 So what we'll do for the Q&A part or the dialogue part of the play is you will say your questions and I will just repeat them, okay? Instead of passing the mic around, which will take up too much time, alright? So now that everybody in the building knows what we're doing, I'm going to read from my notes. This is Watch Me Work, and we're really live in the lobby of the public theater. I'm Susan Clarks, here's Drew. We're going to do this Watch Me Work thing, which we do pretty much every week in the lobby of the public theater. You'll see on my JV's behind the camera, Watch Me Work is two things at once. It's a play, and we're going to do the actions first, which is 45 minutes of working, followed by some Q&A where you ask me questions about your own work and your creative process, and we'll give you the address to tweet us on in a sec. It's also obviously a free writing class. So it's a meta-theatrical free writing class. If you know what meta-theatrical means, you win. You win. I don't know what. Well, you win, because I didn't know what it meant to one of my students, and why you told me. So, what we're going to do is we're going to... Drew, can you give me the address if you want to tweet a question and you're in the Q&A part? Indeed. You can tweet your questions to Watch Me Work, SLP, with the hashtag New Play. Keep the phone out. Again, that's Watch Me Work, SLP, hashtag New Play. Oh, you heard it in your first video. Or I can talk like this. Alright, so we're going to work for 45 minutes, and then we're going to take questions about your work, your creative process, and during the work session, I will turn the mic off. Alright, so let's start right now. So, we just did the action part of Watch Me Work, and now we're going to do the... So, if anybody has any questions, how do you do it? You can't read this out. Out in the U.S., I will give her the answer. So, if anybody has any questions about your work, your creative process, also the folks online can tweet us and ask us stuff. But I'm going to talk about your work, your creative process, and if you say your question on the line. What's your name? Sarah Ellen Grinsberg. Is a journalist. I'm sorry, now the whole lobby knows. And she, I'm just repeating it for everybody. She said that she is under pressure to write a great lead. But I think the lead, I'm not a journalist, but the lead that thinks about it, and then we want to read more. L-E-D-E. L-E-D-E. See, I didn't know that. I did not totally know. L-E-D-E. Is it from what? I mean, critics and the other English. That's really cool. Well, I mean, this is, of course, what you understand. I mean, I've done very few articles in these papers and magazines. But it's probably the same answer as with, how do I get the first line in my novel? Could be the best first line ever. How do I get the first line in my play to be the best first line ever? How do I start it all from the right way? I would say you just, and I know your times are short. But I would say do it, what we do, what we other writers do, we just write it and then lead, don't worry about the lead and kind of get the story out and maybe lead will rise from the story. You know, instead of letting them get, I want the perfect lead and having that stop you, so you're like this, waiting for that perfect lead, instead of letting them get the story out and then work on the lead, you know, after you've got the whole story going. So the lead, you don't want the lead to be like, oh well, just crawl over it, keep running, you know, and if you run in the right direction, down now, you know, the lead will roll after you. So maybe that's okay. Because that's an idea, because I'm thinking, how do I get the first line out to my novel or how do I get the first line in my play or whatever? I just write the whole, you know, I write as much as I can, as fast as I can. And then the first line generally appears, it appears, it comes to me. Not the word, it's from under your name. Again, again, again. I'm actually having a problem with this, just keeping track of the sections. I was wondering if you had any document tips, if you ever used a computer here, on how to keep these organized. Because I feel like the lack of organization between sections right now is stopping you from just letting it out. I mean projects, really. So I would suggest, so you've got to know, so that you're writing this big piece in lots of sections, you're writing these multiple sections at once, how do you keep it organized when you're writing a computer? I would say that's the great thing about using different kinds of tools to write. So we, in the computer age, and I write on a computer too, but I have an iPad meeting with a little, I write on my phone, you know, that kind of thing. But what's cool about all school stuff, is it can really help us, we're switching back and forth, it can really help us like cross training. The index card, revolutionary bikes, the 3x5 index card. Yeah, you know, I want to mention about this size, right? So you get a whole bunch of those, and you write down, maybe the titles of each of your sections on your 3x5 index card. Right? So how many sections do you have, maybe? Okay, so you've got like six or seven, and they'll probably keep running. So you get tips, you'll have six or seven, or 10 or 20 index cards. Right? And so you can put them, and you know, you go to the stationery store and get a little, if you like this kind of thing, you get a little shoulder, you know, that suits your style, right? So have a little container for them, and you carry them around with all your computer stuff. And when you work on your work, you can spread them out and look at them. Something to hold on to, right? So it's a different way, it's a slightly different way of working. It's not too in place what you're doing on your computer. It's to keep them in your head, you'll be surprised. You can also put them on your wall, on eight and a half by 11 pieces of paper. So when you wake up in the morning or whatever, you can look at them and they'll always be around to you. Or a door, or you live in a tent. I know, you live in a tent outside. Yeah. Yeah. You can also... If you have a poor tent in there, I've got to get a broken one. So sometimes, yeah, you know, something like that. If your roommates don't mind, you know, you can also put out a bubble to board, you know, and turn it off, you know, and take it out when you're having a private moment, if you're sharing a partner, you know, you can look at it like that. But then you'd have to read it and I don't want that happening. Well, no, but turn it off, turn it off. Okay, okay. You know, not for everybody to see, but just turn it to the wall and put it with your private stuff. Right. A bubble to board with the different parts of it. The index cards will hold her best because they're in your private backpack or whatever. Yeah. Okay? So that kind of thing. Well, it's an experiment thing. Yeah, experiment. Use a different medium, than your computer. A trip tracker. Anybody else? Yes, ma'am. Oh, the two points make it live? Yeah, we talked about something like that last week. Yeah. Two, right. So in geometry, does anyone know geometry? No. Kind of? So what are those things called? They're a given. It's a given, right? A given, something that you don't have to prove and you use givens to make it through. Okay. Right. Okay, nice. Remember, so in geometry, we're talking about how to create a character and how to create a line to dialogue and what does the character want to say and how to create different voices. Okay, so that's what we were talking about last year. I think someone tweeted it. Maybe Amy from Iowa. I don't know. I can't remember. No, I'm sorry. I think that's what we were talking about. And I was saying in geometry, it's a given, a two points make a line. Right. In writing, we could say two points make a line meaning where the character is and where the character wants to go are two points making a line of dialogue. So it's in saying, in, well, for example, three sisters, you know, the sister wants to go to Moscow. She wants to go to Moscow. That's just talks about going to Moscow. She is where she is and she wants to go somewhere and that informs what she's talking about. Right. Different, very different from, say, the other sister who doesn't really want to go to Moscow. So she's not going to talk about Moscow so much. Right. So her point is she's here but she wants to go, say, I don't know, to Brooklyn. So she's talking about Brooklyn. Right. So that's her line. Those are her, those two points make all her lines of dialogue. That's what we were talking about. That would give you different voices in your character. So it's not like you have to give one character a funny accent and another character of whatever. You just have to know where they are and where they want to go and those two points are going to form their lines of dialogue. I just made that up. I really know it works because that's what I do. But all the stuff I'm saying is just like, anybody else? So Yolanda she's a soft boy. It's awesome. So Yolanda asks, she's got several different projects. She's got several different, I'm sorry Yolanda, that was history. We've been kind of raising our voice to, because folks in the lobby are working and so we've been raising our voice so we can be heard over them. So now, I'm going to repeat your question. Yolanda has several different projects that she works on and she wonders, she loves coming here because you can focus, but what to focus on? And you might have that same question if you're just like at home or you have like, you know, you have like, I have a play I'm writing, I have a novel I'm writing, I have a song I'm trying to write, I have something, something. What do I work on? I've only got this much time during the day and how do I, right, you can go, you can do several different things. Go to what kind of is grabbing at you, the grab at you method, right? You can also rotate your projects and it requires discipline. Right? So just think of it like, like you have three or four different friends. Right? So you're on the phone with, with, with Stanley May and you're talking to Stanley May. They're not also talking to Joe Bob, right? You're just talking to Stanley May. She has all your attention. So you can say, I'm telling you right now, I'm just talking to you. I'm just going to talk to you for the next 45 minutes. I'm not bringing, I'm not bringing Joe Bob into this. Right? So when you come, if you want to come back next time or if you want to watch us online, like some folks do, just choose. Be tough with yourself. I'm just going to bring Project A or Project, and next week I'll bring Project B. Or in the morning, I just work on Project A and then in the afternoon I'm going to work on Project B and in that 30 minutes that I used to watch TV, I'm going to work on Project C or I'm going to go to the gym or whatever you're going to do. You know what I mean? I'm going to fill it with something that's what I tell you. Okay? So it's, yeah, just, just pick one. Or you can use the brand bag technique. And then no, I'm not taking anything else. It's only 45 minutes. We're only here. You know, it's not like you're going on a trip around the world and you have to bring everything. You know what I'm saying? I know that. I do the same thing and I kind of, I sit at home, what is it going to be today? And I'm just, you know, like that. So I'm going to pick this one. Yes? Hi. So, you know what I'm saying? When I, when I write, I, uh, I'm not getting lost in the trajectory of the scene. Like where it's going. I have to take a step back and leave what I wrote. And I find that sometimes I can get in my own head and I kind of, sometimes I forget for myself to confess and kind of redress. So my question is, do you refine yourself with your writing? With your writing? It's kind of losing sight of what is your going for. So what do you do when you go to the floor? What's your, my name's Dan. Dan also? Dan, Dan, Dan. Okay. Okay. So, that's a great question, Dan. So when he's writing, what do you write usually? A play. A play. So when he's writing a play, he's writing a scene and sometimes he says when he's writing along, he kind of gets into it so much when he kind of forgets where it's going, where it's supposed to go. That's interesting. Where it's supposed to go. And so then he has to go back and read what he's written. But then that kind of gets into the domain rewrite mode and then it kind of slows down the writing process. How it's written. Your inner critic is very sweet. Come on, Dan. You can't remember what the scene is supposed to be about. Come back. You know, right? Sneaky shit, man. That's some sneaky shit. Okay. Okay. So all of our inner critics have sneaky shit, right? So you just got to recognize I know what you're trying to pull, right? So maybe get a post-it and say, so we're giving Dan, Dan's going to use index cards so he doesn't get lost in the woods. You know, Dorothy, not Dorothy, but Dorothy, you had Yellowbird Road, Hansling Road, a high grade comes. You're going to have maybe Post-its. You get some Post-its. Not big, not the wall size. You know, but in a color that you like, it does not bother you too much, right? Maybe yellow, you know. This scene is about blop it. Like you're right on hand by hand. Okay. Stick it on the page. That's going to be, you know, if you've never gone skating or caving, you know, I've done it, you know. So they give you this yellow rope. Caving, you know, you're under the earth. Like, at this light on your head. And you have a yellow rope, right? So, you might get lost, but ha ha! You have a yellow rope, right? So you're going to have yellow Post-its, maybe. And you're going to write down, this scene is about ba-ba-ba-ba. And ha ha! That's going to be your yellow rope. So when the flying monkeys come, you know, right? Because those were heard, that was heard, like, air-critic. So you're going to have Post-its, and then you won't have to reread, because you know what your scene is about. And you can just go forward. Now, you'll be scared, oh my God, it might not be good, or it might not be right, or whatever. This is what the scene is about for this draft. I'm going to stick to it, and then I'm going to get to the next scene, okay? You have a series of Post-its that you lay out for yourself, and you don't have to go back and reread. You know, don't go back and reread. What was that? Who did that? Um, lot. Lot. They said, don't turn around, man. Turn the salt. Come. You turn around. Don't turn around. There's a reason, and then you'll have to sleep with your daughters. That's what happened. That's what happened. We have to sleep with them. That's just bad. So just go forward. The history and mythology are filled with stories just like the one you're going through. There's Dorothy. There's Lot. There's Hansel and Gretel. There's Dan. Wait, Linda's going to tell us the myth of Sisyphus. Look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, down the mountain and up the mountain and down the narrow mountain. You know, when you go the front lane, then you would have to learn that in going down the mountain, you have to follow the content of that, but you would be totally... What happened to you? Yeah, I... Yes, I think I may have an answer but to say it out loud was helpful. I feel this pressure, and I don't know whether it's a self-imposed critic or an external critic. I know it's a critic, but the pressure or the idea that good dialogue, useful productive formal dialogue, sounds is the kind of naturalism like what we hear on television. And I know it's not true, but it's like when I... I know that a lot of the plays that I love and a lot of my instincts have a lot of stuff that is more lyrical or political or metaphorical, what have you, and I don't always know when I read it how to gauge whether that's useful, whether it's in dynamic, whether it's thought-developing, whether it's in a play, or if it's indulgent and emotional. Does that make sense? So, it's from what? Jamie. Right, so Jamie has... Jamie's writing some dialogue and your inner critic says that good dialogue is all the kind of stuff you hear on television? No, I just don't always know what I read and whether... I just don't have a perfect gauge as to whether it's moving the plot forward or the character. Well, with that, so... No, but that's great, so lyrical or not, poetic or not, TV dialogue or not, whatever style it is, and it's all good as long as it fulfills the job, right? Okay, so if you're writing for TV, your dialogue should sound appropriate to me occasionally, right? But the question of whether it's moving the story forward or appropriate for the moment, think of that to where is the character, where is she, and where does she want to go? Right? And in that, you're gonna find out, right? I mean, think of Dorothy, really, everything she said was about Kansas, eventually, right? I mean, it was... when she was talking about Oz, she was talking about Kansas. So, think of it that way, right? Everything she said was about Kansas, really. Even Oz was Kansas. So, your character should be like that, and whether it's poetic or lyrical, I do that. I like that kind of, you know, like Shakespeare or like, you know, an episode of Breaking Bad or whatever. It should move along. I mean, like, I tell people like a colon, you know? Not like a silly colon. It should move the shit along. You know what I'm saying? So, but it should work like that. It shouldn't be like this, I say colon. You know, it's just all about, oh, I like this word. I want to use this word in my playing. Man. Think of those two points. Where is your character? Where is she? Where does she want to go? And that's gonna tell you what you're gonna say. I'm gonna rewrite and I'm gonna act as my leftist. Don't worry about that. It's a rope before the mic. We like this. Because look, now Oz will be here the week after that. But thank you.