 So basically it's a play, but it's also a writing class or a chance to get your work done. And what we'll do is we're going to work together for about 20 minutes. And then we'll take your questions about your work and your creative process. Your work and your creative process. So the question you have about how to get started, how to finish, how to keep going, how to stop, whatever, we will answer them or at least make a brain attempt to do so. And if you're watching online, by way of HowlRound, Caroline's going to tell you how to get in touch with us. So you can tweet your questions to us, to the handle at Watch Me Work, SLP, with the hashtag New Play and hashtag HowlRound. Okay, well that's great. Today we're going to use our phones for timers and I'm going to work on my iPad. My iPad mini. I know that's how to plug. Well, because it's that place in the project. We've got, you know, employee technology big time. So I'm going to work on my iPad mini and we're going to go. That would be great. If I could find it, well it might take a while. I'm going to start working and then I'll spend the next 20 minutes looking for the results. And then we'll get anything done. Like Jerry Lewis, right? I don't know. Jerry Lewis what? Jerry Lewis used to do this thing. It was a symphony with just typewriter. And he mined, okay, I'm aging myself. It's okay, keep going. It's like a funny pantomime. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, it was Danny K. I tried it. Okay, six. Ten seconds. Just pretend. Ten minutes, yes, yes. I got to find that. There's my thing. Okay, let's go. Run. 13 is an order. Alright. That was great. Thanks for helping me out. Thank you. Sorry about that. It was great. Thanks, Danny. Have a good life. Have a good life. Don't worry. Don't worry. 10 minutes first, three 65. I don't know if you guys have ever had this problem, but like my shit, I don't eat my shit. You know my computer, it's like so mean. Hard work I do, and it's not even there. And I go into the producer, I really did it, I really did it. Does anybody have a question or an answer? Did you write your manifesto, Chris Barlow? Yeah, you really have a question about your manifesto? Well, no, there's a question I'm asking my manifesto. Why go on? Why keep writing? Why fly? So Chris Barlow has a question. About your manifesto, and it's why go on? Why keep writing? Why? That was exactly what you said, I don't know what you mean, why go on? Like in general, like in general? In theater specific, in life? Yeah, yeah. Because your phone has that playtime ringtone? Sure. Why go on? Why keep writing? Why? Yeah, why not, why not? Why not become a lawyer? A doctor, you can scroll out your prescriptions to yourself. Yeah, and that must be a medical confession. Yeah, I'm not going to repeat that. Yeah, I'd like some more, whatever those tablets are, pop it up now. And I don't have a reason, I do not have a reason. I don't, I don't. There will be days that you feel about your creative process, there will be days that you feel like, yeah! Boy, am I ever on the right track? This snake looks a little flaccid, doesn't it? Boy, am I on the right track? Boy, did I choose the right thing to do with my one chance before I am re-incarnated as a butterfly or a slug. And then the other days like that, the other days when you're like, you know, that moment when my, whatever, parent said use your intelligence to become a doctor. They were right. And I don't know if doctors have the same moments, maybe. They do, yeah, they do. They looked at us and they longed to have tried this path. You always ask the good questions, I know. So why go on? Well, or not, you know what I mean? Like, I think you should. I'll vote for you, I'll cheer for you, you know what I'm saying? All of you, that's why I'm here. If any of you wondered why I'm here, because I'm cheering you on. And most of you I didn't even know. I mean, I've never seen. I mean, maybe I've seen you before. I don't remember seeing you. This is another problem, you know what I'm saying? But I'm cheering you on. And all those people in the interwebs that I have never seen, I'm cheering you on. Why? Because this is, I think this is one of the things that we as creative people need. We need to cheer each other on. And so I take time out of my money after noon, late afternoon, and go, come on, everybody! One more day. You know? Or at least until next Monday! We'll do it again, you know what I'm saying? But it is a strange thing to do with one chance at life. So if you've ever, you know, if you've ever had the weird inclination to look in the mirror for, you know, not like, oh gosh, I don't look at it today. Not that. I'm talking about look in the mirror like you've asked for a mirror. You just make eye contact with yourself. You know, after about 20 seconds that you should not do this. Because, you know, you just shouldn't, you know? So ask the question and then don't expect an answer really because it's a bit, here's the answer. If it's where you want to put your faith, who's footsteps do you want to follow in? That's a good answer. Who's footsteps do you want to follow in? I want to follow in. The footsteps of August Wilson. Today's August Wilson's birthday. I don't want to follow in the footsteps of August. Or Shakespeare. Or Grosso Brecht. Or Insakashange. Or you name it. You know, you name it. You know, or even living in great people. Like, you name them. They're all over the place, you know? I thought he'd wear it and apparently has a wonderful play of the signature. And you want to follow in the footsteps of those people and maybe a doctor wants to follow in the footsteps of great medical people. So it depends whose footsteps you want to follow. Become authors. Yes. Yes. Yes, many doctors and lawyers become authors and artists of late in life. And you may become a doctor or a lawyer. Or you may go to a lot of doctors and lawyers. You're going to go to a lot of doctors. But right now, right? He's just, you know, Yes. Crystal wants to know, what is the best way to make dialogue most effective without sounding preachy? Having written much dialogue. Let's see, that's a good question. How to make crystal, so it asks how to make dialogue sound effective without sounding preachy? Yeah. Make dialogue most effective without sounding preachy. I'm guessing crystal that you have something that you want to say, right? You have like a, right? So I would suggest, and I suggested this to some people here, get really close in with your character. So when we have something to say, a lot of times you're like this, right? And when you get really close in to your character, you're going to be speaking through the mouth of your character. And that way, everything that your character says is deeply embedded in the stakes of your play, for example. And it's not just someone standing at speaker's corner, standing on a soapbox. So if you find, if people say, oh, you sound preachy, just like talking to me, telling me some point about something, or preaching to the choir or whatever, get closer to your character and to her needs or his needs and wants and desires for any given scene or moment or beat in your play or novel or whatever you're writing. Okay? Yes. Yes, because it's a story. I mean, you know, you think of like, oh, I don't know, Shakespeare. I like Shakespeare. And you think of, he was like holding a, making a mirror for magistrates. This is how a king should be. This is how a queen should conduct herself. He never got the feeling that he was pointing like this because it was so deeply embedded in the character like we're, you know. What? You shouldn't, you know, you shouldn't be getting in that way. It was never like this. It was always deeply embedded in the character. It was very effective. Good question, by the way. Yes, it's embedded like we're collection in this long run. It's embedded in flecks. The human, the humanness. Okay. Let's say that when it's deeply embedded in a character, then it reflects the humanity of the audience. And that's an interesting trick, isn't it? You know, I mean, it's interesting. It's a, I think it's a, a physics or biology or something because I think that a character is actually a portal into all of humanity. That's what they're like. And so if you get into the character, if you get into this one person, you're getting into the portal, into the wormhole for all humanity. And that's why it comes out on the other side, speaking, sounding like everybody. Or just more than one person, you know. Yeah, it's good. Yes. I forgot your name. You've been here before? No, I haven't. I've just seen, maybe I've just seen you on the street with my twins. Oh, your twins? So, when you're starting to work on a play, do you begin with a character and just go from there? Or is there a narrative, a story that you kind of have? What's your name? Sheila. Because Sheila is wondering when we start writing, or when she starts writing about you, should she start with a character or a story, like a narrative kind of thing? Getting started is hard for me. Getting started is hard. Good. Think again. Do you enjoy writing more or rewriting more? Just curious. Probably rewriting. Probably rewriting. Because once you've got it, once you've got it drafted, editing you can end it. Initial thing, right. It's painful. It's painful. Like, what kind of pain? Like, where do you feel the pain? I'm just curious. No, that's not it. And then I go to another direction. So it takes a long time to figure out what is it? What is it? Then once you figure it out, and once you decide, then you feel more comfortable. I feel more comfortable, but it's still a process. Right. But I'm still an emerging writer. Oh, yes. I understand. We're all emerging. We really are. I mean, we're just emerging, you know, some of us. Right. Some of us, like my son, he's three. He's emerging. But then there's the babies, you know, so we're all... But I hear what you're saying. Because we all have questions just like this. I mean, if you've written five plays, or ten plays, you might still have the same questions. And we make the mistake of thinking that once I've written 365 plays in 365 days, I'm not going to have these questions anymore. Haha. So I still do. But I can't leave you. No, actually, have you ever climbed, well, not ever since the good thing you talked about today, because all those people died, I mean, Paul, but have you ever climbed you're really high mounted or run, well, climbed a mountain? Or heard about people who have? I've climbed a Kilimanjaro. Really? See? You'll have no problems. You climbed a Kilimanjaro. It was easy. It was easy. Was it hard to breathe when you got to a certain... No, I was young and I was very fit. When you had to, do people have to use oxygenary? No. They don't? You just run up there? Well... You hide. I didn't. I'll put some people through. But I know that when you climb high, maybe higher mountains or maybe those people were less fit, the air is rare and it's hard to breathe. And so maybe when you write lots of plays, it's very different. The air is rare. It's hard to breathe. Because you've been like... Like that. Okay, but anyway, let's do it. If you start with a character or if you start with an arrow, I would say you could do either. You could start with a character and get to know her or him and have her or him take you somewhere. Or you could walk around asking yourself, tell me the story. Tell me the story. What is the story? You know, and you could do, like I suggested before, index cards and like write it out on index cards. This happens and this happens and this happens and in the end, this happens. And make it very simple, as if you're telling a young person, a small person, and once in a long time, this happened and then this happened and then this happened and then this happened and in the end, and that's your first draft. See? And they say, so who is the main character of this? You know? And this happened to her and then she did this and then she did this and then she did this. You see how we just, so you could start with just a story, a framework. And a framework can be very simple. Okay? Try that. That might be the way to do it. Keep it simple and I know you're trying to kill a jar. You ran up. Is there one approach that you typically would use? Boom. Boom. I suggest both. I don't know. It depends. Sometimes things come to you with characters and sometimes things come to you with story. But then the same, it's kind of the same thing. It's kind of the same thing. Whatever. Because this is a story about a woman who, you know what I mean? Oh, so this character already. You know? This is a story about a tab group of people who live in a town who character already. It's the same thing. So it's to split them apart. You know, to switch over your feeling. Okay? Congratulations on a climb to that mountain. Yes. It's sort of good to bring you back to Trump. Yes. Yes. After years of time you're writing a story and having a bunch of false stories and different drafts. Yes. How everything happened to your approach just trying to pull it all together. No, right. Right. That's a really good question. What's your name? Ryan. Ryan. Hi Ryan. You have a Ryan behind the camera too. So Ryan says after years of writing many drafts how do you go about doing that together? Writing like the draft, right? And it's tricky because if it's a play and say it's like a hundred pages to say then you've got a hundred pages of this way to do it. A hundred pages of this and a hundred pages of this and a hundred pages of this it's a lot of drafts. Right? If it's a novel it's even worse. Right? Okay. So I would suggest if you've written all those drafts and they're all different I would suggest not looking at any of them and just going to what we just talked about telling yourself the story most upon a time this happened and this happened try to get really basic with yourself. I think if you're going to try to go through and find little bits of this draft that you like little bits of this draft that you like and since it sounds really hard so just kind of start fresh this is going to be the draft and do a lot of sketching before you actually commit to dialogue and you know what I'm talking about just index cards let's have outline that's what you call it you know right? Get bullet points down okay? and do it that way yeah just binge aside binge to the bullet points and go through it that way instead of just picking and to craft the bullet points you can look at each one but don't get too involved down in these drafts I would suggest because that's a lot of drafts you have it in your head you have it you know so you just have to kind of go forward okay try the bullet points that's good or the index cards is good okay that's a good question see that's not a good question it's about you what were you writing but you don't know because you don't know so this is the game that you play with this any question that you ask me about what I'm doing I make it about you because this is one hour in the week where I'm going to focus on you so if you don't have a chance during the week to focus on yourself or you're writing you've got me sitting here to focus on you so that's the real game of the show that we do so my thing is what did you write about? I wrote about Eva wrote about Eva? I wrote about Eva yeah? it was Eva Eva's a young New Yorker who was waiting for Charles and the mezzanine at the public theater and she was trying to figure out what was going on that's good what happens in the end? I didn't get to the end what do you think? she doesn't figure it out she doesn't figure it out? no what do you mean? no she can't figure out what these people are doing why are they doing it? I don't know that's cool is that the shape of something? is that the shape of something? no that's just I have to write something okay yeah sometimes we sit and we just write and we really have to write we have to write something just put words down what did Joyce Carroll say sometimes I'm going to paraphrase her heart a little bit soon sometimes I want my soul to spin as a planning card I write and the act of writing changes everything so I really admire her but she can really write she sits down she gets her work done it's pretty cool I see that we you have this setup that they set up for you to write I don't know how to turn the question on myself but maybe so if you just ask about me and then I can't turn around then I'll just stop so do you do you want to have an optimal situation for writing like the red type writer and the red I think that's a title something and then the fruit is there so it's still live I know yeah so you know like somebody came one of these days came and they I was like that's interesting you know like like do I need to like set up a perfect environment to like write or I mean like do you know yourself to do that or somebody else decided no I love your question what's your name Sokora Sokora that's a really great question this whole look of this thing is a sort of it's been evolving because I've been doing this show for so many years now it's sort of evolving so so the red type writer and then I got this red timer to match and then and then Lynn when she comes she brings food because it's kind of not a joke and she also brings me these lotto tickets here so it's kind of like it's like an extended joke kind of this like this because it's a play and then I walk around all this thing stuff going on and it somehow matches this decor the thing refurbished the lobby with but it didn't before when we get into corner over there it was anyway Can you repeat the question Oh I'm so sorry right thank you Sokora asks like is this like should we strive for the perfect setup for our writing you know because this is the perfect setup with the typewriter and the timer and the still life and whatnot or should we just like by any means necessary by any means necessary right so if you got like some time on the bus when you're going to work or whatever and you only got your your notebook and you can only write longhand boom there it is you know what I mean I have I have a yoga practice which is like my writing practice I used to do two hours of yoga every day but now my son he has a different school schedule so now I do 20 minutes while he's watching that's my yoga practice that's all I got you know what I'm saying so that's how to work right so we take what works if you got like five hours a day great and you want to spend doing your writing great you know what I mean but if you've only got an hour after your kids go to sleep or before you've had good work or on your lunchtime or in the car you know in some people sit in the garage and they write they have to roll into the car you know this life where they have these things you know they're talking about so you want to you want to find the time you know maybe it means like that you don't watch your favorite television show or your favorite show online you know what I'm saying maybe it means that you know whatever you know that little thing that you don't have to do you know but I know that we all have to get our work done I just know that it might not be an hour that's why we do 20 minutes it might just be 20 minutes in 20 minutes a day is all you've got maybe that's all you need and that's okay and you'll still get your work done I get a lot of work done just like one hour I sit and I work I focus really hard and I do it five days a week I can't do it on the weekends because my son I have a son all day I can't work on the weekends anymore I used to work all the time I can't work on the weekends anymore because I have to hang out with my kids you have two full-time jobs I did have two full-time jobs and five brains no really two yeah you're right two full-time jobs and it's hard I mean I also I have one full-time job and then the writing means like a side thing right but I'm a teacher of three-year-olds oh wow so you teach the three-year-olds yes I know I saw him he was looking at me I was looking at him one guy made that connection yo they're no kid of me yeah they're no kid of me let's say yes you've got to really find your time and if you look at your day carefully Sequoia you can find that time and it only has to be like 15 minutes that's all you need and I don't know where it is in your day because you know you've got your own specific day but I know you can find the time and if you just commit to it every day or five days a week you know just do it and see if you can make that commitment to yourself I mean that's the tricky thing because a lot of times we make you know we always are in service of other people we're always out there present for other people helping people or doing things and we kind of feel weird about making that commitment to ourselves you know but that's the kind of belief in yourself that it takes so you came here so a complete faith in you come and let me tear you on I love it I love it it would have been sad to be I don't know yeah no I was just talking about what I was supposed to say I mean let's start there's a wonderful man yeah I mean I only knew like a little bit I met him a few times really? he met all this people at home yeah when I first came to New York he was speaking at something that had to do with it in my view I believe when he first came to New York go ahead yeah he was speaking at something that had to do with it in my view and I just returned to the city after 25 years in suburban drew very amazing kids and I was like actually it's one of the persons who I come to see ladies when I get away was here in this room and he was just a nice person most encouraging as a writer and just like everybody else like you I interviewed him in 2005 you know the story I've told you this story before American Theater Magazine said he wanted to interview August Wilson I said sure it would be great and I did all my research and everything and then about an hour before the interview they called him and said oh he's got to tell you you know August he's not feeling too well so you know I said oh cool cool watch it whatever and they said no no no you don't understand he's dying and I said this is an hour before the interview and I had to go through and I had an interview and I think I remember crying through the whole interview and he was just cool and loving and kind and supportive and I was just like good kid good kid and I made a sense of all the and that was apparently that was the last okay he wanted it to be the last interview but I didn't know I just thought he was like talk to me so anything else? that is the question you have to ask so where am I going to put my faith and it's hard it's really really hard you know even if you have friends and you win awards and people give you money and all that kind of stuff it doesn't necessarily make it any easier somehow because you still have to come to terms with that strange thing in writing it's if you don't have faith in yourself and what happens if you don't have faith in yourself? then you what you do is you I think the best thing to do when you're feeling lowly I think is to either you know you tell her things I would suggest not crack or drink you know I'm just saying some people don't have faith in themselves they go a small crack I'm just saying people do that I'm suggesting that you don't do that we I mean some people buy lots of shoes I'm suggesting not that either okay but I do think it's good to cover and be around people who can restore you and and remind you of who you are hey faith in your writing and we come we some people smoke crack am I not faith in your writing and some people will gather together with people who can restore them the same thing that's what I'm talking about you know the name they remind us that our writing is worth it you know that's what I mean you know they remind us that keep going they say keep going we'll cheer you on you know what I mean that's what we do I think that's really the best thing to do to you know sometimes giving people pages and hoping that they're going to like the pages is dicey because they might not you know but if you could just get around people who are going to cheer you on and say keep going take another step take one more step I think there's there's value in that that's what I do you know yeah I think it's hard to kind of sit at home alone and kind of try to get the feeling back you know what I mean but also put in the time in also because your writing is a resource it's a well for you to reach into and to find that thing that makes it worthwhile that experience at Trust Kills it is that it is that yeah it is that it is that experience sometimes when my soul is as thin as a playing card I write and the act of writing changes everything and it has that a little line after the act of writing changes everything or seems to which is like so great which is so great beautiful to ask beautiful questions beautiful questions that's the young spot in here when I write I find myself editing while I write and by doing that I'm trying to stop myself from doing that and it just disrupts everything so I guess what are some suggestions for me to kind of combat that that's great what's your name Sheena Yes Sheena edits while she writes it's a great question it's a question that we all have and we continue to have I always stop doing this thing that I'm doing and it's not helpful so how do you stop editing while we write how do you write do you write in a notebook or is it on your computer or I was blowing that on my cool microphone to my laptop on my iPad and what is the editing while you write look like what do you do you curse back up and and it's literally like for instance she's always saying this and then it's like wait maybe I should use a different word and then it just disrupts everything so and so is saying this go ahead like for instance you know I'll write a character a dialogue for a character and there's having a sense and say something and I'm like wait maybe I should use a different word to convey what I'm feeling and then it just completely ruins everything and I can't really get back on track and I probably stop doing it a lot great so this is why you're writing in your notebook this is when you got the juices flowing in your typing it's growth okay okay so what I want you to try doing I don't want you to know I don't want you to try I want you to do I don't want you to do is when you're writing it's your notebook okay I want you to write for smaller increments of time like how long when you sit down and write about how long do you write for okay okay and then you get your juices flowing and you start to stop what happens for the day if you're writing I'm like all right cool I get my iPad out and she's gonna try it for me right so but your entire writing time about how long is that it depends on a day sometimes it's a half an hour I would estimate around 45 minutes okay so your writing time is about 45 minutes okay what I want you to do is try 20 minutes okay and this is what I want you to try for 20 minutes I want you to just go forward okay stop the time is going to go off okay and then if you transfer it to your iPad or whatever right for 20 minutes set the time again just go forward if you're copy just copy forward it's a discipline you know all the stories in mythology like don't look back a lot and his wife you know and then Medusa and you know they had to look at her in a mirror all the stories right just doing it okay I'm just going to ask but I want you to shorten your time okay so if you how about just 15 minutes just go forward just keep going forward if you find someone maybe I'll this is where Fox says just go forward just keep going forward okay okay just try that just try doing that alright okay it's great to know that I'm doing something that I hate doing but I want to change it okay thank you but it's really hard there's two things at once yeah two things at once yeah good so just what's the song ain't gonna let nobody turn me around yeah so that's where we're going to we're going to end talking about the movement thank you guys so much for being here today because you're great thank you