 Okay, there is, there is, this is part of the Wallman lecture, this is the play part of the Wallman lecture. Thank you so much for having me here today. So, I'm Susan Lawrence Parks, which some of you might know, and this is Watch Me Work, which some of you may have heard about, or maybe all of you have heard about since you're here. As you can see, it's all unscripted. And so what this is, Watch Me Work, so I've heard that there's some confusion, there's excitement, and yet confusion about Watch Me Work. What's really exciting about Watch Me Work today is we're in Boston, we've been in Austin, we've been in Amsterdam, we've been all over the country doing this Watch Me Work, and we've been at the public theater mostly where we do it pretty much every week at the public theater, and if you're not there or able to get there, you can watch it on New Play TV, exactly. And we're on New Play TV again today. So if you have some trouble with the law and you don't want people to know where you are, tell me later. We'll try to edit you out. What's also very exciting this afternoon is that there are snacks in the bag and coffee. And so, you know, if you get hungry while you're working, please feel free to pick up some snacks and I did not provide them. They're provided by Emerson? Correct. Or some, not Ralph Waldo, but are they related? They now? No, no. Different ones? Different. Emerson. Okay, sorry. So anyway, so Watch Me Work is two things at the same time. Watch Me Work, where the me in the title is you, that's the most important thing about it. So Watch Me Work is actually about you and Watch Me Work is a play. It's a play and this is how it goes. We have a certain amount of action that we do first and it's followed by a certain amount of dialogue which we do after the action. So first we do the action and then we incorporate dialogue and the action is basically I'm going to sit here and work for real. People always wonder, am I working for real? Yes. I'll be typing on an old vetting typewriter today that I carried from New York City. And you all, if you want, and you all online in the interwebs will be working all song, whatever you want to work on. But try to keep the noise, you know, be respectful of your neighbors. I'm going to wear earplugs and make typing sounds. Okay, so that's going to be the work portion. And today that's going to last for 45 minutes, followed by the dialogue portion in which we will talk about your work, your creative process. Okay, so if you have questions about something that you're working on, it can be some writing thing or something else or anything or whatever. We'll talk about it and that will be the dialogue portion. And if you're online in the interwebs and you have a question, you can tweet us at what is it again? Hashtag new play. Hashtag new play. So we get a lot of questions via Twitter. So hashtag new play and we will take your questions and we will do our best to answer them collectively as a group. Okay? And anything else? Yes, so it's a play. It's also a mediciatrical free writing class. I know you're not mediciatrical. You know, mediciatrical. Like people go, ooh. Okay, so it's a mediciatrical free writing class and it's also a play. And it'll start, and DJ, are you going to help me out with the time just to make sure I don't get, you know, DJ is helping me in the back there. And we're going to do the time and we're going to start, we're going to start now. And the work period begins. Fitting for this, you know, hallowed hall. This actually gorgeous theater that you guys have here. But then I figured, what the hell is going to keep it like this? So, so that was the action part. In case you weren't, you didn't notice. That was the action part. And now we're going to go to the, we're going to bring some dialogue into it. So if you have questions, well I tied you up. If you have questions about your work, your work, or your creative process, collectively if we can give you some assistance. Anybody have, just raise your hand and you got to kind of talk, you know, you have to project. Anybody? Or do you have any answers? Or if you have any answers, anything that really works for you. The most difficult thing for you and the best way to work through it. Maybe that's also helpful. Yes. I'm into the lullabah because I'm directing a show here at Emerson. Yes. And in the show, so what I was doing for the first kind of part is in the show there's a bunch of scene titles. And they get kind of slapped onto this wall. And I don't know why, but like me and my production team and I have been like freaking out about what font we're going to use for this stupid scene title. So I just think we've been going through fonts and fonts and fonts trying to find the right one. And I was laughing at how ridiculously specific it is that I'm freaking out about it. So you can't decide on the font. No. That's a great question. No, what's really good is a lot of times you get hung up on things that one seem like they're not important but are. Or two seem like they're not important and they actually aren't important. But the point is that you get hung up on them, right? You spend time and you're thinking about what font do I need, right? Sometimes you're just typing something on your computer or whatever. We'll be typewriting and we'll have a choice. But these days, right? So I would say what's the title of the show? All This Intimacy. All This Intimacy. All This Intimacy. And what fonts have we tried? We have to dance them. You have to dance them. You have to like, because I don't know what font it is. Well, we have not yet. So this has been like a three-day orgy old trying to figure out what this stupid font is going to be. Because the thing is it's 23 scene titles and they get kind of on the wall by the end of it. So right now we found this one called Stroke. We're on defont.com and just like scrolling through because like different whatever comes with Microsoft Word is just not really cutting it right now. So we're just trying to get adventurous and trying to figure out what to do. And like there's always like random pluses and minuses in each one. Right, right, right. There are random pluses and minuses to every decision that you make. Every single decision you make. They're going to be like random pluses and minuses. I would suggest not knowing what the font you've chosen looks like. I would suggest if you choose one, can you change it later? I have about seven days to change it, but yeah. Great. So just choose one. Okay. Pretend you know exactly the right one for your show. Pretend you know which one it is, right? Pretend that you know. And then choose it and then just move on and take care of everything else. And either you'll look up one day and say, oh, that's perfect. Or I know exactly. It came to me in a dream or whatever and you're going to change it. Okay. So it's not set in stone. You're not going to, you don't have the stone car we're out and it's going to, right? You're not working like that. All right. So you're okay. You're okay. But a lot of times that's what we have to do. If you wonder like what's my character's name or what should she be doing? Or what should happen in this scene? Or whatever, right? All these things that we get hung up on. You just pretend like you know and go forward from there. Right? And either it'll be the right choice or you'll figure out something better. You know? So you just have to pretend like you know. Exactly. Exactly. Does someone have a question over here? It was just a win. Anybody else? Yes? There is someone with no experience in playwriting. Is there a way that you suggest to kind of jump into it? Sure. No experience in playwriting. Are you this person? Yes. Yes. I'm very interested in it but I just have no idea where. Yes. Have you ever seen a play? Yes. Aside from this one? Yes. Oh, you've seen many? Yes. Oh. So what's like your off the top of your head? What's your favorite play? Oh gosh. Do you like a lot? Which one? Big Love. Big Love. She's seen a lot of plays. She has a favorite play. So you have one that resonates a lot in your mind. Good. Okay. So did you write anything today? No. Well I did right now. I just did some journaling but I did not have anything in play form. Right. Well you know that's the thing about play form these days. You know? It can be anything. I would just say pick some quite a little list of characters and go for it. You know what a play is. Right? You've seen plays. I mean if she had never seen a play we'd have a totally different conversation. But you've seen lots of plays. You have a favorite one in your mind. Just make a little list of characters or a big list of characters and go for it. You know what a play is. Just start writing. I give one exercise repeatedly to when I teach at NYU. But when I do this exercise I always give is write. That's the best exercise. It's the best writing exercise that I can think of. It works every time. Oh my god. People say what do I do? Just write and you'll figure it out. You know? So just write. Just write and you'll figure it out. And you'll figure out what you need to, you know, you say I need to blah blah blah. You know what plays are. You're in great shape. You're in great shape. That's how we all begin. We just start writing. Yeah. Anybody else? Yes. I find myself often starting a play and getting like six pages in and then abandoning it and starting another six pages. And I end up with about a million like half finished word documents. And I'm worried about, well I'm more curious about ways to kind of follow through to the end because I know that a finished product is going to help me more than something I kind of left open-ended. But I'm curious about how, if you have this problem or if you've worked through things like that. Sure, sure. It's always the problem of a, so you have, when you say you start another six pages you mean of something else. Something different. Of something else. Right. So a lot of people have this problem. You're not alone, which is good to know you're not alone. And what happens is you start and you're six pages in and then you, like you said, you abandon it and you start something new or what people also do is they start and six pages in. They think they have to rewrite the first six pages because the first six pages aren't perfect. So they go back and they rewrite those first six pages. And so you have lots of documents of the same characters, situations, you know, many, many drafts of those first six pages and you never really, one never really gets beyond those first six pages. Okay. I would say same answer. Right. Just like, okay. Now you feel like what happens when you just sit down, I'm going to write and I'm just going to write. You have maybe some feelings maybe that aren't pleasant. Right. What are those? What do they, what does it feel like? Can you articulate what happens when you try to get to page seven? What is it actually? Like frustration, like the next page I write is going to be the wrong one. Right. The next page you write is going to be the wrong one. Yeah. Okay. And if I stay where I am, can't get any worse, I think, is part of it. Right. Right. Right. So there must be some, there's like, I don't know, long time ago, in the long time ago, there was this movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and I think this is what happened in the movie, I'm not sure. But I remember vaguely reading this, I mean, seeing this movie and, you know, they get to an abyss and they don't know what to do and there's a monster chasing them or maybe it was Jurassic Park, I don't know. And the bridge and they run across the bridge. Right. It's great. Okay. That's kind of what you have to do. You kind of have to somehow do that. Right. And maybe this wasn't really the Lost Ark at all, but you have to do that. And what you do a lot of times is maybe you, maybe you're writing, are you writing with characters and story and plotty writing like sort of with the full band? How are you writing actually? Do you have characters and story? What do you... I start with two characters in the middle of a conversation and try to take it somewhere. Right. Okay. And then basically they've gone about like that song. They've gone about as far as they can go. Yeah. Right. You get to that page six, that magic page. Yeah. It's only six pages, I don't know. The New York Post is built on that model also. Page six is always something exciting is happening and then you know you stop reading. So what you need to do is you need to somehow find a way to do that. Okay. So you need to build some kind of other bridge because the bridge you have isn't sufficient enough to give you confidence to go forward. You think you're going to fall into the abyss. That's basically what you think. You think you're going to fall into the abyss and die if you write page seven. Right. It's the end of your life. You know what I mean? So you got to think of something. So what you can do is just stop writing the characters and start thinking, okay, what's happening? You know, what do I want them to be doing? What do they want more than anything? Right. And like we do with the fonts, you pretend that you know. So maybe it's, you know, Jack and Jill. Well, they're talking, you know, and they're sitting down there in the valley with the bucket. Well, what do they want now? Well, they want a, they want a, they want a pail of water. So we're going to go up the hill and we're going to get some water. Wow. Okay, right? Now you have a whole play. You know what I mean? I mean, well, you have to play actually because then the rest is the, you know, the other parts that happen when they come down here or something like that. You know the rhyme, right? You see what I mean? So there are two characters talking, Jack and Jill, and you say, well, what do they want? They're just talking. Suddenly you have to add desire, right? Geometry. Two points make a line, right? So here they are, and where do they want to go? Here. What do they want? They want to go to Moscow. They want to go up the hill to get a pail of water. Two points where they are, where they want to go make a line, a line of dialogue. Talking, talking, talking. Suddenly they're walking, right? And suddenly they're going somewhere. They want to go to Moscow. What would three sisters be? If you know three, you bust on three sisters. What would three sisters be? If they didn't want to mosh or whatever her name was, they didn't want to go to Moscow. It would be just some women talking in a room. We pay six, right? But she wants to go to Moscow. Or the seacoal, girlfriend, whatever her name is. I forget her name. She wants something to be an actress. What's her name? Nina. Nina. She wants to be an actress, whatever her name is. Constantine wants to be a writer, and suddenly, why do they want things? And there's a guy who wants to build something out of the woods or something. Do you see what I mean? Yes. They didn't want anything. You know, all great plays, all plays, all things, all novels, all everything. Right? You have some people talking, and then you go, oh, they want something. Okay? Two points to make a line. And there you go. Then you have something to get you to page seven. And then you also have to just dig in and just go and write. And not be afraid of falling into this. Yes. What if your problem getting to page seven isn't that you, isn't that, but it's that you have like some more exciting new idea as soon as you hit page six, and you're like, oh, I like this idea, I do a lot more. Okay, I'm going to write a different play about this, because this idea is much more important. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. No, I mean, not you, but you know what I mean? That's bullshit. That's just some shit that's, I'm sorry, I'm saying shit. We all do it, you know what I mean? That's just some, some, some something, some version of that. It's all, I don't know my font. I don't know how to get beyond page six. I've got a better idea. It's all the same thing, which is basically someone, you, or you, or you, or any of us, talking to yourself in your head, telling you that you're not good enough to do what you're doing and you should stop. And depending on who you are, that voice in your head is going to take a different form. Sometimes we say we can't get beyond page six. Sometimes we say we don't know the font. So we can't go forward. Sometimes we say I got a better idea. It depends on who you are and where you're at in your process on that given day. So it's just a way to get you off track. And all you got to do to satisfy that voice is write the idea out of Post-It, you know? And put it on the side, I'll get to you later. You know what I mean? It's like talk to the hand. Thank you very much. Talk to the hand, right? Okay. So it's just a way to get you off track. And it might well be a great idea. But that doesn't mean you should stop everything you're doing and finish the thing you're working on, get to the end and then start something else. Okay. That usually works. Because then you'll be finished, right? And then you'll have that and you'll say, at least I finished. Now I can go to the better idea. Don't look at that idea, go back, that was stupid. Pretty much. Yeah. Yes, in the back, considering that this is scarf. Yes. Hi. Oh, word foaming a lot. And so the thing with me is like I do a lot of that. I do a lot of like, I'll get to you later. And so my problem is I'll create a scenario where I'll like impose myself onto my characters. And I'll be like, all of a sudden she starts crying. And then the actors who are like reading my script while I'm workshopping it would be like, where did that come from? And I can't fully explain it because I'm like, well, it makes sense in my brain, but they're like, well, the dialogue really, you know, the back and forth really didn't support that action to happen. So I guess when I get into that place, I don't like, like, oh, back, I don't really know, like, get back to the swing of, you know, getting to that same place where I really understood or what I was trying to get at in terms of getting that action before. This is a staying on course question. You're writing along, you word vomit a lot. Sometimes you say you impose yourself on your characters and sometimes they're doing insane things that is not consistent with what they want. Yeah. Two points make a line. Keep the, you know what I mean? You're like, let's go to Santa Monica and you're in Saskatchewan. Hey, we're going to Santa Monica. You know what I mean? We're probably going to Santa Monica. That doesn't mean that you should start, it's a two handed thing. Basically you're vomiting, everything is wonderful. You're free writing, you're writing your draft, right? And then you're going to edit. What you need to do, it sounds like you're good at this, right? The free writing, she's good, she's good. She can get to page 10. Wow, okay. But I bet you're really good at this. The magic scissors. The sword of discrimination. Where you go, this is what? No, no, no, no, really. It's a, you know, not like, you know, like colored divides. They were Boston. They were scary. Exactly. Whoa. Right? I know Boston's a scary town. But, you know, what should stay in and what should stay out? And that's what you need to sharpen, right? So you need to go through your work and go, okay. That moment that actors seem to agree doesn't fit. Let's cut it. You know, Biggie, just cut it. Maybe drop it somewhere else it'll grow. You know what I mean? Yeah. You know, so just try to, when you, so when you're rewriting, it's a rewriting question, it sounds like. You just want to tune in to what your story is. And if your story is about people who go to Santa Monica, then keep it, you know, sort of in the, you know what I mean? Everything doesn't have to adhere to that, but it should be somewhere in the neighborhood of that journey. Because other things are, it sounds like just distractions. Just distractions. I know that it's, I think we learned that at a very early age, how to sort of stay focused. You know, I have a little son, a little boy, and he's a year and a half. And he, we have a very long hallway in my apartment building. He loves to take out the garbage. That's his thing. He sees a bag. I mean, I, you know, it's New York. So we have small bags of garbage. And he gets all excited when he sees the garbage because he likes to walk down the hall and take out the garbage. But should anybody open their door along the hallway, he'll get distracted. So we have to remember the garbage. You know, I say, keep, keep focused. Keep focused. It's a little walk, keep focused. The walk down the hall and it's a great train. I just watch him going, wow, this is how it works. We have to learn how to stay on, stay focused. From a very early age, you know. So just, right? Good, good question. Good question. Yes, right beside you. Like, or rather there are too many. Like, so I was wondering, how do you go about your daily life and seeing potential everywhere and then harnessing it? Use. Sure. So what do you do? Do you write plays or novels or? Well, I mean, I do. Uh-huh. And I write. Right. Do you? Yeah. How do you go about seeing drama? It's everywhere. Look, it's right here right now. Oh, my gosh. So, right, so you go from like going, wow, drama's right here right now. It's what I did when I did 365 days, 365 plays. It was actually an activity which involved seeing drama everywhere. It's always everywhere happening all the time. But how do you focus, right? I think the soil in which your drama, if you're writing a play now, which your drama will grow is desire. What do your characters want? Who are my characters? The people who interest me the most. If you have a situation, you have a clown and a rogue salesman. I don't know what. You know what I mean? And together they, and wow, so they are the most interesting people out of this, you know, so what do they want? What do they want? And that's the soil in which it grows. That's what waters it. That's what makes it interesting and larger. Desire. What do they want? What do they want? Where are they going? To Moscow. Do you see plays? Okay, great. So you know how plays work. I mean that helps. It helps, right? A lot. So you know how the desire really fuels the story. And so you get hooked into what your characters want. They want to be the best magician in the universe. They want to be Miss America. They want to have a puppy for Christmas. They want to get out of Brooklyn. They want to get out of Dodge. They want to get married. They want to get that person over there to marry them. You know, whatever. Okay? Think about bigger. I mean it's like whenever you see sort of a trailer. Yeah. I don't know. Big, like big things. No. Never. I've never done that. Never. People write like that. There are people who write like that. And any kind of writing, any way you get to it is fine. You know, I'm not here to say one way is my way. That way is a highway. No. Not at all. But I don't write like that. I sit around and go, oh, there's some people. Wow. I really like them. What do they want? Wow. Interesting. Okay. Those trailers. Remember the trailers and ad campaigns are, I don't want to say always, but usually always created after the work is written. Okay? So I mean sometimes it's helpful to think of like a log line or something for your film or something as you're writing it. There's lots of techniques that tell you to do that, which is helpful. But I would just say grounded in character and what your character wants. Because there's a lot there. There's all the guts and stuff there. You won't get in your head too much if you do it that way. Someone from, oh yes. We have a Twitter question. Oh, we have a Twitter question. Yes. It's regarding offstage characters. And when you have an offstage character, does that create some kind of an offstage story or if not, how do you use it? An offstage character. Wow. David's an offstage character. And offstage, yes, they create lots of problems for us. Offstage characters. So yeah, offstage characters. Offstage characters, I love offstage characters and anybody who knows my work can know that I don't hold people, hold communities offstage and impact the action on stage. No, actually, it's economical writing, I think. You know what I mean? Let's see. Let's think of an example. Like, like, Oedipus's dad. You all know kind of maybe Oedipus? He talks about how, you know, I was hanging out. I was hanging out, walking home or wherever he was doing and there was this guy at the crossroads and we fought and I killed him. You know, that's his dad. We never see his dad. You might see it reenacted in some versions of Oedipus. You know, they might come and dance it, as he's telling it. But you never really see his dad on stage, right? That's an example of an offstage character that does complicate the story quite a bit. Yes, it fuels the whole story. You know, Greeks love offstage characters. I love offstage characters. They're very useful and very economical so if you like them, use them, it saves money. Especially in these days, you know, when we know, oh my gosh, we don't have money for that character. Great, she's an offstage character. Yes, in the back. So I have an offstage character and I've mostly just kind of alluded to him as being there because he's a twin brother. But I'm struggling with how I might bring him into the story without bringing him into the story. For one thing, I don't want to have to work with twins. Twin actors, too hard. But I have a lot of things going on in my story as it is. I have a lot of conversations about things that have happened in the past, which my teacher is mailing me in the face for. But I'm just, I don't know how to... I guess, how do you go about bringing an offstage character into the world successfully? Or do you have any idea of things not to do besides bring him on stage? Yeah, there's a... Why do you want him to be an offstage character? I mean, why does he need to be offstage? Well, the offstage takes place in the bathroom and it just seems like a complicated environment. There's a lot about the dynamic between these three characters like how you only see the dynamic between two of them. Is there a way to streamline the backstory to eliminate some of that baggage? I mean, basically you have to be really... It's an economical, it's a technique. You have to be really... The economy is so important. So you don't talk about everything, right? The twin from birth when we were in the womb together all the way up until this moment right now, right? But you talk about, you have to be really economical and just the things... You just want to reference the things that really apply right now to the story as it's going on right now that fueled the action. Well, no, no, no, I wouldn't say that. I'd say use any other character that would be onstage. I mean, if you've ever read Top Dog Underdog, Grace is an offstage character. You would swear that she was onstage. But we don't hear on and on and on and on and on. She's not... But I would not call her a tool. It's just a... It's like dialogue or anything. It's a craft issue. So I would just say be really, really aware of how much you're just illustrating and talking and how much you're like, whoa, twin is really fueling the action right now. Just like any other character. You write them as if they were onstage. As if, at any moment, the next scene was going to be twin's room or whatever. At any moment, he's that real. You have to clothe him. You have to give him a costume. You have to give him a place where he lives. Everything. You have to, I tell my students, paint the scenes that you don't see. So all the scenes that you don't see, you're doing all the set dressings and you're picking out the props. Everything you don't see. It has to be that real to you. He has to be... How is he different from his twin? Are they identical? Are they fraternal? Blah, blah, blah. I'm sure you've thought of all this. You know what I mean? But get him down to all the details. Okay? Okay. Yes? I guess my biggest problem in my writing is differentiating between two voices with two different characters. I feel like I write most of my characters with the same voice, and it's usually my own. And I feel like there's some sort of way to make two characters speak and act differently without creating a caricature of something. You know, and that's, I guess, my biggest difficulty when we have any... Good question. Yeah, how do you create different voices without creating characters? So you're like, okay, I'll have one character from... It's a Boston accent and the other character from Texas with a Texas accent. Right. So you don't want to get into that kind of thing. But what again, it comes down to, I think, it comes down to desire. Different characters want different things, right? It's also... So different characters want different things. They're going to say different things in different ways, right? Right. And they're also energetically. So you say one character has a lot of energy and the other character is more sedentary and likes to sit in front of the TV. So you try out those two things. Just as an exercise. You try out the character who, you know, one of those people who never stops moving. You know, never stops moving. And the other character who cannot seem to get out of the lazy boy. Right? That's a very different way of talking. A character who cannot get out of the lazy boy and who does the New York Times Crossword Puzzle every day is very different from a character who cannot get out of the lazy boy and watches Home Shopping Network. Right. Right? Okay? For the sound of the people's voices, they like to be lulled into some kind of comatose state all the time. Okay? So that's where you get it. So it's energy. Yeah. The energy and the desire of the character and what the character wants and how they go about getting it, basically. You see what I mean? Yeah. Okay? So it's just... It's real simple. It's not anything too complicated. Good question. Good question. Yes, sir, in the straight. So I finished my first play. Yay! I was really fortunate that there was workshop and coordinated production and I had a really, really close relationship to that. Good. Now I'm trying to do my second. And so I think... My question right now is... because I'm in the baby stages of working on something new. Right. And I think I'm concerned about how to continue to develop my own personal voice as a writer without falling into habits or writing the same play over and over again and using conventions that I know I do well and I know work. How can I broaden myself and try to still be who I am and make the place that I want to be but also not write the same play over again? Right. I would say that's a great question. How do you write the second play or your third play or 20th play and not write the same play over and over again? I would say not to worry. Either you will or you won't. And it doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. If the worst thing, what? The critics are going to say, well, this is the same play you wrote last time. You know what I mean? Ah, so what? You know what I'm saying? On your chance play. Well, here he is visiting the same things and da-da-da-da. Maybe those are your things. Hey. You know what I mean? It's play number two. It's okay. It's okay if you write a play that's a lot like play number one. Okay? The most important thing is to write. And through writing, you're going to get more, you're just going to get more comfortable. You know, when you walk to school or class, maybe you go the same way. And then maybe one day you have a little more time or it's sunny and you take a different way. Okay? Not to worry. The most important thing is to write. You know? I think, again, it's like, I think it's a question that could trip you up if we focus on it too much. Not to worry. It's play number 15. You're still writing the same play. Maybe that's okay. You know, think of great writers. They're great writers and they do all kinds of different things. Some only write one novel. You know? Some write really long novels and shoot themselves. You know? I mean, really, some write, I don't know, some write lots of different kinds of things. And they're also, you know, acrobats. You know, there are lots of ways to be. We sometimes, we take the definition of, okay, so just write. You're fine. You'll do well. Just go forward. Okay? Thank you. Good question. Yes. Did you have your... Yeah, sure. Okay. So I wrote this draft of the play and then I did, like, a workshop of it and I had a discussion with people and we kind of decided that there needed to be another character. I don't know how to insert another character without completely starting over or being like, friend, friend, entrance from the ceiling and says, hello. Which I mean, maybe. But I guess I'm just having a hard time kind of like keeping what I have but then like restructuring it, which I think needs to be there but I kind of am like... Try different things. I mean, try her entering from the ceiling. Try that. Try her starting from the beginning. Would she be in the first scene? Go scene by scene. Would she be in the first scene? If not, is she this offstage character suddenly appears in scene four or something? You know what I mean? If she is just an offstage character, she might be. You know? I already have a character who's like silent the whole time and then she has kind of like... She's kind of an offstage character who's offstage but she really... And then it was just one extended scene at this point so I'm kind of like... That's kind of my trouble. If she's on page one, if it's not... Right. Is she on page one? Does she come in on page seven? You know? Is she instead the character of a silent? Where they say... Notes are funny. Sometimes people go... There needs to be another character and maybe just the characters who you already have need to do more. Maybe that's a way to interpret the note. I don't know. But try with this new character see if you can get her to come in and it's going to change. You have to let go of what you have in order to get where you want to go. Okay? If you're sure you need another character, then give it a try. Save your old pages because if you don't like what you're doing then you can always go back. Don't burn your old pages. Anybody else over here? This part of the room is very quiet. I tend to start with an ending image and then I make myself get there but sometimes that's the depth of things. Do you think it's stubbornness to not get rid of that ending image or just... Because like John Irving always says he writes the last line at his novels and he makes it so I'll get there. He never goes back and changes it. And so I can't say it's just idiocy to keep going or if it's an okay thing but this story has to then be... Well do you get there? Do you get to the end? Sometimes. Sometimes. I think that's a fine way to try. Again, there's lots of different ways to do it. If you want to start with an ending image or an ending line or a sentence or sometimes halfway through something's going to come to you oh that's the end. That's the last line, whatever. That's fine to write towards that. I would say be flexible because if you feel like your story or your play or your novel or whatever is dying because you're pushing it toward that end and you see maybe oh no we're not going to Santa Monica after all we're going to Venice Beach which is just over there. Then go ahead to Venice Beach. We have to go to Santa Monica and your car is breaking down because your characters are flipping out and quitting on you. So you might want to just adjust yourself just a little bit. I would say yeah, that's a great way to start. I mean there's a whole philosophy or book or whatever that is based on that. Begin with the end in mind. There's a whole sort of self-help movement. Begin with the end in mind. So you think of where you want to be in that way. You know north star, that's kind of a north star method. That's where I want to go. Is that it? Yes? And I try to figure out a way not to use a character or a character. How do you do that? Have you felt like when you write characters that are quote outside your own experience do you feel like you're not writing real people and actors read them and they go this doesn't sound real at all. I appreciate when you're writing male characters but I can't get in their head. I'm not sure where the end is. So you're writing characters if you're a woman and you're writing male characters you don't think you're getting to them. Again, desire, desire, desire. That's like location, location, location. Desire, desire, desire. I think that is what's going to lead you to these characters. So, you said you can't get inside their head. Right. I don't think you should be trying to get inside a character's head. Their head. You're trying to get inside their head. Oh wow. Get inside their guts. That's where you want to get inside their guts or their, you know, balls or their reproductive or you want to get inside that. That's where you want to get inside. You want to get inside what people want. Not what they're thinking. You're trying to get inside what they're thinking. So when actors read it, they're like I can't connect to this but it sounds like a talking head. Yeah, well it is a talking head because that's how you wrote it, you know. Unless that's what you want. A lot of writers want that. If that's not what you want then you got to get inside their guts and in their guts is what they want. They want to go to Moscow, right. They want to be a beauty queen or whatever. Okay. Alright. So try to see it. Try this and let's like, hmm. Right? Okay. Yes, one more question. Okay. Oh, one more question. Okay, you. So I'd like to think of it as well as everyone else in the room. I'd like to think of myself as a strong independent individual. I almost said woman. This voice in my head that tells me not to pursue a project or a topic because of the fact that it may be a little racy. I'm very interested in the topic of being a foreigner in American society, being a Latino American with American society, being African American. And a lot of the times I question will the general audience in the theater world be even interested in a topic like this. Is this even something worth pursuing because, you know, maybe I'll be viewed as just another Puerto Rican from Chicago who is just angsty and wanting to get into the theater scene any way he can. And this is the avenue I so choose to go. But, you know, it's, to me, it's a very worthwhile pursuit. And I think for, in my personal reason, it's a very strong way of life that I don't think is reached out for in the theater community. How do I tell myself to shut up and just continue my work? Put the time in. These are big questions. So a lot of times it's a great question because a lot of times you really really want to write something and that's another excuse. That's another person in your head like I got a better idea, like I can't get beyond pitch six, like I don't know if I want. And again, these are relative, you know, it's a really strong question and a deep question because you're dealing with will I even be accepted once I get to page 10 or 20 or 50? What are people going to think of me and will they allow me into their community, right? And that, we all want to be in that community. It's a really deep question. You got to put the time in, okay? Because, number one, know that it is important to you. It is important. Period. There's no conversation with the ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-talk to the hand. You got a whole bunch of people behind you and we all do, no matter where you're from, who your people are, how old you are, how young you are, whatever, right? But you, what you from what you said have a whole bunch of people behind you who are rooting for you and who are saying go and do it, man. What you waiting for? We all got those people go and do it girl, what are you waiting for? We all have these people standing behind us going oh come on, go and do it, brother. What you waiting for, right? So you have all those people behind you. They outnumber the people in front of you. We're going to tell you I don't think you're just another buddy and you're going to try to cover no, no, no, no, no, no. Like my son says, no, no, no, no, you have to just go put the time in. It's very important to put the time in. So just on a practical day-to-day, a way to hush that voice, all of you who have that voice just put the time in. Pick a certain amount of time every day maybe it's an hour, maybe it's 45 minutes something manageable hit it every day and work on it. And the moment what happens when you start putting the time in is that the voices of all the people behind you and the people, suddenly you start seeing people in front of you giving you encouragement those voices get louder than the voices of the few people that you're imagining are going to say some shit or maybe have said some shit to you in the past. But you don't let anybody stand in your way. Right? Ain't going to let nobody turn me around. If that same work for them back then in the day, it's going to work for you. Okay? So just don't put the time in. You got to put the time in. Instead of putting the time into entertaining the voices that tell us not to, we have to start entertaining the voices that tell us to go forward. Okay? Alright, so just make sure you put the time in. Okay, and I promise you they will succeed. Those negative voices will just fall away. Alright? Are we done? We're done. We're done. Thanks for coming. We've prepared, slightly prepared things that I'm doing. So it's a million suggestions from Susan Lori Parks. That's right. Call her Madelsic feeder. Free and open. Come on, come on.