 Yeah, I know. I'm looking at them like, what's up with the tables? The chairs are the same, right? But the tables... Where did they put the other tables? I know. I have a whole thing about the kind of table that I like. No, I just think that it's... I like a table with angles and edges. And I'm not a fan of the round table. I wouldn't make a good knight, I suppose. I'd be a knight of the square table, or the rectangular table, or the pentagonal, or hexagonal table. I'd do it a knight of the hexagonal table. The round table, I don't... you know, it's not... the writing doesn't work well for me in a round table. And this is like an emergency, you know? So has everybody been here, or even in the world of alternate facts? Have we all been here before? Has anybody been here before? I wasn't sure if she was starting. Oh, we can start. Yeah, we can start now. You're already ready. Fabulous, fabulous. Yeah, so we have a camera person, a camera man, actually. A-Green's behind the camera. Yeah, A-Green. Everybody ever sit right here? And this is watch and work. You guys know what watch and work is, right? What we do is we... I set the timer. I actually brought my timer this week, which is like a miracle. And we're going to set it. We're going to work for 20 minutes. And then we're going to take questions about your work and your writing process for the remainder of the time. We broadcast? Broadcast? Is that the word? We're live, and I looked up. Where have I been? I took a nap, was like, you know where? We live stream courtesy of Howell Round. And we broadcast. What am I thinking? Like I'm an anchor woman. Anyway, so we're here for you, who can't be here today, in person. And we're here, and Maya's going to tell us if you need to get in touch with us how to do that. If you have a question about your work. Yeah, for those of you who are watching online on Howell Round, we take questions for SLP here by our Twitter handle, which is WatchMeWorkSLPs. So you can tweet at us, and I will ask for your questions, and she will respond. Yes, she'll respond. That's about everything. So does everybody have something to work on? If you don't... I was talking to someone the other day who said, don't give writing prompts. That's apparently been fashionable for the last 30 years. Writing prompts. And I said, always I do. It's always the same prompt, which is write. I have my time. Explain, like the same, to you. So this is a play, for those of you who don't know. And we did the action part together. That's what we wrote together. And now we're going to do the dialogue part. So anybody who has a question about your work and your creative process, you can ask me. Twitter, folks, you can tweet in. Crystal's out there in New Jersey. If you don't feel like tweeting today, they're saying hi. And I'll be able to tweet in. They're saying hi. Anybody else? You started writing regularly again, yeah? You want to get back into a play you started sometimes, right? Yeah. So how does one do that? Gently. Yeah. Everett. Everett. Yes. He was saying, you know, we couldn't go back to his old stuff. Oh. Right. You feel that. Oh, okay. Because you were asking him, what makes it difficult to go back? You were asking him, yes. Yeah. You had some keys. It's not like he had a lock and many keys. He just kept trying keys and then they were effective. Right. So how does it go? I'm working on your new old play. Right. Well, that's exciting. That's exciting. That sounds fun. Like fun, right? You know, it's like each of us has a different experience in the same thing. You know what I mean? I'm like, some people aren't mourning people, you know? They don't like getting up in the morning. And some people do. Some people go to bed early. Some people are at night hours. You know, we each have a different experience. That was tricky. But what's important is that, you know, we go like, wow. For some times, some people go, I can't go, it's hard to go back to an old work. And some people go, oh, it's great. You're having a great experience, which is, I'm so glad. Yeah. Right. Right. So you put in the time. Yes. Right to the time again. How does that feel? You're getting back to writing right early. Yeah. Yeah. It's a little tick on it. Yeah. But I should, that's all. Right. It's all cooking time. Oh, sure. Yeah. Right. Right. That's how we get it. It really works. Yeah. Right. Put in the time regularly. It's magical. It's like a lot of times if I feel like, oh, I'm having trouble writing. I got a lot. Am I putting in the time? Yeah. If I'm, no, no, I haven't. Yeah. I've been two days or whatever. Oh, I haven't. Yeah. Yeah. Put in the time. Yeah. Music. If you don't do it all the time, then you just have to close. Right. Like a jazz. Right. Right. If you do it all the time, the improv starts. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yeah. Uh-huh. I agree. I'm so glad. I didn't have any big experience. Your question? Remind me of your name. James. James. Hey, James. Yeah. Well, my question is I find it, I write with big company. Right. But I only usually write for a project. Right. Like, unless I have a group of people or a story or a interspace group or whatever, I don't usually ever just sit down and write. And I guess I wondered if you or anyone had tips on how to activate that. I feel like it would only help with writing. Right. Free writing. I mean writing for something other than a specific project or a deadline or a group or something. Or just sitting down and writing for the sake of it. I've never, I find that very hard to do. Right. I have to have a thing in the life. Do you know what I mean? That thing that I'm doing. And then I find it really easy to write. Right. But I don't know if there's something I'm missing. I will own by doing it now. I don't know. I don't know. I think each project, if you have like five different projects and you're working on a specific project, I don't think it's bad to say like I have to have a project to do in order to write. Although I hope that you, you know, sometimes if you say, wow, I want to write something, it gets tricky when you say I want to write something, but there's no venue for it. So I'm going to wait until I have a venue. That, that means that you're tripping yourself up. Right. But if you're saying, well, I don't, maybe I don't have anything to write right now. So, you know, just chill. And then something comes to mind and I'll write it. You know, but waiting for a venue to have, wait waiting for a venue to manifest before you write something is, yeah, you want to be able to write something just because you have an idea of something you'd like to write. You understand? So do you have a difficulty when you don't have a venue to write something? No, it's not, I guess it's not, it's not something I was raised in. It's not, so it's more, I always have an idea when, this isn't, maybe I'm not making sense, but it's like I always have an idea when I write. Right. I never, I have friends that sit down and just almost journal and see what happens and see what's kind of in their psyche. You know what I mean? I don't do that. I'm like, this is the story I want to tell. I sit down and write it and construct it. Right. I just wondered if that's, if there's something like that. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I mean, I think you're allowed to, you know, it's only different. I just want to say one more thing. If you, it's different, if you, for example, sometimes if I write a play or a movie that I edit, I know it's, but I know that I want to write that, right? If I sit down and say I want to write some songs for the band, then I just sit down and see what comes. That kind of thing, so it's different. But, I mean, it sounds like you're getting a lot of writing. So, let's get carried. You have something. I think sprites are called disarrhoids clouds. Right. Right. I'm going to look at the window. I'm going to be in there. I'm going to see if there's anything that's right. Right. I'm going to look at the window. Sure. Sure. It's so busy. It's so busy. It's so busy. It's just so busy. Yeah. I'm going to be in there. I'm going to be in there. It's great to be in there. Right. Yeah. But it's great that you get no other writing that's really fantastic. Where are you from? Skull. Skull. Where are you from? Yes. I thought you were from the Drums. That's right. Same thing. Yeah. Right. It's up there. It's up there. Right. Anybody else? Yes. Well, can I ask you a technical question? It's not really technical. I don't know what to call it. You can't do years of writing. Yes. You have to write so much paper. Yeah. And what do you save? And like each piece of paper seems so precious to me. Right. The idea that I got when. Right. How do you toss? How do you determine what really built the piece of the next generation to not want anybody? Right. Right. Well, there's a thing. There are a couple of answers to that. It's an actual paper. It's a piece of paper. Yeah. It's not a piece of paper. So is there a way to consolidate first of all? To take, to get a series of, you know, nice notebooks and just paste the paper in. There's that. So you can have notebooks. If you want to. So you. I have files. You have files. Okay. So lots and lots of files. I mean, if you have time to sit and go through them. When you downsize and you have to. When you downsize and you have to. So, I mean, there's that book. What is that book? Magic. Yeah. Yes. Is that what these women knew? A magical subject of tidying up. Yeah, the Declaring book. Yeah, I read that. You read that. So she said that, you know, you pick something up and if it gives you a good feeling that means a head. It gives you a head. Right. That didn't work for you. I said, I can actually go to the park where she said, talk to your socks. Right. Right. Right. He wasn't even talking. Yeah. Yeah. That was the end of that book. Yeah. I got to, I mean, I read it, but I became a non-believer when she started talking about how to hang the clothes so that they would sin. And I thought, I don't have that kind of closet. So there's an assumption that we have things like dressers and closets that I don't have. So I thought, I wish you'd take into account that some people don't have that kind of real estate footprint that we can organize our, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So how would the files work? Well, yeah. Right. Sure. Because you never know. They could come back. They could sell one day. They could. Yeah. I mean, I saved up. I said, you know, get a storage unit. That's what I'm here for. That's what I'm here for. I saved up a storage unit. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. could sell one day because I mean I get a storage unit that's what I'm here for because I can feel the reason you know oh who am I to tell you what you should throw away you know if you try that book you try the exercises you're still like I don't know what to do in a storage unit sure what's it gonna cost you know oh they are get one of state they're cheap get one you know get one in a part of the country that's not too expensive and drive yourself up there or have it shipped or sent. It's funny you should think that's a perspective. See I'm reading your mind. I'm really good at that. It's kind of scary. Yeah I am. Because I'm just listening to you what you're saying. Do you find, well we're not talking about you. What? In general, do you save every rejection switch? Now that's a great question. So do we save every rejection slip? So let's go back to I can't remember the woman, the fabulous woman's name who wrote the book. Do I save a rejection slip? So you pick up a rejection slip. It makes you feel what? Good, bad? I think all the rejection slips do get to. Really? I think it makes you feel good. Keep them. I mean for me, I just, I don't, I'm not, I'm not interested in holding on to things. Just so I can say haha. Look, you said I wasn't like Casey Acklin apparently. You got the word recently. You read, you know, you read all the bad press he got. You know, in his word acceptance speech. Haha, you see, this guy said such and such about me. And this one said, that's a way. It's not, you know, I have to spend the time saying thank you to the people who cheered me on. Instead of haha to the people who didn't. It's more like that when you see rejection slips progress from something that's just all of us to rejection slips that give you criticism of the rhythm. You don't want to tell a way, don't. You know, you could, I mean, you could, you could chip them all in boxes, upstate where it's cheap and say for the next 80 years I'll be paying on the storage unit. You know, you could take a rent a house, upstate for a week and have a big bonfire and burn everything in the backyard. You see, and have a big party and just burn all your paintings. All the artists, all the artist's way pages? Paintings? Like a Picasso? A Ripper? I don't know about paintings. I don't have any paintings. Oh, I have paintings. But this is what I do with Durham stuff. Sweet little Durham, five years old myself. Okay, he brings, look mommy, look what I get in school today every day. There's a pile of stuff, right? Why do we send Durham to school? We walk into school, he goes into the building. I go home. I keep like, you know, the hits. That one and that one. Look, there he learned to make the letter of M. Okay. He's throwing stuff away. We keep the hits and let the rest go. He's not going to need to dig through boxes in a storage room full of papers where he learned to, when he was working on the letter Q. He'll be like, T, why does my parents have some backbone? You know, so we're throwing stuff away. Yes, same thing goes. There you go. There you go. Get the storage unit and then they'll throw it at you. And those people, like the reality shows, will unlock little storage drawers or whatever. They'll come and they'll unlock and they'll go through it for you. That's a great idea. Sure. Sure. Oh, you're much younger. We're just looked through, but just throw stuff away. Throw things away. Throw some things away. I mean, really. I did. Okay, good. That is like that wonderful photographer who was in NAMI in Chicago. I can't remember. Yes, and they discovered her photographs. Myers. Yes, I was blown away, but. They discovered her photograph. They discovered her photographs. Somebody got them at her. These boxes. So she didn't burn them in the backyard, but she did throw them away. No, she didn't throw them away. She discarded them. No, she died. She died. She died. She died. These boxes. It is storage unit. There you go. So put it in the storage unit. Put it in the storage unit. Put it in the storage unit. Yes, yes. I hope so. Yeah, put it in the storage unit. Not to worry. Yes, they're beautiful photographs. They're pretty gorgeous. I take a lot of it. Yeah. So in my writing for film, my inclination is to write what I know. At least they'll write what I know. But I'm feeling like that's kind of limiting and maybe like my imagination is stunted. Do you think, do you generally start from writing, you know, just from experience, like letting that be the seed or more magic? Right. That's a great question. What's your name? Stephanie. You could Stephanie. Oh, okay. You've been here before. I haven't seen your work, but I've never been to this. It's good to see you. Thanks for coming. That's a great question, Stephanie. Should we write from what we know, from what we know? Should we use that? Or should we let our imagination take us places? And this is the thing about that note, which is a good note. Write what you know. It's also, like you said, it runs you into all sorts of weird places. Like you're just writing what. Yeah, I go to work. I'm a barista. I go to work. I go home. I go to work. It's really great. But, you know, it also leads people to think that they have to have adventures in order to write. So we get a lot of people who have maybe spent a summer abroad. You know, so you get a lot of plays about that. Or people who go and do relief work in the Congo. We get a lot of plays about that. Because I was there. And I did the relief work in the Congo. It's like, great, great. So you're right to play about your relief work in the Congo. Okay. You know, so there's a limit to that, too. Okay? So, because people think they have to do something exciting in order to write something exciting. I don't think that's true. The question is, write what you know. So they're, write what you know. So they're four words in that sentence, right? Write? We know what that is. What? What? What we're going to find out. You? Who are you? That's the part that I like to think about. Who am I? Who am I really? You know what I mean? Am I just the sum of my resume and blah, blah, blah? Yeah, where I was born and where I grew up and all that? Or am I more than that? And that's where it gets interesting, right? What you know. Who are you? And how do you define yourself? And are you Stephanie, the person who grew up where you grew up? Or are you something, are you more than that? And that's where I think you're feeling the calm of your imagination. Answer it. See what happens. The worst thing that can happen is people go, you don't know anything about, you know, living than that. The Civil War. You weren't there. Oh, great. So we can't write about the Civil War. Okay. You know, then we get into that, right? No, I was living in the Civil War. No, I wasn't. Right? So, okay. Think about the great, right? Think about, I don't know, what's his name? Well, think about Shakespeare. Think about Shakespeare. He wasn't, I mean, he might have been in real life Hamlet, right? But he wasn't Hamlet and King Lear, and the Scottish King, and Richard II and III, and Henry IV and VI and V and VIII. He wasn't all those guys, yo, right? He was writing about what he knew, but he saw himself in a larger context, the biggest of self. And I think, I mean, I don't know. I don't know because I wasn't there. But I imagine, which bridges the gap between me and the world, I imagine what he might have been feeling to write those, all those characters, because he certainly didn't live all those lives. I mean, he lived his life, right? Okay, so you just have to maybe do a little more research or be a little more aware and awake, right? You have to allow yourself to discover things and allow yourself to go, gee, that's something I don't know about, so maybe I need to read a book on it or an article or talk to somebody who I first had experience, and you have to take risks. You have to put a lot on limbs, you know, of trees that you don't know the names of and dare to sort of, you know, I've never seen trees. I've never watched squirrels in trees. I mean, squirrels, you know, squirrels. What are squirrels? They beg in the park for nuts, right? I mean, what is that? Not so great. But if you watch them in trees, have you ever seen them? They go, they jump, they jump. The trees are like really high. They're like jumping from one tree to another. These are flying squirrels. These are regular squirrels. They leap from one tree to another. I'm amazed. I'm like, wow, they're so brave. You know, so we have to be at least that brave. That's a squirrel. Brave is a squirrel. All right? So that's all we have to do. Easy. Thank you. So far you have to write what you know plus imagination. You are imagination. And so it's, it's who you are and that imagination. I don't have your imagination. I don't have your life experience. But I imagine, you know, it's, I imagine it's amazing. You know, it's incredible. But all of it, you know, it just, it's exciting. Exactly. Exactly. And in a life in New York would be exciting if people had never been here. And we each have a very exciting life. It's the intersections, the crossroads between you and you. It's a, it's a poem. It's a, you know, it's funny the crossroads or Jesus saw the cross, which is kind of the same thing. You know, or you're, you know, it's the same idea. It's somebody at the crossroads or you do math, baby math, the X and Y axis. You know what I mean? The crossroads. It's the crossroads between who you are in this body, in this flesh and who you are across time and how we relate to each other and how you know, you feel for somebody. You might have to have more empathy if you write from your imagination. You might have to be more awake. You will probably be, you know, who knows, a better writer, potentially. When Shakespeare was writing out of imagination and, and, and research, you know, he read widely and all that kind of stuff, but, exactly, but that's the crossroads. So it's you and your imagination. That's the big S of your big self, which Shakespeare also begins with S. Big S. And so is Stephanie. So there you are. Yeah. Having been over the, have you ever run into any particular challenges, like big outstanding challenges that prevented you from making a shooting project? Yeah, like, what's your name? Pablo. Pablo? Okay, so Pablo, have you run, so you work in horror on a project and then maybe you run it to a roadblock? Like a, like, it's a flooded river. I mean, just imagine if it were landscape. It's like a river to cliff and there's like no bridge, right? Or it's like a big rock, huge. Or it's a wall. And you're a mime. Yeah, it's a wall, right? And you're like, oh my God, it's a wall that can't be like that. I don't know how to get around it, right? That prevented you from finishing the project? That's saying no. No, because that obstacle is basically just your soul saying, okay, what you got? You know what I'm saying? It's just like, what you got? You're a warrior in a magical kingdom. You're supposed to like, you know, it's just like all the great movies or video games if you like those. Sure, you come to an impasse and the river's flooded. What would the hero do? Oh, it's your story. You're the hero in the story. You're the writer-hero. What would the hero do? Ah, darn! I better go home. Right? You're not that, right? No, there's a wall you can't seem to... More about it and it didn't work, but I was just wondering if that happens with success, do those types of like challenges or walls get bigger? Yes, they do, they get bigger. They get bigger. The challenges get bigger, the obstacles get larger, the air gets rarer, you have fewer colleagues that you can turn to, you have fewer people who can give you good notes. You know what I'm saying? Oh sure, so that's all, you know, there you are, you're like, I mean I've never climbed Mount Everest before. Has anybody climbed Mount Everest? No, I haven't. You're climbing Mount Everest and there's not a lot of oxygen and it's cold and, you know, you might have a colleague up ahead but you can't see them because it's snowing. You know what I mean? There's someone behind you but they're kind of like, you know, eh, you can't really count on them and then you won't just walk, I had no idea how to do it but you know, you do this, you know. Oh sure, it's a lot harder. It's a lot harder. People think, oh once you have some success and things get easier, no, no, things get harder. These actually get more difficult. They get steeper and more people want more things from you and that's just work and then maybe you have a kid or a spouse or a mom or dad that needs your help or a dear friend who's counted on you for help, you know. And then you have things like your reputation. So I do all kinds of funny things. You know, like I have a band now. We play for free at signature theater every Saturday. Yeah, because it's like, let's do something new. Let's do something that, yeah, let's do something like, kind of not brand new, I've been playing music for a long time. Let's do something new. It's kind of interesting to do something really, really well and do something not as well as everything and to do them both at the same time and go like, yeah. So you have to find ways to play the game or you, the game starts playing you. So you just have to, you know, anyway, but, sure, but when at River, the next time the River, you know, ah, swim, sure. Or, look, there's a horse. Ride the horse, I mean, it's fun when you start playing it like a game. It becomes enjoyable and that's what I try to encourage people to do. Make the process enjoyable. Play the game of the process with yourself because that's what, why we're in the field of creativity to hone those skills and to make it enjoyable. That's why we're here. And then you take those skills and you apply them to everyday life and then things start getting really exciting. It takes place in 1996. I don't know why or what. But I have, the character's talking but I don't, I haven't like done the research. Right. Like to like make it in that period. You, can I write the whole play without having done that research and then go back and figure out if that's the time you heard you. I think it's important to do that research and figure it out. Do you know why, does something happen? Yes. So it's kind of based, I wanted to write a play about a delicatessen. Okay. And I was doing research on the second avenue deli that was killed in 1996. Okay, okay. And I think I'm just sitting there exploring like a family after right? Right. And then that was happening in 1996. So I guess that's in my head but I guess it kind of doesn't matter. Since that's the specific historical reference that you're working with I would say write the play and then do the research. Because that story could happen in 2017. Yeah. You know. So I would say write the play and then take a look at 1996 to see if it's really, and it might not be. There might be some things that you might want to plant in there. You know. But yeah, definitely. In your case, write the play. And see what you got. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right, right. Yeah. And usually it's like do a little research, do a lot of writing and then do the research that you need to fill in them. You know. Because a lot of people get all rapid research and then we don't get to do our writing. You know. And then just be gay and selective. Okay. At least they let you back in. Careful. Now. Oh, we've got, we've got five minutes left. Anybody? I see. But in writing a short film, are there ideas that are inherently you think bigger and just the nature of them is that you want to explore them for a longer film? Or really, it's arbitrary and you can, you know, write a ten minute film about something as well as a longer film about the same thing. I think it's how much you want to show. You know. I mean, you know, whatever. A love story, you know. Boy meets girl, they fall in love. Get married, have 27 children. You could do that in 15 minutes. You know, if you wanted to. If you wanted to show it that way. Or it could be a 25 hour film. It's how much detail you want to show, right? So that's the thing about length. Some things should only be a certain length. Some people think I can make a full length play or film or something. So they stretch it out. Padding it with details that aren't necessary. So you want every single detail that you should be necessary. And length is a choice. You know? Yeah. I think you could do, I don't know. Civil war or whatever. And you could do it in seven minutes if you wanted. It's one thing you want to show in a certain way. Right? Yeah. It's Valentine's Day tomorrow. Anybody nervous? No? No? Shit. I heard the Tinder is like the most downloaded lifestyle app ever. Or for the last three years, it's Tinder. Everybody's like madly trying to find. I thought you meant on Valentine's Day. Well, probably. Everyone on Valentine's Day. Well, I think there's a wave of desperation. We won't talk about 45th, but he still... There's a wonderful movie I saw recently, and I think it's on Netflix. It's called Genius. And the reason I mention it is because it's a wonderful lesson in rewriting. It's a movie about Thomas Wolfe and his editor. Oh. And it's remarkable when you were saying, tell the story, how much you want to tell this little bit or this little bit. And it was so instructive in the way how Thomas Wolfe brought his writing and how his editors... You know, why are you doing... Why are you saying, you know, you ten minutes on her eyelash. It was very instructive, and I found it really beautiful. It's on Netflix. It's about Thomas Wolfe. Yeah. It's called Genius. Yeah. Is that referring to his editor? I think it referred to them. It's a team of them. Oh, them together. Yes. Okay. But it certainly referred to him as the writer. Oh, I see. Oh, I see. Yeah. Can I have one more? Yeah. Before we go, yeah. So you mentioned before you said it. So in this time, like, as a writer, like, responding to this, do you think there's something to take in our work? Or... Do you think it was worth taking? Like, whatever. I guess I'm starting like a... I don't really know how to respond to my work to what's happening with Netflix. Yeah. I agree. And where... Should we be taking a certain place? I think the most important thing is to do your work and not to get obsessed about reading about him or, you know, every little thing that's going on. You know, do your work and if you feel like you've got to go and protest or resist or do something, go and do that, you can actually get your work done too. You can get your work done and be politically involved, you know. And if you find that there are things that are going on in the world today that you want to talk about in your work, go for it, you know. So definitely go for it. If you feel that. Yeah, it's a good thing. Are we done? Are we? Go on. Thanks for coming, you guys. Thanks for coming. We'll be here. We won't be here next week because it's... It's... It's... It's a... It's President's Day next week. Yeah, next week is President's Day, so we won't be here. But we'll be back on the 27th, right now. Okay, thanks. Thanks for coming. Bye.