not that we're going to try to shut it down forever and ever because it's useful for some things. Five minutes, we have five minutes. We have time for one more quick question or a really quick answer. Yes. No. Yes. You. Cameron, I think you used to hear your work run out loud by actors. I don't know what stage shape of the company doing that. And also, how important is it for you to hear it in front of an audience and do you make big changes in time for those things? I think audiences are really important. I love audiences. I love my camera. And I think actors are really important too. So this is the thing, going back to square one. As a writer, and I know you're a very good playwright, because I know for the handy class this semester, what we need to know is that you can hear your work already. The idea, the thing that we're taught in some institutions not in my class at NYU, but maybe someone has heard it somewhere, that you can't hear your work unless you have actors read it. And that is not true. The truth is that you can hear your work already. You're a composer like, you know, Coltrane or Mozart or Bach. You know, they can hear it in their head. Actors are expert amplifiers. They're speakers. Oh, now I can hear it in full color sound. You know what I'm saying? Because they're actors. They're brilliant and fabulous. So they're useful. But I don't give my work to actors until I'm really solid with it on the page. Okay? Then I give it to them. And yeah, I can hear, ooh, that doesn't sound right. That's a little long. That ties the tongue up in a way that's not helpful. That's confusing. Because these expert speakers are speaking it, so I make changes in front of audiences. I might make more changes, but not because, like, when they like that part, they don't like that part. So I'm not, you know, doing focus groups with my work. With my work. With work for hire. Sometimes, yeah, they're our focus groups. And that's, you know, what happens. One more? No? You got it? So can we stay or we go? It's confusing. We're like as immersed with us. Well, we do have another event happening downstairs at 5.30. Great. We should talk about next week. Okay. Next week here. Next week. Okay, so thank you to everybody who came out tonight. This was really, really awesome. So next week, we are not having Watch Me Work because SLP is out of town. I'm doing. I'm opening Father Comes Home from the Wars at... Theater theater room. It's great. Congratulations. They're in great trouble. They're in great trouble. So if you're out in LA, go see it. But we will be back April 25th. Same at our regular time at 5 o'clock. Thanks to everybody who tuned in at 4.30 today. But we will see you in two weeks at 5 o'clock. Thank you. Bye. Thanks a lot. Thank you everybody for coming out.