 If you don't need to engage in dishonesty, you're not that much. Are we ready? Is it five o'clock? It is indeed. It's five o'clock. Yeah, it's 4.59. It's 4.59. But we're live, so it's live. But we're live. Okay, so what's the first thing we're saying? So, this is watch and work, so just to note, what's today the 20th quarter? So next week, Halloween the 31st, we won't be doing watch and work because we'll be, I don't know, the public theater has an event or something. And so if you have questions this week, please ask them. We'll be back on the 7th, correct? We'll be back on the 7th at five o'clock. So, the 7th of November. So just to put that out there, so we won't forget to tell you later. And also, we're doing watch and work today in honor of Jim Halton, who's the founding artist director of Signature. And you guys know, he passed away a couple of months ago. And they are having his morris over at Signature. And I was just up there. He's very beautiful. And so Jim supports a lot of writers. So we're just like, you can feel his love that he has for writers and supporting all of our work and everything. So we're loving him, especially hard today. And what else are we doing? What are you going to be? Melissa and Matt are behind the camera. Melissa, what are you going to be for Halloween? Oh, I'm not sure yet. I haven't forgotten about that. Do you have any ideas for me? Do I have any ideas for you? Well, someone out of the song suite, Melissa, I think. Yeah, like a hippie with a guitar. I appreciate it. Right? Like you love the almond. Almond. You see? You can work that. See? On the same thing every year. If anybody can guess what that is, I'll give you some advice about your writing. I'm a witch over here. I'm a hat. I just put it on. We're the same thing. I always put it on. Okay. So anybody hasn't been to watch me work before? Somebody doesn't know how this goes? Okay. What's your name? Liz. Liz. Down here. Liz. Liz. Liz. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie. little people go off or then we do the dialogue part of the play in which we talk about your work and your creative process so you're feel free everybody will be able to we'll share you know with the song in our heart and a spring in our step knowing the world is a beautiful place yeah this is really I'm doing this right right I guess it's a fair interpretation yeah thank you so much this is watch me work and point using our Twitter handle which is at watch me work SLP and then also use the hashtag how you L R O U N D all right all right I think I did it right okay thank you you're going through that you'd like to discuss I think you're not going through the push you were Samantha Samantha yeah the vomited onto the page it worked it worked I've yeah I know I know always listen to the why yeah it was it was also get a Ralph's my friend the firefighter his anniversary was that was making me like and then but I've written a lot I finally found his he had a lot to say when we were you know when he was alive and we were working and it's been really interesting to sort of watch him come to life in front of me and it's been you know it's it's been it's helped with the grieving which you know that's been a challenge definitely especially coming into yeah I don't tell your story she's fabulous last week what we're worried your last week and then what did you do like I hid a wall and I was sitting the wall feeling sorry for myself and then I just had to push through it and it was very hard and then I got through it and now I'm at just and just staying on track with that it's going to be but it's changed I hand-write I've gotten away from handwriting so I started to hand write exclusively them everywhere and found all the so I found it's important so you found your family this is what I'm in involve sitting say I want to get up I want to do something else then what was difficult was the phone the crack of Facebook the crack so I turned it off and I did that and that helped yeah I usually work at like 730 set the 20 minutes that's been really and then I kept resetting it so that was that was new like I'm not done you can set your timer right to 20 minutes and reset if you feel like it and just sit there and get worked on whether you're hitting a wall or not it's affected I'm so pleased I'm so pleased so but again you want to stick to this you know method you developed your time of day your timer you're sitting there just working through it right yes you were there you were there and while you sure sure you can talk about research and whatever not going together good good house I'm very very happy for you good job really really really good and you can do the happy dance for yourself too yeah yeah I mean that's what you do that you don't have to celebrate and accomplish my regular shopping right on the television or by eating something like horrible food or drinking or smoking cracker but but you can you can just do the happy dance hi that's right Dan with a big voice I guess I did I don't remember about because I'm a young writer and I have a day job and life is hard and I had a production this summer in that a reading that went well and then I took two months off and I didn't plan on taking two months off but I just ended up taking two months off and I like did like no mental stimulation and now I'm back and it's weird and I'm just afraid of I'm afraid of burning myself out so like did you have any like techniques or something that got me through like exerting help and then there's like this is production season putting a show up I used to I do still practice yoga strong yoga this is great teacher named David Swanson who's a fabulous dude from Texas and he's been doing yoga for a long time and he says practice in such a way that you'll be able to practice tomorrow so it's with a mind on a long practice that will last your whole life okay so some people need whole months off some people need whole years off to recharge right some people need just the weekend some people just need one day or an afternoon or whatever you know so find out what works for you and be ready to change it up when your life circumstances change what you need now as you said a young writer you might not need it five years or seven years when you have two kids who are twins going to preschool you might need something else so keep your you know keep keep yourself just aware of what you need and you know what works for me is not necessarily what works for you but you have to find your own practice because it's your practice right but it's not so it's not as fast rule like I just had a production so now I'm taking a rest you know I mean you know I'm saying that's that's not you know maybe you need a rest maybe you need to work on the next day you have to listen to yourself self-study look within that small still voice within that says man you need a week off or you need a couple of days you can create also it within the day when I call no fly zones in the day so people are always say hey how about a meeting at 9 30 in the morning I get up at 5 6 I have a 6 in the morning that doesn't mean I have a meeting with somebody you know I mean doesn't mean I want to have a meeting at 9 30 so 9 30 to noon is pretty much a no fly zone I like to do my own right and I have a meeting where I'm sitting around you know if I can so you can create those kinds of rest periods within a day you know or I never do any work on Sunday you know I mean like that you know you can also create rest from a different stimuli in your life like you're only going to party all night on Saturday but not on Friday you're gonna take a break from media on Sunday and Saturday maybe you know so your body needs rest your mind needs rest from those things too or you're gonna take a rest from research and write which Samantha just did right or you're gonna take a rest from writing and do research a lot of people think I just gotta keep writing and it's a it's a illness people who can't you know they just one thing they just have to because the only way they feel worthy some people it's just because I'm always working workaholics there's a in Japan can die of overwork I forget where it is I know that like oh I have this great idea I'm staring at it for forever because I'm so afraid of how good it might be and that that's what the end part sounds like but yeah I feel that paralyzed by moment but you can be paralyzed by momentum because you're staring at a great idea just like you see like something that you want to do or like someplace you want to be or like I want to write right now I want to do something really good and then you like sit there feeling well you put in the time feeling like you should be doing something that you're not or at least I might be misinterpreting what you said at the end no I don't think it's a misinterpretation but yeah I feel that like you're like oh I have all these wants and needs and instead of actually like putting the foot to the pedal you just want and need things yeah so there's that when you're like oh I'm taking two months off this is great should I start working I could yeah but that's that's an interesting I would suggest if you feel that and oh I could you know paralyzed by by an exciting we do you take one very small step in the direction of your goal it might be this small but just took it you missed it you see me it was so small you didn't see it there was a step nonetheless you know you're gonna find out where it is if you want to go it might not be there might change you know you're gonna feel lousy man so we just do this sometimes this is all you do you sit around your house and you make yourself laugh you sit in your apartment when your roommates aren't there when your spouses are away to work and do silly things make yourself laugh I do it all the time I all day I like the freezy friend I'm trying to remember the paralysis of momentum you said another person then you're putting so much pressure on yourself so if you like call a friend up it could be like a friend or it could be a director friend or it could be an actor friend and just be like hey let's talk through this idea let's play around with it whether it's like a formal meeting or just like what if like one tiny step on paper by the end of your mind that works for me you guys invite a friend in the process I invite all the friends of the process you encourage try to take a step on your own just see it builds you know moxie bravery courage all those things we want to practice just doing it on your own I'm not to discount you're writing in the idea of the core of it keeps changing and you're on a new course and that course seems great and then you're on another course after you're after you detort off that story keeps shifting but you're okay but so this is the changes to have you written to the end in this particular thing no right so no right so that's yeah so if you think of I mean it's just going through and what it looks like first looks like a mom and then it's another sense you know you would look at it goes through the little thingy and it works like you know I'm saying that you look like a fish to allow you get to the end and then look at it as an entire thing okay do that a lot of times we're looking at it we're judging it or not judging it but we're trying to sort it out you're trying to write it and we're trying to figure it out so you're doing you're analyzing it while you're writing write it just write and rewrite after you've gotten to the end writing and rewriting are two different energies two different I call two different tasks right two different kinds of courage you write and then you and unnecessarily something to give out a touch time to be in the question yes that involves a lot of history and it's history that I get really geeky about and I'm trying to figure out how to how to incorporate that in such a way that the audience or a potential audience wouldn't feel like wouldn't feel like there's so much that they don't get and wouldn't feel like how to yeah right I just want to say the same thing I think applies to any, it should always be tied to the people. Yes. Totally. It should always be tied to the people. But a lot of times we forget, when we go into history, we think, it's history. I'm going to get these facts across. And that's not where you're going with it, but just remember that those are people you're talking about. Those are people. And sci-fi. Those are people. It's not like, oh, I'm talking about this cool world. People, people, people. People first. In my experience of writing, that's what makes it interesting. Anybody else have a burning question? No, it doesn't have to be burning. I'm just a joke. That's a joke. Burning. You got it now? Yes. Yes, yes. Remind me. John. John. I was just trying to get some insight into your world. Do you approach... You're asking me? Yes, because somebody... Yeah, I think so. But I'm wondering if there's like a trick or... Like over... Yeah, over sharing, or maybe not over sharing, but... You know, I think it's a fine line between the fiction, what you remember. You know, also making it an inner... You know, they're not because it really happens. We're talking about a play, or a novel, or... Is it relevant to the story you're telling, or the song? Or is this just my sidebar where I'm just talking... You have some job. You do, you have some picture. And you just cut? It's easy. You guys? Dan is just doing this. Anybody else want to add a question? No? Yes. I forgot your name. What's your name again? Carly. Yes. Okay. How's it going? It's going well. I just wanted to say because I was so happy for you. You took your advice and it worked. I took your advice and it really worked too. And yeah, I was afraid of writing real people. So I took down all of my research I'd done on the real humans. And I literally put it in a box and then I made up fake names and I wrote. And it was so much easier and so much more exciting. And I thought that was an amazing advice. And this is more of a thank you. Thank you for that advice. Thank you for asking a question because you're also on the people who shared their stories with you. So you're doing them a service too. Yay! Another happy dance. I got to get some better moves but I'll work on them. Are we good? Are we? Yes? Yes? Okay. So we'll be back on November 7th. You can say it out loud. I know! We'll be back on November 7th at 5 o'clock Eastern Standard Time for someone to watch our work. And tweet us. Tweet us with your questions because we know you're out there. We know you're out there. We know you're out there. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Good job you guys.