 Um, so you're counting time by counting pages. I mean, is it 17 minutes with the songs? So long. Oh, no, I didn't think about that. Oh, there you go. Okay. Great. So you count the songs and you got, you got, you got it up to time, right? Yeah. Okay. So we got rid of that problem. Now you're going to, now how do we do, how do we polish it and prep it for handing it in? Right? That's the question. Okay. You're going to, you're going to call them the services of your future self. That means the, the you that is going to be reading the script tomorrow. Your future self. She's so smart. She's got so many good and helpful, encouraging ideas. All you have to do is put it away in a nice little folder for like 24 hours. Okay. So you didn't, you wouldn't work on it today. That's good. Put it in a nice folder. Maybe if you have a little piece of ribbon or something, tie a little ribbon around it. It's a gift. It's a present that you're going to give to your future self. And you're going to yourself who possesses amazing powers. She's going to read it. Right. And she's going to help you identify the few things that you need to fix, change, tweak, alter, polish. In order to get it ready for the, turning it in on next Friday. Okay. Okay. The future self. Your future. Well, right. You have one, don't you? Yeah. Yeah. God, I guess God willing. Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. Right. And Shala, you have a future self and you're going to tie it, put it away and a night, you know, put it in the night, make a nice little package. And you can even write a note to your future self, dear future self. I know that you will, you know, be able to identify everything I need to, to polish and tweak and, you know, change up. There won't be a lot of things, but I know you're going to find every one of them. And you're going to give me some really good notes when I read you, you know, when you read this manuscript. Thanks, future self. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Crystal. This, like, four days ago, you were like, I don't know what I'm going to do. I mean, I rewrote this so many times. I don't know how to do it. I mean, she's like, what? I mean, it's wonderful. You were like, Oh, Lord, how mercy. How can we help her now? So if you don't, you know, you know, you have a future self because here she is right now saying, well, I just finished my draft. And okay. Okay. So give that a try. And re-read it tomorrow or if you want on Saturday, you know, but I think tomorrow is good tomorrow because you kind of, you didn't touch it today. So tomorrow is good. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. All right. And just know that you know what needs to be polished and changed. You know it. You got this far. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Next we've got Catherine. Hi. So I have a first draft. Yay. I'm reading it aloud and then I'm going to make the cards. Here's my question. When I go into right now, the second draft, which will be soon. Do you usually like make a copy of the first draft and then cut and paste and type over it? Or do you usually start with a blank document or what's. What's your favorite idea? Yeah. Um, it depends. It really, it really depends. Um, Catherine, sometimes it's, you know, if you have like, if scene one works just as it is. Yeah. Unless you want to practice your typing or crastinate, you know, then I would say don't retype it. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, I would say you have your document with a date of. Whatever the date of your draft is. July 30th. Let's just say, right? And then you, you save that. And then you open up the document and you save another version as like the August 1st draft or whatever you want to call it. Yep. Okay. So, but it has everything in it. And you just, you can just. Keep what works and throw up. What doesn't. Great. Definitely. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Catherine. Oh, sorry, I clicked on mute. Don't worry about it. I was a mistake. Um, uh, Up next is Nick. Hello. Hello. How you doing, man? Not bad. Um, yeah. So. Yeah, there's just. Uh, a really interesting opportunity that's just come up kind of out of it. And basically it's like you pitch an idea for this application. It has to be like 200 words or less. So I feel good about writing a pitch now because. I've got the new techniques. Go through that. But, um, basically. I get to write. About, I have to do a pitch about it. And I've been doing this bracket of like all the albums I want to write. And I'm down to two. And the problem is there's one that I think I can make a better. More interest. A better case for in terms of like the picture is stronger. So I'm going to go through that. But, um, basically. I get to write. About, I have to do a pitch about. An album. Yeah. Try to put my own spin on it to make it unique. And I've been doing this bracket of like all the albums I want to write. And I've been doing this bracket of like all the albums I want to write. Which is stronger. But the other one is my favorite album of all time. And I feel. Like a really strong personal. So I'm, I'm just having a little bit of. Trouble figuring out which one to go with. Any advice. Oh boy. So these are albums. That you have. They're not your albums. They're not albums that you have recorded. They're not albums that other people have made. That you are going to write. About. Yes. Like a little, like a 3000 word article. What do you, what do you think, Nick? What do you think I'm going to say? I know. It's cool. I mean, go for love, man. Life is short. And shit is. Stupid. You know what I mean? But, you know, if, cause you're going to, I mean, won't you want to. You know, I mean, I'm going to be on the next, however many weeks or whatever, like listening over and over to the album that you love. Yeah. Love it. You know, right? I mean, I would say, you know, go for love. That's good. That's the kind of just push I needed. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. And it, you know, and the worst thing that can happen is you're going to get to listen to your favorite album of all time, a lot. Nothing wrong with that. Right. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks, Nick. All right. I'm actually got Jacob. Hey, Jacob. Hey, Susan. Hey, man. How are you doing? All right. All right. So the, I'm struggling with an odd, an odd problem, which is basically I have a script and. A sort of piece of it, not sort of the central relationship, but one of the major relationships is the relationship of the main character to the, like the father character. And this was sort of given to me that this is an important thing and it's important to the producers that I make that work and make it interesting. And I hate it. I hate all like, like the whole, like that whole sort of genre of like shitty fathers. Making people work harder so that like that whole sort of like trope drives me up a wall in other people's art and is driving me up. Now it's driving the whole. And so I'm trying to figure out. I think the sort of the bigger question is like, how to like, how to, if, how to take something that is both like a trope, but also like a thing, there are people who have fucked up relationships with their parents. That's not like. Like that it's not a trope that it's a trope because it's a thing that is real. It's not a trope because it's totally made up. And how to find the like honesty and truth and like worthwhile story in that. Yeah. Yeah, there's that, you know, be careful. Be careful what you wish for and then there's be careful what you hate on. She will be called to make it better. Yeah, you will. Yeah. So be careful what you hate on less you will become. You meshed in it. Yeah, it's, yeah, I mean, I mean, you probably already saw some of these things you want to find the humanity of the characters, you know, you want to go underneath the surface and underneath the surface and underneath the surface again. You maybe want to find the humor. If there is any, you know, but yeah, but it is tricky. You're right. It's a trope. It's a real thing. It's a real thing. So you want to be as specific as you can about what they're doing in their relationship. You know, and also ask yourself why you don't why you just like it so much. Because I think in that answer, there's going to be some juicy stuff that you can perhaps employ, you know, because like as tropes go, like, I don't have a problem with that trope. You know what I'm saying? So, but, but you have a real strong feeling about that. So I'm curious, you know, ask yourself and, and from that, maybe you'll find some, some things to. Yeah. Does that make sense? I mean, yeah, it's tricky. It's not easy. It's not easy, but there you go. You're a pro now, brother. So. All right, up next we've got Adi. Are you there? Hi. Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay, great. Hey, hi. How are you? Okay, good. Good. Thank you. So I had a question about taking notes during a talk back. I had a reading yesterday virtually and got tons of notes, really constructive feedback. And what I struggled with was how to take the notes in a way that was, you know, in a way that I could sort of go back to and, you know, in sort of the most efficient way, while also being, yeah, while also being sort of present with, with the people who are giving me feedback, like wanting to make that connection saying thank you and appreciate what they were doing. And I just felt like I was, you know, typing up notes really quickly, sort of, you know, as my own secretary and then, and then, you know, unmuting to say thank you and it just felt really sloppy. And I was just wondering if you had any advice on that. Oh, that's interesting. You were typing. Yeah, I use, you know, this. It's old school, but it's really effective. You were on a zoom call, I'm guessing. Yeah. Yeah. Cause look, you're like, I'm writing shit down right now. Yeah. And I'm talking to you and I'm saying hi and all this kind of stuff. So it's a very, it's a different, you know, if I'm typing like this, it's a very kind of different thing. You can always convene another zoom call just to say thank you and to talk to them and be social and tell them how much you appreciated their notes and all that, you know, you can do that on the, on the back end is always fine and good. You can call each one of them individually also if you don't want to do a whole zoom call thing, you know, but in the future, it's very helpful for me if you're taking your own notes. And I suggest this, even if you have somebody on the team whose job it is to take the notes, I have a lot of jobs where people take notes for me. I, in addition to their notes, I take my own notes. Yeah. So, so it's always good to take your own notes. And I suggest just writing them down by hand off, you know, off camera somewhere. Right. Because you're, we're not going to judge your penmanship. I have terrible penmanship, but thank you. And then, but I'm glad the notes were good. I'm glad they were helpful to you. Yeah, I mean, I think that it's, it's really tricky to know, you know, what's helpful and then what do you, you know, put aside? I think that's something that I struggle with as well, like you know, what to take in and then what's, what's, you know, good that someone had that reaction, but maybe not so important for the rewrite. Right, right. Yeah. Let him cool a little bit and then go back and read them with a, just sort of a cooler feeling about them. Yeah. Which ones still resonate. Well, thank you so much. You're welcome, Adi. Thanks, Adi. All right. Up next, we've got Sarah. Hi. Hi. So I, I guess my question is, do you have any tips or tricks for satire? I keep trying. And according to the people who are reading, not quite getting there, but I'm having a hard time getting an answer from them on what to improve because satire is sort of difficult. They're like, this doesn't work. I don't know how to fix it though. Oh, Lord. Oh, that sounds just really difficult. I mean, regardless of what you're trying to do just, oh, this doesn't work. I don't know what to tell you, but it, and I don't know why, but it just doesn't work. So I'm guessing these people are producers. Have they hired you to write something or what's the deal? No, I'm working on, I don't have places for these pieces yet. I'm just having friends who are also writers, but in different genres, reading. So this particular friend works basically in fiction writing. Right. I sort of sent it to him to read, but. Right. That's it. So is it the, I mean, because satire, I mean. Are they, it's also a cultural thing. I mean, some people don't get, like, some people don't get just aren't on your vibe. I'm like, what is your favorite, you know, what is your favorite piece of satire? I, this is going to sound dumb, but I really just like Voltaire. Okay. He was hilarious. And my friend is more into the Colbert rapport. Like that is his measure of satire. Okay. Okay. So see already there, we have a difference in taste. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because I said I'm writing a drama and my friend, I like this kind of writer, this kind of style of my friend, like another kind of style. It would be on to something. I think he might be on to something that I'm not like hitting a mark, even if I'm aiming for it. So I was just sort of wondering if. If there was like an attitude I should be having while writing satire, but maybe I'm missing out on. Well, I always think it's like snarky, but with a heart. You know, if that makes any kind of sense, I'm thinking of Voltaire. I mean, you know, it's snarky, but with a heart with a heart is, because it's, I feel like satirists want to, want to sort of move the culture forward in a way. You know, yeah, I'm thinking of, who wrote this? Would you say a modest proposal is satire? Yeah, Jonathan quit. Okay. Swift, right. That's who it is. Yeah. So, so the satirist wants to move the, you know, wants to like help the culture, right? They're not just you're over things, but they gotta snarky. They're like, they're looking at you like, right, you know. Yeah. I didn't think about it that way. I think that that's actually very helpful. Thank you. You're welcome. And some laughs. You have some laughs in there. Is it, is it funny? It's funny, but I think it's not like moving. And that was, that was sort of what I was missing out on. Okay. And the heart also. And the heart and the heart. A lot of attitude, a lot of attitude and a lot of heart. Yeah. No, that's how, thank you. You were more helpful in like five minutes than two hours on the phone. Okay, it's okay. But remember they love you in a way that I love you. So friends. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks Sarah. All right. So we've got about 13 minutes left. And we actually don't have a question at the moment. And my neck really hurts today. So I super, oh, Rachel, though, we got to get right. Yeah, but first we have to talk about your neck. Hold on. What's the matter? I got it. I think I tweaked it. I got to do some good yoga for it. Cause I think I just tweaked it, you know, and also this, you know, I think I just tweaked it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're more standing up because we need you. Yeah. Standing up. Thank you. Okay. Well, Sarah is here. She got a question. Hi. Hey, good to see you. Good to see you too. I wanted to ask right now, I'm working on a personal statement and I have. A lot of it's longer than it needs to be. I love everything about it and I want to be able to stay true to what I've written, but also while knowing that I do have to condense it to fit a word count. So I wanted to know if you have any advice for trimming, but like, so keeping the essence of like what you've written. Yeah, I love my magic scissors. I love my magic scissors. You know, there are all these phrases. I kill your darlings and take out your magic scissors and. Um, know that whatever you trim will, um, grow somewhere else. So it's not like you're throwing it away forever. Okay. Um, you can have a document that says, you know, outtakes from this personal statement, but know that it's okay to cut things and it's actually going to make it stronger. So come at it with that attitude. Okay. Okay. Okay. With that, but if you frame it that way, then it might make it easier to trim things. Okay. How many words away are you? A thousand, a hundred. I mean, what do you got? Oh, you're muted. Sorry. It's okay. Rachel. There you go. How many, how many words you have to cut about. So I have to cut about 500 words. Okay. So when's the last time you looked at the document? 20 minutes ago. Okay. Great. Okay. Good. So when's it do? Oh, I have time. It's not, it's not a worry. Fine. Okay. Great. So, you know, tomorrow, you know, take a look at it. Read it out loud. Have you read it out loud yet? I've not. Great. We stand up, read it out loud, perform it as if you're performing it to a gathered audience of the people that you're going to present, you know, send it to, right? Anywhere where you bump, you know what I'm talking about, Rachel? Anywhere where you feel like, oh, I'm getting kind of long winded. I could have said that shorter, you know, more concisely, or that's a tangent. It's really interesting, but it's kind of a tangent. You'll start to feel it in your body. Read it out loud to yourself. Okay. Then I'm not going to tell you to clean your bathroom, but, you know, take some time away from it and maybe read it, read it twice at least two times tomorrow. Out loud as if you're pitching your document, you know, presenting your document to the folks you want to send it to, and you can start to feel where it drags a little bit, where it bumps, where it's a little too wordy. Okay. That's great. Thank you. Okay. You're welcome. Thanks, Rachel. We got nine minutes left, and we're going to go to Mary. Mary. Hi, Mary. Hi. All right. So I don't quite know what my question is, but we shall discover it and discovery is part of what I'm about to convey. So I think the essence has to do a couple of weeks ago. I asked about, um, I was feeling stuck. I was just feeling stuck in my process in terms of moving my mind, my mind, my mind, my mind, my mind, my mind to play forward. I'd say I'm two thirds. Not based upon pages or time, but just the, the story. That's sort of what it feels like. Um, But I was feeling a little stuck. And so I made an outline of what I had already. And then I just started. Putting on, you know, a little bit of what I had already done. Um, as a way to generate. Um, and I've been doing some other things as a way to. Disrupt the stuckness, right? So. Um, to backtrack a little bit. I am not an outliner. This, um, so it was, I can outline things that. That exist, but because this play was born out of sort of the character arcs. And, um, Writing and then rereading it and going, Oh. Oh, there's this and this here and writing. More of it. And then. Sort of forming it and putting it together. I can then go back and outline it, but I didn't start with a complete. Story in my head. I have. the protagonist secondary character and then the sort of amorphous sort of system, the environment, right? And I have an image at the end, like as I see it, what I want on stage, I see the image, I, but I'm not quite sure, oh, how do I, how do I get there? And how does it resolve? And what I keep asking myself, like what feels satisfying as, as somebody on this journey watching it, what feels satisfying when I'm in the characters? And I keep coming to just like mayhem and celebration, that's what's the satisfying aspect, but I don't know how to get there. And I don't, I think that I've been just a bit too cerebral lately, I think, like, I need to figure this out. And there's music in there too. And I'm good at coming up with hooks and kind of chord progressions and the beats, the groove, as you said the other day. And so it's still this, it's almost like, you know, it's emerging through the fog. And some of it is very clear, but some of it's still a little out there. And so, and a lot of that process has really has, has worked for me, I've enjoyed it. It's, I have had people read, no, like, yeah, it makes sense, it's coherent, you know, so I'm not like, they've had people have the reactions that I want that I, so I'm like, okay, okay, I'm not, you know, off the deep end. But I'm in this place of growth. So I don't know what my question is. You know, I sometimes when I think about coming here and asking a question, I almost, I answer it like, oh, okay, go try this and do this. So I'm putting it out to the group, I'm putting it out to you, SLP. Is there something at this sort of juncture that you're hearing that could be helpful to consider? I think you've said it pretty well, Mary. I think you're in the process. I think you're in the creative process. This is what the creative process is like. You know, this is one of the ways that it's like for those of us who jump in the creative process every day. Some days it's clear, some days it's, you know, you can write an outline, some days you write songs, some days you read it to your friends and it makes sense, and you're right in the middle of it. I think the most important thing you can do is to keep showing up and stay in it instead of wondering what people are going to think about it. You know, stay in it, keep showing up, keep putting words, images, ideas, thoughts, notions down on paper or however you want to record them, and just keep going forward. I think sometimes when we're in the creative process we want hard and fast answers solution, you know, but like Dorothy going to Oz, if you see the end, she saw Oz. There it is, over there. She didn't know what. I got to go. Okay, I got to follow the yellow brick road. She had a yellow brick road, you know. You don't sound like you have a yellow brick road, but you do have things that you can do every day and the most important thing is to keep showing up. You just have to keep showing up. That's all it is. Just keep putting the time in and it will just accumulate. Yeah, I think that I am in that place of, I just want that figured out now. Oh, okay. Yeah. Or comparing it to other aspects of the process that were different. Right? But yeah, it's a different thing every day and if you're a creative person, you get accustomed to this thing that is ever changing. But again, the one thing that you can do with regularity is show up. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Mary. All right. We've got about two minutes left and we don't have a question at the moment. Yeah, your neck. I'm thinking about your neck. I think I know what I did. I always, I always, I love these kind of moves and I just go too full force when I haven't done it in a while. It's going to all the way around anything. You can slow that a little bit down. I will. Thank you. Mike has a question. Thank you for your help with my neck. Go ahead, Mike. Oh, right there. A quick question. Stage directions. Seems like there's two schools of thought. One is that not much directions. That's the art of the director and the actor. They want to figure out what kind of moves to do, what kind of action to do, and that sort of thing. There are other writers that write detailed stage directions. What is your view on that? Great question, Mike. I'd like to put the action in the line. So I embed the action that I want, that I really want. I embed it in the line. Like give me your coat or stop standing on my foot. How dare you? Okay? So I'm sneaky like that. And I know some writers work to make their plays actor-proof. I am not controlling in that way. I don't mind an actor to find things and take liberties as long as they're adhering to the text. Okay. Great answer. Thank you. Well, thank you. Thanks, Mike. We've got about 20 seconds until six o'clock. 20 seconds. Take a breath. Oh, everybody. What a week. What a week. What a week. Herman Cain died, everybody. Herman Cain passed away from COVID-19 on the day of John Lewis's funeral. So I'm not smiling. I'm just repeating the news. I'm just repeating the news, but anyway. Wow. Well, it's six o'clock. Six o'clock. God bless us, everyone. That's right. So we're going to, yeah, you say your spiel, Audrey. You're out. As you know, well, next week we will be back. We will not be here on Monday. We will be here only Tuesday to Thursday next week. As a reminder, you can sign up every day by 3 p.m. Eastern Tuesday to Thursday next week, and I'll send you the link between 3 and 4.30 p.m. And I believe the links will be up on the Public Theater website and how around sometime tomorrow, the new links for next week. Yes. Thanks, folks. See you next week. You're the best. Have a good week. You guys are the best. Bye. Thanks, Audrey. Bye.