 Welcome everyone we're going to get started in just a couple minutes. Welcome to the folks who are just arriving, we're going to give SLP just a couple minutes and then we'll get started. Oh, where are we. Hi. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome, give me a sec. Go for it, take your time. Okay. All right. Yeah, you want to give me another step. Okay. Hi everybody. Look who's here. Rebecca's here. Hi everybody. Hi beautiful people. Where's Lolli? Oh, it's a. Me today. Yeah. I was like, Oh, you're not Lolli. I'm not Lolli. Hi. Hi. Hi. Welcome to watch me work everybody. I'm SLP. We work together. We work almost every Monday at five o'clock. And we've been doing this show for a long time for like 15 years. And it's all about your work and your creative process. So what we do is we work for 20 minutes. And I hold a timer. And then we talk to you about your work and your creative process. And if you have a question about your work and your creative process, you can ask Emma how to get in touch. Go. Sure. So if you're in the zoom room, you can ask questions by clicking the raise your hand button, which is in the reactions tab at the bottom of your screen. And if you're having trouble finding it, you can shoot me a message. And if you're watching the stream on howl round, feel free to send us your question via the public theaters, Twitter or Instagram account, or by a watch me works Twitter or Instagram account, which is at watch me work SLP with the hashtag howl round. And that's hashtag H O W L R O U N D. Fantastic. All right, we will get started. And here we go. Here's our 20 minutes. Boom. All right. All right. You're here. Now comes a moment. We take questions for you about your work. Your creative process. If you all got some questions. I'm here. It looks like Lisa has a question. Lisa. Lisa, you should be able to unmute. Great. I did. I unmute it. Yeah, I have a question and I'll be honest. I think it's influenced by your recent work at the public or your current work at the public, I guess. I should say, but, um, I'm kind of curious about the intersection between writing and performance. And the last time I was, um, in this session, um, you spoke about making sure that you read your writing out loud. Um, but, and I think everybody sooner or later has to read their work out loud, even if you're doing a reading or a poetry reading or something. But how much of the writing, I'm a fiction writer. So how much of it is writing for prose? How much of it is writing for performance? Um, and I know there's an intersection between the two. I just don't know how that falls. So, um, how much of it, how much of what, how much of reading your writing out loud or how much of. I'm sorry. Because you perform in so much of your own work. Um, so I'm, I mean, I read that. I'm always curious about that. I mean, do you write for you? Do you write for you to perform? Do you write for other performers? So I guess. Oh, this is great because, oh, thank you, Lisa. I'm smiling because of a couple of wonderful things. Some of the performers in from the heart of the come, the musical, we just did the public are here right now. So, so just FYI, for the most part of what I do. I, so when I say read your work out loud, it actually, it doesn't come from, um, the fact that I perform in a lot of my work actually in the first part of my work, I'd say about 90% of my work. I don't perform in. At all. Um, place of the play gear is the first time I've performed in my own work. Except this, I'm performing, you know, the performance of Susan Laurie parks, which I do a lot. But other than that, on stage at the pub is the very first time I'm actually performing in my work. I think I'm mostly right for other people. Um, folks like Dana and who so, and who've been in my play and, you know, in the part of the come. So, so when I say read your work aloud, um, what we were talking about last time around, I was, uh, just saying like, just so you can, even if it's pros, because I've written one novel and a lot of essays. And I just feel like you can, one can get a. I'm wearing my heart of the come t-shirt sweatshirt. Um, one can get a, a feel of your work. If you read it aloud, you know, you can, you can get, you can kind of in a way, you know, get, get out of your head and into your body and into the movement of it. And I think that's a really beautiful place to try out your work. Um, even if it's not meant to be performed at all by anybody ever. Uh, but my novel that I wrote several years ago now, I would, I read it aloud, you know, all my essays, I read aloud. Um, I, I, yeah, I read. Yeah. So, you know, you're writing, you said you're writing fiction, you're pros, did you say? So I would say, uh, read it. I mean, I, I discover lots of things by reading my work aloud, even if it's not meant to be, um, performed, especially performed by me at most of my work isn't meant to be performed by me. Does that help? It does help and congratulations to everybody that was involved with the show. I'm sorry, I didn't get to New York and see. It's okay. Yeah, it's just, uh, but, but really reading your work aloud gives you a, it sort of activates your third ear, if you will, you know, and, and allows you to hear your work in, in ways that you might not be able to hear it. If you just sat, you know, and sort of read it in her, because when you read aloud, it actually will leave you, you know, so I get it. Thank you. Good question. Good question. Sure. Thank you. Rebecca, I'm going to unmute you. You should just be able to accept. Great. Thank you. Hey, Rebecca. How are you? I'm well. I'm well. How are you doing? I'm good. Quite wonderful last night. Thank you. Thanks for coming. Thanks for coming. Thanks for being there. Thank you so and Dana too. Thanks for being Pia. Thanks for being at the show. Yeah. So I have a question about reading out loud. Yes. Oh, good. If there's a point where it's too soon. So I feel like I've gotten stuck in sections of the manuscript. Thinking I'm going to read it. I'm going to edit it. And I went in. Maybe the place I'm stuck is like writing all the way through. Or reading sections as I go along. Yeah. It's true. I mean, yeah, that's a good question. Because different writers work in different ways. I once read. Joyce Carol notes the wonderful writer who writes a lot. She writes a lot. And she, I read in one essay or something. She was. Talking about her own work that she. You know, kind of rewrites as she goes, she's amazing. So she'll write a chapter, for example, a chapter, and then read and then rewrite it before she goes to the next chapter. And it's like, Oh, wow, that's pretty cool. And I tend to like get through the whole thing and then rewrite, but so everybody has their own way of doing it. And so I guess you have to see what kind of. Where you are with it, Rebecca, really it can go many different ways. Yeah, you can, you can write a chapter then read it out loud and rewrite it. You can do that. Or you can write three chapters and then read them out loud and, and read that, write them that way. It really depends on what, what feels. Better for you. You know, it's really going to be, have to be a feel thing that, that you're going to have to feel. So have you been, what, what have you been doing now? And how has it been feeling? Well, so I, as a writer, I started out as a poet, which, you know, means I rewrote things 10 times. And then, you know, had to send them or do something so that I wouldn't just keep rewriting now. Right. And I, I feel like I'm reading a section. At a time. Well, probably two thirds of the first section, all of this second section. And, and then if I don't get back to a section soon enough or pick up where I left off, then I think I end up feeling like I have to start over with the reread. So, so I made a decision to not look backwards for a while. Okay, okay. And, and just work on this fourth section. And the section, each section has a bunch of little pieces to it. Sort of chapters, but some of them are not. So I think I just been trying to figure out how to get all the way through. And I sort of, I don't know, but I sort of think that it'll feel better to read from start to finish. But I see things, and I have to stop and like fix them. Oh, I love this. He has to stop. I know it's, I don't have to stop obviously, but it's like, I don't have to stop. I can do everything I can do to go forward. Well, well, but that's, and that's what we're interested in, Rebecca, we're, we're interested in you, you activating the everything that you need to do to accomplish what you know, I feel like, you know, you need to do. So you get, you know, you get a pad or a notebook or some kind of, I have so many devices now. It's crazy. I just, I have like all these things to write on. I have some notebooks, some note taking device, right? Your phone, whatever you like. And as you read through, and if you want to get hardcore, you stand up and read it aloud. And if you don't, you can sit down and read it aloud, aloud, I think is, is, is good. And you have your notebook and every time you, as you say, come to something that needs fixing you and you are the determiner, you're the decider of that. You can write it down or if it's a hard cup, it's a hard copy manuscript, you can write a note in the margin if you want, you know, page seven, fix the money. Write it down, write it down and keep going, write it down and keep going, write it down and keep going and give yourself enough time to get through as much as a manuscript or do you think you need to get through all four parts or whatever it is, but take notes and keep going. Don't stop and fix it. It's a different kind of brain activity. Yes. It really is. And that's, I would suggest that you, even if you say I'm going to read one, one section, one chapter, whatever, I'm going to read it through and make notes. And then tomorrow I'll go through the notes and fix it. Great. But if you're stopping to fix and stopping to fix and stopping to start, then you're going, it's, it's, it's going to be hard to fix that again. I don't think that's the best. That's not going to be the best way to work. Or if you loved working that way, I'd say great, go for it, but since it seems to be causing you some kind of consternation, I'm suggesting something else. I just, there's, I want to feel like. I want to feel the continuity of the work. and also feel, you know, where there's more opportunity, or more, or less. Yeah. So, and it feels like it needs a complete read through. Great. And then go and pick up the notes. Yeah. I mean, give yourself what you need. A complete read through was very, you know, conscientious note taking along the way, right? Okay. No taking along. So you're not like slack and you're not turning a blind eye to things that need, you know, fixing. No, you're very mindfully taking notes along the way. That needs fixing. That need to look at that or circling or print out a copy and if you want, you know, notate it, you know, but keep going read through it. But you know, yeah, yeah. Okay. I think that's helpful. Yay. Thanks, Rebecca. I saw Colette mentioned you have a question in the chat. Hey, Colette. Hey, how are you? We're well. Thank you. It's so wonderful. I just love coming to your play. Oh, thank you. Oh, it's kind of like when you go someplace and you feel like you did something you really just that normal. It's like inspiring, right? Oh, that's the idea. I know. Plus I love to work. So I love watching people work. So here's the story. I've been very, very lucky. I'm a Detroiter. I'm part of Detroit Playwrights Lab, which is affiliated with the web. And so I've got this great world, right? I've been very, very lucky. And then came, as far as getting some of my works on stage. But since COVID, things have gotten very dry, but then there's another piece of the story. I am going to turn 70 this year, right? Congratulations. Yeah. It's so cool, right? And I've got a great hefty body of work. You wouldn't know it, but it came in increments, right? But I feel like I got all these babies and they're sitting in a file on my desktop, and some of them have had some attention and others are just sort of sitting there. And part of it is just, you know, I'm barren. I'm not barren, but I hate that my babies are all just, so I'm struggling with that, you know, that I've honored the muses and the voice and the process and the vulnerability of getting things out. They're very proactive. Now I'm just sort of like, I don't know. I'm losing my momentum. And getting them from your desktop to kind of all the above. Like finding places to put them out there, writing new works. It's just kind of like everything. Because I have, it's kind of like, I've done these babies. It's kind of like if you're a mother and you have a bunch of babies and then you realize your other, your babies are just sitting there, kind of being neglected, right? And now, so I'm sort of torn between, that's a bad question. I'm a bad writer because I'm, it's a prep. It's hard to keep going when things that you already love are just not barren for you mean not being produced somewhere or haven't found a home other than my heart and my desktop. Right, right, right. Okay. So now I completely hear you and it is hard to keep going. And you think, wow, I've done this work and I haven't found places for them to be produced. We're going to use a new word yet. Okay. That's a really helpful word. And I'm going to, I'm going to say something kind of weird because I can't really tell how you're sitting, but it looks like you're leaning back. Right. Can you sit up? Yeah, I can sit up. That's great. Okay. This is the thing. And this is like the biome, you know, by any means necessary. Oh, you're changing chairs. Okay, any better. Look at the beautiful space, look at the beautiful space you have back there. It's not a gorgeous home. Look at you. Look at that floor lamp. Oh my goodness. That's fantastic. That helps. So we're going to do some, you know, this is about one of those by any means necessary moments. I mean, every moment is a by any means necessary moment. We're going to read our work aloud. We're going to, if our work needs to be read through, like Rebecca was saying, we're going to read it all the way through. And if it's going to require everything we've got to read it all the way through and to take notes, that's what we're going to do. So that's what we're interested in. Right. So we're going to sit up because in my experience, sitting back on a soft piece of furniture is what I want to do when I want to nap. Okay. We're not napping right now. Okay. Okay. So we're going to sit up and we're going to employ the word yet. So we say things like you can say, you know, well, I'm really noticing that some of my work hasn't borne fruit yet. Because then you're start again, we talked about hypnosis, you're an amazing hypnotist, Colette, we all are what goes out of your mouth, goes into the probably the nearest hole. Well, it could go up your nose and that has happened, but you know, goes out of your mouth into your ears and you're constantly hypnotizing yourself. Right. So you're saying things and you're hypnotizing yourself into a reality and you got to self check. Right. You got to start, you got to continue, let's say to speak the reality that you really want to bring into your life. Right. So we're going to do things like sitting up. We're going to say hasn't borne fruit yet. Okay. So I'm actively looking for ways to get my work out there. Right. That would be an accurate, actually a more accurate description of your situation. I've shown up for myself. I've shown up for the muse and I'm actively looking for ways to get my work out there. Luckily we live in 2023 and there are so many ways now to get our work out there. Right. We can have, we can invite, I mean, you look like you have a really nice house over the crib, it looks really nice. You know, I bet you got some friends and I bet you have, you have, you're part of this Detroit writers collective. You can probably invite some friends over now that it's, it's, we're not, you know, in isolation anymore, who can read your plays aloud. You know, or you can, you know, that kind of thing. That's fun. It can be an evening that's, that you can invite people over and read your plays aloud. A lot of us do that. You can have people on zoom reading your work aloud. You can make, you can turn some of your plays into short little films. You can film them yourself. I mean, it sounds self producing is not a bad thing. It's really fun. And I still self produce. I am the driving generator behind a lot of my work. You know, sometimes somebody calls me up and says, let's do something. But a lot of times I'm just turning the wheels myself, you know, until someone else can pick it up and help me carry it. You see what I mean? Does any of that make any sense? Call it makes a lot of sense. A lot, a lot of sense. And is there one thing you can do this week that's going to get you closer to the goal of having one of your works or some of your works bear fruit? You were speaking, I think what I really latched onto is that I've got some paradigm in my head about my own age that's in the way. I've done what you've suggested. But I'm the one that's the barrier, right? Because of the age thing. So I think changing the language in my own head is where the big thing is. Okay. Even as you were talking, I think like when you quit smoking, the only way you quit is like give yourself a star every time you smoke less rather than quitting. Okay. And I actually wrote a really funny joke this week, and I won't even go on it, but I kept telling it to people over and over and over. And I didn't, I didn't honor that as that was a written, it was a, it was a, you know what I'm saying? I didn't honor my own writing this week. And okay. So I think I need to revisit myself a little differently. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. The revolution begins at home. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. That's great. And also, you can, you know, I mean, we're not saying it's all your fault or anything like that. We're just saying, sure, the revolution begins at home. And, and, you know, maybe you with that different attitude or that consciousness that you're, you're developing, you can re, we can approach some of these, some of these groups again, with a different way of thinking about yourself and looking at your own work, you know? And also, what does it mean to get your work out there? You know, again, it's like, it's like getting a, for example, play produced or movie made isn't like, Oh, we're going to have, you know, whatever, you know, Warner Brothers make it or Fox Searchlight is going to make my film and it's going to be in every movie theater in the country around the world. You know, that's a, that's a one way of getting something made. But there are so many ways of getting your work out there these days. Again, we talked about, I think, was it Rebecca, weeks and weeks ago, we talked about substack, because you have a medium, you have an account on medium. We talked about if you're writing essays, you can get your work out on substack or medium or there's so many ways to get your work out there and develop a readership and develop a following. I remember Chance the Rapper, he's not from Detroit, you know, from Chicago, but you know, he won a Grammy with songs he put out on SoundCloud, you know, so he's not sitting around waiting for some big record deal like they used to back in the day, you know, he's putting the songs out on SoundCloud and went into Grammy. So there's, there's just lots of ways to win the game. Yeah. Okay. I'm in. When is your, when is your birthday? What day? August 7th. Yay. Congratulations. There you go. Congratulations. Are you going to have a party? No, I'm going to make sure every other 70 year old plate that I know, who's turned 70, that I get a play date with the people that might not make it to the next decade. Okay. Okay. Sounds like, sounds like a pardon to me. Yeah. A whole bunch of little ones. That's good. Little parties are fun. Okay. But that's good. And just, and just keep exploring all your options. Make active use of the word yet. You know, because there are plenty, there are plenty of ways to win it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And keep coming back here. It's fun to talk with you. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Collette. Let's go to Louise. Hey, Louise. Hi. How are you? Hi. Well, thank you. How you doing? Good. So I just wanted to say, just as a follow up, what you were saying about reading your work out loud. So yeah, work out loud. Can you tape record it? Sometimes, sometimes would it help you to tape record it? For me, yes, I think it would. I mean, I have a course of recorder, but I actually like the idea of taping it and then playing it back. Because you know, if I'm reading out loud, I can't, I'm reading out loud, but I think I can hear it better taped as opposed to just reading it out loud. So adding to what you said. Yeah. I'll read my work, but I'll tape it. There you go. There you go. There you go. And then, again, if you feel moved to make notes as you're listening to the playback, you know, because I think that's a great idea. Sure. But again, it's whatever, whatever's going to help. You know what I mean? If some people are like, I could never record it because I hate the sound of my own voice and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, then it's like, no, that's, you know, but if you're enjoying that and that it's going to help you, then by all means, that's a great idea, Louise. But see the other thing, and I think you were on point about and which Rebecca was talking about, which I fall prey to all the time is like interrupting yourself, going back over and saying, oh, this is not right. And your whole mention of the fact that it's a different part of the brain, that actually if you're listening is one thing, and then going back to rewrite or restructure or reconfigure. So for myself personally, I would tape it, not take any notes and just listen to it. And then just see. And then the other thing I would do is maybe have an actor read my stuff, not like a script reading or play reading, but just someone that I know. Let them see the work and tape it also and hear it played back. Sure. If again, if all that works for you, I'm, I'm like, you know, low budget over here. Well, I don't know. But if you've got an actor, you know, we got all these amazing actors. And actors are amazing. And some of them we have today, some brilliant actors. The tricky thing about these actors, and let me tell you, and who's so and Dana pretend like you can't hear me. Closure is from the thing about these brilliant actors is they can make anything sound good. So sometimes like, I'd be like, because we just work on how they come. And I'd be like, that seems sounds good. They read it and they make it sound so good. But it needs to rewrite. I can't tell because they're so good. So well, actually, that's, you know, but since you said that, that's actually a good point. Yeah, that's actually that's our point. So maybe I won't for the time. Yeah, but definitely your own voice. Yeah, definitely. And and Rebecca, you know, listen, I mean, take notes or don't, you know, I like taking notes. It doesn't break up my flow when I'm taking notes. And I can actually remember the notes. It's funny when I'm doing plays for the play gear and I'm on stage rehearsing. I actually am also taking note, which is is very weird. But I sort of I like to try to take notes. So I like to take notes and listen. But whatever's going to work for your flow. That's yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's okay. Okay, great. Great ideas. Great ideas. We love great ideas. Thanks, Louise. We've got about eight minutes left. Are there other questions? We can stare at the ceiling. Should be unmuted. Awesome. In terms of reading out loud. I actually am comfortable with the sound of my voice. And it's both it gives me both a rhythm thing. Like, and that sort of goes back to the poetry piece. And it gives me a grammar thing. I really catch where and some of that may seem like doing the editing I ask people not to do when I send them something to read. It's just like read this for content. Like, don't edit my grammar. I do. I do feel like the rhythm of the voice for me needs to be in the piece. Yeah, definitely. Alrighty. One second. And you should be able to unmute. Hey, yeah. How you doing? Good to see you. Good to see you too. I guess I do have a question because I'm working on this piece and it's, you know what, when you hear the characters talking to you, right, they come in. And then sometimes you sit down when you sit down to write what they're saying, all of a sudden it dries up. Like when you're in the shower, you hear them again. And then when you're like, oh, okay, I'm going to dedicate this hour to working until they disappear. So I don't know if you have any tricks for catching. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your butterfly net, you know, like so, so, so you sort of like, you hear them in the shower, you hear, where else do you hear them? What did you say? On the subway sometimes. Yeah, like I'll be on the subway. They're talking. I'll be cooking. I think it's okay. Great. You got a notebook or a device or a phone or a, what do you got? What do you like to take notes in? I like both my phone and my notebook. Like I carry like little notebooks around too. But you use like voicememos on your phone? Yeah, I do. Great, great. So you're going to become a crazy lady. So what's great about, I don't have one right here, a mask is you can talk to, or no, actually, if you have your earbuds in or even the one with the cord, you can record stuff and you can talk right into it. So this is what you're going to do. You're going to have your notebook closer at hand than you have had it before. Okay. Not suggesting in the shower, okay, because yeah. But on the subway, when you're cooking, when you hear something, you know, it's like when you see something, say something, when you hear something, write it down. Don't stop and go, right, you're going to prioritize. Okay. The voices are like, you're not prioritizing me. Right. And you're not. And I'm talking to you like this. You're not prioritizing. When you hear the voice, stop what you're doing. I mean, don't let your food burn or it might burn. I don't know, you know, turn on your voice memo, talk into your voice memo, say blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, say enough, enough information. So you'll, when we turn it back on later, you remember it, or you get your notebook and you just scribble something. Right. When you're on the subway, same thing, your voice memo, or your notebook, but you have at the ready, you're waiting, you're prioritizing your writing. Okay. And then when you're writing, no, it gets the feeling that you're prioritizing. They, the voices might be more inclined to show up when you're sitting there waiting. Right. Right. You know, I don't know, you're right. You know, you know, you got to, you got to show, you got to, I mean, they're showing up for, it's like a test. It's like, you really want to, you want to, and you, oh, you must not look, you're still stirring that soup. Nah, she ain't interested in us. We're going to go over here. Now she's sitting down with what? I'm supposed to come over from what I'm doing to sit down and talk to her. Shit, that bitch was stirring that soup. You see, they got like, they have, I'm sorry, you're, I'm using maybe appropriate language, but you know what I mean? Right. You have to prioritize them. And then they'll, they'll show up for you. That's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Well, just try it. See, see, I mean, even when you can do, you can put your phone or your notebook, you know, outside of the shower, like in a dry place. When you hear voices, get out the shower, rice, write it down. Just see, just see. I mean, you know, you don't shower like outside in the park. Do you know it's going to see a naked, right? Okay, great. So you just, it's just you in the bathroom, right? Get out of the shower, write it down. Just show them that you're there for them. Maybe like, dang, she's serious now. She got out of the shower. She let the soup burn. She talking to herself on the subway. I don't know. She might be interested, right? Right. Okay. Thank you. What's great is that, is that what's great is that they're showing up for you. Yeah. And I love them. They're fun. And they love you. You look at you, look at your smile. It's so great to see you. I haven't seen you in ages. I know. I miss the time. I know. Great to see you. See you too. It's $5.59. Should we call it a day and come back next Monday? Great. Thanks everybody for being here. Love you guys. Have a great week. I'll see you next week. See you next week. Bye. Thank you. Thanks Emma. Bye.