 Hey folks, thanks so much for coming Hey, it's five o'clock It's the 20th of March. Thanks for joining us for watching work with me and the title is you we zoom with you Ha ha ha every Monday almost every Monday because we we're all about encouraging your creativity and we've been doing this show for like I Don't know 13 14 years. It's been a while We started out live in the lobby of the public theater Actually it in the theater down the street from the public view that we moved to the lobby of the public theater and now here we are So what we're gonna do is we're gonna do what we do every time we meet is we're going to work together for 20 minutes and Then when the timer goes off We are going to do the dialogue part of the show which means we're going to create We're gonna talk with you about your creative process and your work, okay? so Lolly if they want to get in touch and ask us about Their creative work and their creative process. How might they do that? Yeah, so if you're in the zoom with us You can click the raise your hand function Which is likely at the reactions tab in the reactions tab at the bottom of your screen If you have any trouble finding it You can just message me in the chat and I'll help you out or if you're watching live with us on howl round you can send us your questions via the public theaters Twitter or Instagram account or Via the watch me work Twitter account, which is at watch me work SLP with the hashtag howl round. That's hashtag H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D They spend 20 minutes So now if you have questions about your work and your creative process, I will be happy to discuss It looks like Kara has a question. You should be able to unmute yourself now. Oh awesome I'm really curious, especially just Being a playwright in college And being a little bit new at this. How do you deal with self-doubt and How do you deal with self-doubt and insecurity as a writer? Yeah, that's a great question. So how long have you been writing any kind of anything that just plays but You're muted still huh? There you go Let me I think I need to ask you to unmute yourself again here. Feel free to just leave it unmuted Yeah, while we're talking great. So how long how long have you been at it? I'm I've been at it for four years. I started at the beginning of college Mostly or all kinds of things. Yeah, mostly plays. I just started getting into screenwriting this year. Yeah, mostly plays Uh-huh, uh-huh That's a great question though. How do we deal with like those moments when we go gee should I really be doing this or what am I doing? Things like that, right? Is that those are the kinds of things you're talking about? Oh, yeah Yeah, yeah, I think it's a great question because it always happens and I think that no matter how much work you do One might always have those kinds of like geez. It's the right thing. I should be doing, you know, I Think just keep working is the best solution for that, you know Just the best sort of antidote for doubt is just lean forward You know, I mean, it's like should I even be here lean into it, you know, because um The answer is With this kind of thing the answer is whatever you say Yeah, the answer if you say should I be a writer if you say if you say yes Then go ahead Do it, you know, I don't think I'll ever be able to finish that play some people say well, you're probably right You know, um, you're you're an amazing hypnotist. I mean we all are we hypnotize ourselves all the time I've spoken about this before but the words that go come out of your mouth And go into your ears amazing, right and your self-talk is so uh determined so much about How you feel about yourself and all those kinds of things and it's so important to feel Good enough to just keep going So if you if you're feeling uncertain and all that It's helpful to get a schedule together, you know, like Pick a time during the day when you're going to meet up with your writing self and do some work You know get a regular schedule. It's like if you want to run a marathon, right? And say you've never run a marathon before You don't want to sit there on the side of what going should I be doing this? Should I be doing this? Should I be doing this? Well, you know, right? You want to put on your sneakers and get a schedule and maybe every morning you're going to whatever Do a little bit of training that's appropriate for your level, you know, and I found that picking a schedule showing up every day Maybe around the same time every day whether you're a morning person or a night person We love to work in the afternoon and just put in the time in and watch it accumulate You know, does that help? Yeah, thank you so much. Yeah, it really helps. Thank you Ben you should be able to unmute now Thank you. Hi everyone. Um Wanted to report out so uh slp you gave me the assignment of writing for one hour a day and to get rid of my distractions Yeah, even turning off my internet I'm still Oh, no, no, no. I haven't done it. I'm still growing in that direction Okay, talk to me about it The steps that I have taken Um have been establishing that one hour. Um where I'm working to write I'm not always able to commit to it, but it's on the calendar But I do I am always able to commit to my friday because I have a writing partner and we meet on zoom similarly To what we're doing now to just kind of serve as proxies for each other Um, so I am developing to be able to you know, make sure I do write by this grant and I've established another team of accountability to do bi-weekly check-ins to share Developments as well. So I can like make sure I don't you know go to jail for taking these people's money and not doing it Right by them. Um, I did Want to see if I could share a piece that I wrote. I don't know if that's something that can be offered That's that's the that's one of the things we don't do We don't have time in the we don't have time. Okay to read from each other's work. We um, we just offer encouragement and answer some okay perfect But thank you, but you know what you wrote something you wrote something that you feel like sharing Right, and while we don't share work in this in this format We do applaud you for writing something that you feel like sharing which is really great Thank you. That's huge now. Can you can you take a few more steps in that direction? Yes, I am working with my therapist on procrastination. I am learning how that is different from laziness I'm doing the things like I'm in the direction of it. Uh, but it's just Yes, a lot bigger than uh, just putting on the calendar I'm learning all of my triggers and things like that But I but I am growing and I I'm able to see the progress even though The needle's not going as far as I wanted to is still going forward and I'm I'm like, I feel good about myself So I wanted to share this great Congratulations. We're so proud of you. Thank you. I'm proud of you. Great work, brother. Really great Hey, Lou. You should be able to unmute yourself Hi, hi everyone. Hey y'all selfie. Thank you. Hi Um, not to change that air, but I've had a rough entry into this year. I'm gonna share with the group I lost my dad in January Oh, I'm so sorry Yeah, thanks. I'm sharing it in relationship to my process because it just completely knocked me on my ass just in terms of um Yeah, just finding the bandwidth in my own imagination So and I'm I'm really good at um piling on myself and in this case, it's been I think a real lesson and like Yeah, productivity may not be the desired outcome, you know Anyway, so just contextualize it for the space like it's it's just knocked me on my ass. Um And uh, so I'm trying to find my way back and I'm working on a project that's you know A memoir based and it's about my story and I'm having the weirdest experience which is I feel like a different person Is Approaching the work with this loss like I'm reading it and it's like I'm feeling like Whoa, I would say this differently like uh, so both my parents are gone. I'm not that the book is about them It's actually really not at all. It's about me, but just I like it's it's when I say it's not me. I'm like it's put me in um A different relationship to my own life So I guess I'm trying to figure out And then I think I might be bullshitting myself because I'm like if I just wait till I'm evolved enough to write this story Like and it's all like done and I can just write it Like I'll probably be dead, you know myself Because it's like, oh, I got I got the punchline now. I can write the book So it's like I sort of have to I think I'm bullshitting like I'm not bullshitting myself grief is grief And it's been hard, but I think as I'm trying to find my way in it's like I'm like, oh, that's not doesn't sound right. So I better go all the way back to the beginning and kind of Move through it again. So I guess my question is just How do you know maybe it's really just about like how knowing to move through something if it doesn't feel Fresh anymore or is it enough that it just was right once or Like what do I do? Mm-hmm. Well, that's what we know about you. I mean because you've been coming to this for a while now, you know You're hard-working. You really apply yourself. You know, you weren't you meeting with a Publisher something a little while ago. It was a big milestone. Yeah with yeah No, remind me because I I forgot. Oh, that's okay. Yeah, I'm with my um I'm working with my agent who is going to be sending me out on submission and is very encouraging and we're meeting deadlines And I actually owed her something in January and obviously she's like a human being so she's like, okay So this is actually an evolution of that and I'm like having a little bit of a crisis of faith and the whole thing right now I mean Do you think it Would help to just do a little bit of something that you can I mean, I don't want to force it, but do you have the do you have the time? I do have the time, you know, okay. That's good. That's good. Um Maybe it would help just to spend some time with it like you know spend 20 minutes segments a day, you know Not all not like four hours, you know, but maybe often, you know, I mean depending on what kind of time you have visit it you know visit it and See how it's doing You know And do whatever you want. You can read it. You can write a little bit more on it. You can edit it You can Just sit and hold it print it out and hold it in your lap, you know, whatever Just but but spend time with it get maybe reacquainted With this allow it to become reacquainted with this new version of you You know And see and just but be consistent. That's the thing You know, because I think, um You've gone from like I can't do anything with it. That's okay And now well, maybe I'd like to do something, but I don't know what Just do anything With it, you know, reacquaint myself with it. Yeah and spend small little increments You know So up for it, you know, maybe maybe Four different sessions a day Yeah, instead of because I am trying to do like One bit, you know, and then I'm failing at the one big thing and then it's and then I spin out and Maybe four different sessions and not in the same place one session one is at your regular work station You know session two could be at a coffee shop Session three could be sitting on your couch You know, I mean session four could be you're gonna read aloud to your Fals, you know, I think, you know, you I remember you guys have a good relationship You know, it's kind of like you're gonna read aloud or just or talk about it Here's Fals for 20 minutes. Time would be great. You did four sessions today different. They're all different Yeah, you know, and it'll allow it to see if it can gather some momentum Um That way and come back to you If you're just but it'll it'll know oh lose showing up for me. Okay. I can Mmm It's so cool to think about it like that. It's sentient It has a response to my attention to it. I love that so much SLP Yeah, I do think that yeah when you said that I could hear it. It's like, yeah come around We'll figure it out. But I've been so it was so like Preoccupied, you know, it's been really hard. Yeah Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. This is very helpful. Thank you. I love you. Thanks. Great question. Thanks. Thank you Louise, you should be able to unmute now Hello Hey, Louise. Um, how you doing? Fine. Thank you. How you doing? Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. This is more of a comment Because they're um several different projects I'm working on But what I've been doing is um As I go about my day I have to have a notebook to do this because People will say different things and if I don't Write it down By the time I get home. I forget Um, but these things that people say it's not like Okay Mary Jones or David Owens says one particular thing I Pick up on the thread and it's really fascinating because I feel that Just taking a one statement You can build a whole story around and I feel personally very inspired and so but I I Take like I said, take the time Carry the note cards to write it down And there are two things. There was one woman Oh, she was this happened months ago She was I don't know whether she's having a A meltdown or whatever, but She made this statement She said I never wanted a son And she kept saying that over and over and over again So I wrote that down and you know kind of Again, you know, you could build A story a play a screenplay Around what would lead a person to other that kind of remark Just recently is actually more humorous Um, I was out and about and I had these two guys that were kind of winos And one says to the other yeah, man Um, they need to bring back communism They need to bring back communism because with communism at least everything would be equal We would all get the same kind of thing And I just thought it was just I mean I could have stood there for Five or ten minutes and you know, just like writing writing writing, but I find it personally inspiring Inspiring in terms of my own work But I kind of I have a a friend of mine who well, she's in the spirit world, but she was a writer and she taught at um Brooklyn college, but she would always tell her students that You know, like keep your ears open It's just and again not to get into anybody's business per se but Just they're just like pearls of wisdom That you know can roll off anybody's tongue at any time And like I said, I personally feel inspired and it helps me in terms of my own work That's cool Louise. I love also how you write those things down You know, you're not just wandering through the world going wow It's a cool thing that somebody just said but you're carrying around your notebook and writing these things down so that you can You know harvest these seeds or at least plant them harvest harvest. That's yet. That's a good word Because that's what it is. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's really beautiful. And yeah, who knows what What they what beautiful things they might grow into definitely Rebecca you should be able to unmute now Hey, Susan Laurie I'm pretty good. How are you good? How's it going? Um, it's it's been an interesting um couple weeks So after you know three years, I finally got cove it and that took a couple weeks Um, which was really interesting. I mean I what I didn't have a bad case and it was really kind of it was Really interesting to engage with you know A new organism That's great. Yeah, um But I I had um So this is a business of writing kind of question comment I I had a website that was focused on on the way I earn income, which is my consulting work and And writing was sort of in there, but not the for not the front page. It was and um and I've been So I realized I couldn't really do any more pitches to Agents because there's no website for them to see And there's because I I'd put a I put a splash page over it. I knew I wanted to redo it so So I've been I've been doing that and this is the first time I've been willing to Actually put the the book Kind of in a more public way and and and it's just kind of hints like There's a map of tippedon county and there's you know points a 1935 map of tippedon county That points towards the bridge and um And the actual title full title of the manuscript And I Don't know how to And I've looked at other people's pages and stuff I I don't know how to Kind of support the curiosity in the content I'm trying to avoid putting in Too much content like there's there's There's a picture. So there's the map. There's the picture of you know The prison inmates from nashville in 1912 there's so there's these hints at what might be going on and I So I'm you know, I I looked at your website and clearly you don't have to do a whole lot um Because you have so much so many things that are happening all at once at this point um and you know, I have I also have a separate section separate from the The book for my medium stuff writing So I don't know if there's any examples of sort of interesting ways to use The the web for um Almost pre-promotion for enticing interest obviously, I you know, there's there's my You know queries there's agent queries but They all want a website. They all say send me your website. So I don't know if you have any ideas or You know how again rebecca, how much would you need to show or how? Yeah, what is the What is the Because I remember if I'm not mistaken you were talking about how to Do a query letter and how much and they wanted a certain they didn't want a more than x number of pages And and they had to be in the email and that kind of thing Yeah, yeah, so I I found a couple agents who are like So some some agents say send your first three chapters and And other agents say send a whole book proposal Which is like how I'm gonna mark it, you know, so it's like, okay Uh, but I found a couple of agents Where it's like just send us You know send us a hundred pages Okay, hundred of your best pages, which is much better for me. I I feel like um great and That's great. So so so you okay, so I'm sorry. Did I cut you off? No, go ahead No, no, so so if we're going with the the agents that say send us a hundred of your best pages great So that's doable And then maybe the but they still want a website, right? Yes, what your presence on the website so in film and tv What we do a lot and and uh is is create these like sizzle reels, you know, have you ever heard of that? Books like a lookbook You can really create a lookbook for your book A look a lookbook for your book meaning it could have you could have a website with like Photographs, you know, you say you have photograph maps photographs and each, you know, each image Very beautiful image would have some part of the the sort of short Ters blurb about the the book See to me your blurb is like 10 sentences, right? You get a blurb you blur you work up a blurb of 10 sentences and find 10 images that are really going to make You know, so then you you know, you click and you have one of those You know, you set it up so that you you read the first sentence click Read the next one click, you know, 10 sentences later. You've got sort of the gist of the whole story You've got the Visitor to the website wanting to read more You've got the hundred pages already to send You know, yeah, like entice what their appetite a little bit so That sounds great the I'm trying to so in terms of I have two things going on in my head right now both Well, it it takes kind of center stage on my site I have it as A pit, you know as a sub menu in my consulting site So that's make but I did buy I did buy all the possible names Great. Well, I can start I have a new website I wouldn't mix it with your other business. I would just have a website dedicated to this and you know You know, even seven really amazing images if you can find How many ever images you can find like seven or ten? That's pretty much enough and then get a write a blurb And then just click click. So would they have you know, we have like seven images and you're like, wow Oh, huh, and you're just telling a story in seven sentences. Mm-hmm, you know Um, and you entice the the possible readers that way That's really helpful And we'll make my web development guy so happy because he's really tired of me Well, I mean they can start they I think yeah, just get yourself the new you've got the names you've got the domain names Get yourself a new A whole new website. So it'll be just dedicated to that You know, yeah, and you can link your consulting business to that website, but don't link it the other way around Right. No, I can point to it. Yeah. Yeah point to it. That's it. Yeah. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much Oh, just one other thing. I heard you on the radio the other day Oh, for all of it. Yeah. Yeah on all of it. It was very encouraging for me to hear That things can take a really long time Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, things to do, you know Some things take a while. Yeah Thanks for listening Hi, Cherie. I think you should be able to unmute yourself now Yeah, hello. Hey, Cherie. Hey, happy to be here. Hi everyone. Um, so I have a question Geared specifically toward the editing process Do you have any consistent like personal either rules or criteria or habits that you use like once you've finished writing And you're going back and you're editing and you're evaluating your work. Is there anything that you've learned? In maybe even just for your work, maybe not even a general rule But something that you've noticed of like your habits of writing where you look back and you ask yourself questions about your work and you kind of Use that to edit your pieces like if you have an entire play Are you asking yourself questions like, okay, which character could I you know, do I hate which character do I Find boring or what part do I love the most which part like any of those questions or habits or like Anything you notice that you like over time Been like I must ask myself these questions because it'll help me Really quickly decide how I'm going to edit this piece Yeah, I I think uh Yes and no more of a no, I don't have the formula Right formula is read it and see what you think. Yeah formula, but there's no like always ask yourself, you know What time was it when the person took their had their last meal? You know You know nothing like nothing like that. You just reread it and you you show up for it. You read it and you go Where's my where am I interested? Or am I not Is In putting up that work has there been any consistent feedback from the people And I don't know how this works the people reading your work. Is there anything that you notice in terms of like I don't know if they make you May ever make you change stuff when you're putting up show or you have like editors or something like that Is there anything consistent in terms of feedback that you hear or you remember No, no, again, it's all specific to the work. So history. I mean I've you know, those of us have been writing for a long Time, you know and making work for a long time The the the comments and the feedback and the notes, you know are as varied as the work You know, you know, I mean so so somebody somebody might say um, for example, just generally Once should I have people say I wish it were longer Another person another show I have people say wow, it's a little too long. Could you cut a little bit? You know, it really varies Um, but the best thing that the the writer can do when she's looking at the worker evaluating the work is You can say where am I interested Where am I not? Where do I kind of get a little bored? A lot bored. Where am I going? Ah, yeah, I hurry up, you know when you're reading your own work These are good things. Does you can ask yourself does this make sense? Do I understand this? You know, um because you want you at least want to understand what you're writing you know Based just basic questions. There's no there's no formula other than Write it and then read it to yourself perfectly out loud. That's helpful. Yeah um and just see See where it's enjoyable to you see where it's not as enjoyable And the places where it's not as enjoyable or you don't understand you have a question Just circle it and keep going keep reading circle the page circle I may usually print it out, you know That's kind of a fun thing after you've written it on a On a computer, you know on a screen, you know, you print it out sit there read it Every time you don't understand something just circle it and keep going Um, and then you can go back and go. Why was this boring? Why was this? Not as funny as I'd hoped why was this you know more confusing than I would like You just start asking yourself questions um Yeah, does that does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah, okay because you have to be specific to the work Just like when you you meet somebody a friend or a A dating partner you have to be specific to who they are Unless you've got some kind of game plan, you know I mentioned this I mentioned this I mentioned this to them and then I say that you know, I mean that's cookie cutter. I I um I only do cookie cutter when I'm making cookies I mean, right and not even then really really right. I was going to say actually not even on the cookie is you just Put on the sheet and whatever safe it comes out with Okay Thank you. It's a good question. Thank you Thank sherry. Um, we have time for one more question because we have a few more minutes. So virginia Hey virginia Hi I'm I have a couple things first of all, um I wanted to say thank you because in 2020 Uh during this the pandemic, um, I did get an email from the public theater about this Watch me work and I joined in and um From the free rights that we did and I was also doing a play writing lab kind of merged these two things together these For some reason. I have no idea how this happened but these two thoughts and separate places came together and I ended up writing a um Doing a short film my first short film a 31 a short film that I filmed during the pandemic it was a Crazy event, but it really happened took three and a half weeks from the time I talked to sag To do the covet information or all of that and four days of taping and um, so thank you That was very in in encouraging inspiring by listening to all the Information you were sharing with everybody when they asked the question It was always like light bulbs going off like oh my god. That's great. Oh, that's a great other and I'm not not haven't generally been a writer I went back to school in 2017 And took a play writing lab and so that's how I got into play writing Because I never thought that I was a writer and now that knowing how much I really enjoy it However This is my second thing. So first of all, thank you for that. That just that was just Dismantled the world to me that I was able to do something um that I'm that big of a scale um and including my friends and giving everybody work and all that so Great. Um, yes, it was really great. So thank you and that so right now I'm working on a one person show all right So and it's personal. It's my personal about my life And um, so I've been going along writing it was going very well And now I'm getting to a place for I'm kind of stuck and I think for several reasons Because it's about my family Me and my family sharing knowing where to share where not to share and I thought about today Maybe if I change Their names of some kind of synonym of their name or some kind of idea a nickname something that would Open me up because I'm really feeling like I can't I'm kind of stuck right now. I have a couple of things That kind of just kind of came up In the writing and one is seen and not heard because you know, we grew up and we were seen and not heard and that is um Developed into what it has done in my life personally And another thing is because I shift so many times like a cat having nine lives So yeah, so right now I'm up to number three, but I'm so kind of stuck and I'm like I don't I can't shake how to get out of this Your idea your idea already that you can Change their names or do something like that to sort of remind yourself that you are you are while you're Telling a personal story a perhaps a family story. You're also using your imagination You know, it's not a it's not a You know, you know historical document, you know, it's not it's the work of your imagination. It's funny. Yeah Yeah, so you can you can remind yourself of that and and using different names could help you with that and also Like a very different situation, but like we're suggesting for for lu you you can have a couple of times a day Where you sit with the with the work Where you hang out with the work Or you might write on the work where you might reread the work Where you just you just kind of cozy up to the work and remind the work that you're on its side You're hoping for the best for the work. You're you know, it's champion um To allow it to it's like it's like, you know, it feels like it's a it's a feral cat You know kind of a wild cat that you bring in the house. It's great and it hides under the bed You know, yeah, you got to you got to do the work to encourage the little creature to Come out and trust you And if it's a family story, it's it's a lot you're asking of the work. Yeah You got to you got to create, you know Firm up that bridge of trust, you know Yeah, I think that's the that's the hard part is the trust. So I have another session. I just wanted to make sure It's just it's the trust part that um Yeah, and and and I think not wanting to offend my family in a way. Oh, yeah So, yeah, I'm trying to make it. Yeah As personal and not so personal Um, but I have to I feel like I have to say what's inside of me first before I kind of edit myself I'm not gonna sure but that's my So also, I really enjoyed um The harder they come was really great. Jeanette Byrdale told me that you are doing this again And I was like, yes, because I really felt like I needed it. Oh, it's a joyous. It's a joyous show and I tell you The community specifically the jamaican community has told us that we have We have made a beautiful and perfect thing. Fantastic. Oh, I saw the first preview. So I'm gonna go again Well, we've grown a lot. We've grown. I'm gonna go again. Yeah. Thank you. Yes, you're welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much It's six o'clock. It's 601 it is All right, um, we will see you all later. We're gonna be back here same time next week. So hope to see you then Thanks everybody