 And then we're not schooled, so we're not going to be able to get a job. Because it's going to be a great year. It's going to help you pause it. It's going to be a great year. I feel like I'm probably going to be free. If I'm going to that, Do you want me to take off this right now? I'll let them know. Ready? We might have to call the JET because it keeps saying connection problem. When I try to sign into the... Are you on Wi-Fi? No. I'm going to turn this off. This is all set up. Wait a minute. Yeah, give them a call. Oh, great. Yeah, give them a shout. I don't know. I'm just going to be here. I'm not going to be here. I'm just going to... Yeah. Just start to remember. Yeah. I usually don't have other people. I'm just going to be here. You can't do it, you can't do it. I just can't work. Yeah, I'm just going to be here. Okay, the JET is over. I mean, it's not letting me connect to the channel. It keeps saying there's a connection problem. I'm not going to be here. I'm just going to be here. I'm not forecasting the live stream. She's not trying to be here. She's really strong. They love me. I'm not going to be here. I'm just going to be here. I'm just going to be here. I'm not planning to do anything. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. I'm a Jonathan. No, don't. I'm enjoying it. Yeah, he's just, we're having a connection problem. Wait for the channel, I just wanted to ask you something. Yeah, you're live streaming. Yeah, you're live streaming. And you see like, I just moved it to the audience. Okay, it keeps saying I'm able to communicate. Is this streaming? You can hear it. Do you hear me get the mic? One is in a row. Okay. Yeah, maybe that's what I should draw. Okay, so I'll be able to access that somewhere. I didn't notice, I didn't notice anything. So, you hear it. So it doesn't work? I realized today after, I realized today that one of the things that I've got to do is to watch more. Because then you keep yourself laughing and you keep yourself loose, you know? What's your name? And how about you? Everybody else? I didn't know sort of what we do here. No, you're not Paris. So everybody kind of knows what we're doing here? No. You haven't been here before? No. Because a lot of people that hear the title watch from work and they think it's about watching the work in a stop. And of all the titles I've ever made up, this has been the most misleading but for a reason. Because actually it's about you and the ones that are watching are each other. Okay, so the me and the title is actually you and this is about your creative process. And we're just going to talk about your creative process, not mine. I talk about my creative process enough with myself and I want to hear about you. So I really am here pretty much every week to talk to you about your creative process. And this is how we move. We do two things. First of all, we acknowledge that this is going to play as an all the world's stage house play. And then we say we're going to make first the action of the play together, which means we're going to work together for 20 minutes. And then we're going to make the dialogues of the play together and we're going to talk about your creative process. And so we're going to work together for 20 minutes and then after we work together for 20 minutes, we're going to just say who wants to talk about their creative process or ask me a question about your creative process. No question is stupid dumb. Oh, I've heard this question. We've probably heard this question before. We don't mind. We don't entertain all of the questions. Okay, so that's pretty much how we work. And we have people maybe that are watching us, but we usually live stream. Are we together? We live like, hey, how are you? Thank you, maybe behind the camera. We're getting together here. So why don't you tell us how folks who are in the Twitter sphere. President. President. So we're not on Fox News. We're not on Fox News. So we're not watching, but anyway. So we are live streaming via HowlRound. And we will take questions for those of you who aren't here with us today on the Twitter. If you just tweet at, watch me work SLP, hashtag HowlRound. Yes, it's Howl like a bolt of H-O-W-L. And then round like the table. R-O-U-M-D. And then I will ask us a few questions and show them to you. Okay, so we're going to, do you have your timer? I do, I have mine. It's already. People say, are you coming to rehearsal tomorrow? I'm like, I'm not dodging, I'm sorry. Shit. I know. It's fun having a lot to do, but it's also like really busy. Okay, ready Maya? Yes. How'd you know you're kind of like, you just like do a little bit. Or sit with it a little bit or however you want to call it. And then it just feels, or at least a little less like about their work and their creative process. It slows me down at all. Do you have any tips for kind of getting around that? Sure, sure. I mean, we have, like I said the other week, we have a lot of tricks. Tricks. We have a lot of tricks. Yeah, we have a lot of tricks. So let's say everybody heard her questions, right? So, yes, you've got a lot of ideas. You're working hard and you just can't seem to get them down on the screen, on the screen on the page fast. Right? So are you a fast type? So you could, I mean, this is simple. You could take a type, you know, learn how to type faster. That's like a bit, right? Okay. But that sounds like this. It sounds like a real solution to them. But I could say, I know you've got like a, what do they call it? Chicken pepper or whatever. Imagine if you had to do that. That would be very frustrating, right? And then, okay. You could write long yet. And? No. Is that your, you know, you could try to write your thoughts out long yet. And I bet you could keep up with yourself, right? And then type them as your kind of second graph. That's a possibility. Or you could just accept the fact, you know, you could just write, or write less, actually. So, for example, if you're writing a scene to your screenplay thing, and you can see the whole thing. Oh, yeah. It's a psychedelic tree, and all these colors, and all this blossom is here. You have a lot of detail in your mind. You can see all that detail, right? Because you're not a speedy typeist, you can actually write less. You know, tree, daytime, multi-colored leaves. And focus on the, what I call the main event of the scene, instead of every single detail. So you might say, tree, daytime, multi-colored leaves, a, whatever, a chimp jumps out from the outside. Man, that's the main event. There you go. It makes a lot of people mad, because they don't believe it happened that way. You know, students actually focus on the main event, and you write less, actually. That can help, too. Anybody else have any? No, no. This is about Lex's issue. You have Twitter? Does someone from the Twitter? University? Yes. Melania, who is from Miami. Hi. She says, thanks for your suggestion about chatting with my characters. It is a very revealing process. How do I know when to pass from the chat to the outline? They have lots to say, I don't want to get stuck. I love to talk to them, but I lose a sense of urgency. The play seems far away. How do I set boundaries? That last one was like, how do I set boundaries? That's like, and we've already established that, like, whether or not she is the first lady, we don't mind. She's tweaking, she's getting up from Florida. We could start a really interesting rumor. She ends up in issues with her character. But anyway, we can take that joke, because we have to laugh. This is the thing, so we talked to Melania last week about making an outline and talking to her character. So she's made that line good for you, since they're not easy to do. Now you're like, I need to start writing questions? No, she's trying to figure out when you stop the conversation with her character is going to be out. Oh, you haven't got enough outline. Okay, well now, stop now. This is good, that's a good question. Stop now, because you can talk to them for so long, but suddenly you're like, okay, so what's the story? So ask them, what's the story? What are you doing? And a lot of times you say, where are you now and where do you want to be by the end of this? And you can just make things up, like okay, the first thing is they're in a diner and at the end of the movie or at the end of the play, they're getting in a car and they're going to drive to San Francisco, okay? And so you start saying, what's your story? What story are you here to tell me? Or what story would you like me to tell with you? Okay? And it is tricky because suddenly, because in the beginning of talking to your character in the car and you want to stay, once it gets easier, you want to stay in that place. And then it's hard to move on to the next stage, which is in this case, right in an outline. So I'll say right in an outline. Actually, right in an outline kind of is the part. The second first draft. Anybody like outline? She's not really saying anything. You like outline? I like general structure. Yeah, you don't have to go see my scene, but you can have a general director. The 10th poll, does we say? You know, those of us who are in the service. We say, if you get some good 10th poll, then we know. You're not just kind of like lost, you know, but something really like that. So if you're like, I just want to be free. I just thought it would be hard to say. Yeah, so just imagine if you were like a slave in Georgia and you just want to be free and you just took off running. Good, good, good. But he knows better than we play him. Just give our people a little bit more. I'm going to follow a star. I'm going to follow the stars. I'm going to follow that star, because I heard that that would work. So that's what we do. We just do that. That's like going out on you. It worked for them. I'm working on a whole bunch of projects right now. What's your advice about toggling back and forth between different kinds of projects? I'm working on a novel. I have an essay. I have some TV and film projects. I'm kind of like... I know. So are you the artful dodge? Do you like dodge? How's that project going? You're like, it's going great. Do you have separate days to work on your projects? Right now I'm on Deadline and the novel's doing two weeks. It's all doing two weeks? Everything is doing two weeks? Total. How did that happen? I've been working on it for six years. You've been working on it? Everything for six years? The novel. The novel. So just the novel's doing two weeks? Yes. Okay, but not the TV show and not the... The essays do tomorrow. The essays do tomorrow. Okay. So it's easy though. It's easy. So two weeks is one. 14 days. Okay. So tomorrow is 24 hours. Okay. So the essay is a priority, right? After you get the essay done, you're going to focus exclusively on the novel. So you have deadlines to help you focus. Deadlines to help you create up to specific priorities. Right? And you also have the art of like... I don't know. You don't look like a bull shooter, but you... The art of like... Like someone texting me, hey, are you coming to rehearsal at noon? I am again. I am again. Sure, sure, sure. I'll text them in a minute. Okay. So today, between today and tomorrow, you work on the essay. Then just focus on your novel for two weeks. Then turn your attention to the other project. Right? And use the system of deadlines. You're too very good at to create your list of priorities. Okay? So what I do is I tend to work on maybe one thing on one day and another thing on another day and then anything on another day. I tend to do that. Or I work three days on one thing and then I switch to another thing. Then I might have to go to rehearsal for another thing. Then I come back and I will probably... And I try to be upfront with people like, oh, I can't get to that right now. I have a friend who says, underpromise over delivery. Okay? So tell people, if you think it's going to take you two weeks, tell people it's going to take you four. And then if it takes you three weeks, everybody's happy. Right? And say, hooray, as much as possible because it's wonderful. But a blessing to have a lot of projects and a lot of people who want to work with you. Okay? It's a good thing. Even though it's like, this thing is like, I'm losing sleep. But it's like, right? It's a good thing when people want to work with you. It's a real blessing. So just remind yourself, sometimes you get very tired. Oh, I'm so tired. I've got so much work to do. But it's really not a whole thing. We have another one from Stacey Rose. She says, how do I slay the beast of career anxiety? It's not useful at all. Slay the beast of career anxiety. Like, how will I ever make a living at this kind of thing? Is that what she's talking about? Somebody translate that. Is that career anxiety? Is that what that means? She was so bad. She was horrible. Right? I know Stacey Rose. I know Stacey Rose. I know Stacey Rose. I know Stacey Rose. I know Stacey Rose. Slay the beast of career anxiety. Okay, yeah. I was like, Stacey Rose, whatever. We know you're Stacey Rose. Hi. And knowing you, Stacey, you have really, you know, not to worry because you're so talented and wonderful and hardworking. So that's a good thing. I know Stacey. Stacey does all the work because she works really hard and she's very talented. So those things are an issue. If you're not doing the work, then that's an issue. But that's not her problem. I think maybe instead of slaying the beast, what if you make friends with the beast? Let her shrink. There's a great letter to the shrink. No, no, no, no. The part, you know, the dragon, you know, was in the, you know, a shrink one. I don't think I watched you know what it was, but shrink, you know, the boom, ah! And then they found that the dragon was really in love with the donkey or something. Right? Isn't that how it went? And they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And the dog was like, oh man! You know, so we didn't, we had to worry about slaying the dragon. We had to worry about making friends with the beast. So just make it, when you have to do things like make a deadline, have a good time with it, try to count your blessings as much as possible. I wouldn't kill that dragon. I wouldn't slay it. You know what I mean? I would sort of use it, ride it, you know, harness it, you know, jump on its back and go for a beautiful ride. Because that's the thing that's going to power you through your whole life. So I wouldn't slay it. I would be friends with it and get excited about this journey that you're all involved, working by yourself, you know, and at your desk and all that kind of stuff. And it's also involved going to cocktail parties and making deadlines and trying to get prizes and trying to get good things and stuff. So just have a good time with it, I would say. And come back in because we miss you. And I hope your jobs are going well. She was like a drama lead fellow or something. Like what's he doing? She's doing fine. Okay, that's a good question. Is it more difficult to convey the urgency of that? Yeah, did everybody hear? What's your name? Barbara. Barbara? Did everybody hear Barbara's writing a period piece, something in a circle piece, right? How do you effectively convey the urgency of the time? Right, right, right. And a lot of people, after you show your movie, is it a novel or something? So after it's been produced and everything, you'll get interviews and the interviews will go like this. Probably always the first question. Why now? Why now? That's a good question. And you go like, well, and then you come up with the answer. But you probably already have the answer because the urgency of the time period, the historical era, is the same urgency as now, which is probably why you want to write it. One thing we get by writing period pieces is we get perspective. So everything, and I've written a lot, I know history is very fashionable right now. I spent years writing historical stuff that takes place in the 1800s, 1700s, and it's always because I'm interested in something now that I can only see or I can see best by looking backwards. The same reason people write science fiction. Okay, same thing. So think of why do I want to write this. What moves me about these characters, for example, and answer those questions for yourself and that's how you communicate the urgency. You know? Because it's not just, oh, look, they have pretty clothes. I mean, although that's a good reason to write period pieces. Because the clothes are awesome for some people. But, you know, why now? Why do I want to write this now? What interests me about these people? You know, what moves me now? And that's, because their urgencies are our urgencies. You think about it, you know? That's a really good question. Yes, ma'am. How concerned are you with your output that doesn't necessarily have, like, your writing thing that you're not sure in the writing where it all is? Right. Is that concern you? No. Did everybody hear Mark's question? That's a great question. Everybody, how concerned are you? How do you make your peace with or how concerned should you be? Right, right. How concerned should we be when the thing that we're writing does not have a head, does not have a place ready to receive it where we can get produced or staged or, you know, even read by an intelligent reader, right? Or even what amounts to a opinion. Sure. Right. And so you're not, you know, I'm not sure, precisely, what type of work it's going to be, but it's not the working headlong. Right, right. And that's, I mean, the thing is, so to go the first one, the first and the second one, I think what you're doing is great. Mark isn't sure exactly what his piece is going to look like. So finding a home might be a little too carful for the work kind of thing, maybe. But he's writing headlong into it as he's doing the work anytime, which is really, really great, right? I think that's exactly what you should be doing. Keep showing it for your writing. It's going to reveal itself to you sooner or later, okay? And when it reveals itself to you, say, you thought it wasn't normal when it turns out to be a screenplay, let's say, right? Somehow, then your task is to find a home for it, right? Or a number of places that might be an ascended, right? And the most important thing is the work, first of all. It's tricky, let's see if I can explain. Having a home for your work really does help you get the work done. Right? I know people downstairs are there working. They're working really hard when they're talking to me now. Having a home for your work helps you get the work done. It kind of pulls it, right? It pulls it out of your way, right? But if you don't have a home, it's really important to put all that energy in. It's like, it's like, I keep saying this every week, it's like dating, right? You got to, like, put all that out there and go out there. Whenever you're out doing this, when you're looking for one, you got to go out there and, like, you know? Because you're never going to meet anybody just, they need to, they need to turn it down out there and I go out to the like, you know, so I know you guys are a little busy downstairs because someone just helped them to tell them they were up here. Thanks, everybody. Thank you. But it's really helpful. So if you've got to put on that outfit, you know that you guys have to work out and kind of happy you don't sweat it and make sure it's as good as you can do right here. Make sure the right team starts to compete, right? And the other happy thing was that your third eye starts scanning and looking around for where might this find a home. It's like your fourth eye. You know what I mean? So you keep like, if you feel like it's a musical piece, maybe, you know, then you might start to go into musicals or watch musicals online, kind of sort of that, you know? If you feel like it's a regular play, then you might start seeing more plays than you used to. If it's a novel, maybe you start looking to see who the publishers are and maybe try to contact people who might be interested in working at work. You keep that going in addition to doing your work. Okay? And you don't you just keep doing your work. I think that's the most important thing. It's really, it's really tricky. I have a band and for a long time we played and played and played and I was like, we don't have a venue or anything. You know, just like getting together or rehearsing. You know, and then came the time we said, shouldn't we get a gig? Shouldn't we find some place to play? I mean, we could play forever in my living room. And then with that became an extra part of it, but we had to do your work first. What you doing? And the gigs, they say when you build it, they believe that horrible thing they're saying. If you build it, they will come. But it's kind of true in a kind of weird way, but in the time in, the people are going to start to show up. Maybe in a small way at first. You know, maybe a couple of people will be able to do a little chorus or like that. But then they'll show up. They can keep up the time. That's what, that's what I keep finding among my students and everything. That's what we discover. That's a good question. Sorry about the time. Thank you. People are like, we're working, we're down here making the snacks. I mean, there's a lot of work. I mean, they're really getting ready for work. I'm just going to say, I don't want that to be a little subdued. Yeah. It turns out to be a novel. I don't know. Yeah, sure. When I play festivals, the more you write, the more you put the time in and all that, and the more you get into it, you'll start over here. People are like, oh, when I play festivals, I start to hear about opportunities that might be available to you. That's how, that's usually how it happens. It's weird. We can hear about those opportunities when they're ready and when we've been doing the work. It's like, if you build it, they will come. I mean, that's strange. Has anybody had experiences like that? If you build it, they will come. I mean, not with Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones, coming out of the corn, but does anybody have any experience like that? He's like, no, we don't know what you're talking about. Okay, well, you know, you gotta get out of here. You gotta get out of here. Yeah, I was saying I wanted to do theater and then started wanting to do collaborations with people, and then probably in the last three months, three different people around photography, around theater, around film just showed up around a podcast I had been trying to do last year. Yeah, so I think the trick for me has been to recognize the blessings when they show up and not shut people out if I'm not totally ready to rock right then. Right. So sometimes someone may say, oh, do you have a 10 minute play? I'm like, no, not really, but I could sit down and write one. Exactly. Yeah, that's really well said. Recognize the blessings when they show up. And be ready to receive them. And that's what you're doing, Mark, but you're the work. You're showing the world, you know, the spirits or the whatever they call them. You're ready to receive the good stuff. And that's what you're doing by showing up. It's an act of faith, and you don't have to believe and write up, but it's an act of faith. It's an act of faith in yourself. And if you don't believe in yourself, well, you're really here. I can see you. And I'm not listening, not right now anyway. So, you know what I mean? If you don't believe in yourself, it's like looking around here. You know? But that's what you do by showing up. You don't believe in yourself. She's very important. Sharing it with actors or producers. Sure. Right. Sometimes people, especially people. They see you as your target. You know, there's that woman, Dan, what's her name? Maxine. What's her name? What does she say? You can say that even if you're a dude, man. We do actually have a strong mind. We're just saying that. You know, I cannot be, you know, I've only heard. So things like, you know, but we have our work, we write, we do a draft, we do the work, we bring it to people we want to have a workshop to get to the next level. And we don't want to be, you know, used as a punching bag, right? Or like a venting area, a vomitorium for people's opinions that don't even, aren't even appropriate to what we're trying to do. And I would say be, do a lot of work on your own or with people you trust, right? Don't be in such a hurry to get out there, show it around. Do the work at home, right, on your own. And then show it very slowly. And show it to people who love you more than they love the idea of seeing their ideas in your work. So go very gently and slowly in the process, right? And it's going to fly. It does. You know what I mean? But if you're solid in your work and you've done your work at home on your play, for example, then you can feel more confident about your play. And if you get some stupid notes and even great, smart, brilliant producers give stupid notes, you know, it's not a crime, it's just what happens. Try not to take it like an indictment of your personhood and just look at it as ah, maybe that play needs work. You know? Oh, like stealing. Oh, jeez. Well, you can copy the copy, right? Right? But that's the thing, that's really, really, really important to copyright your work. And too, if you have an agent, you know, sent to them first, or just copyright your work, you can do that without having an agent or a friend, actually. You can just do it on your own. And then it's yours. It's very clearly yours. It belongs to you. You don't have to send it out to a million people. Send it out to a couple of people at a time. Hard copies are also really if you're concerned about that. You know? I was just going to weigh in that producers and other people weighing in on their work is not limited to women. Sure, sure, sure. There's plenty of dumb comments for everybody, actually. Yeah. And also, just because the producer gives you dumb comment doesn't mean there's a problem. But there is a... And while you are correct, there is also, you have to acknowledge, the moment you acknowledge, that the playing field is not even. The playing field isn't even. And there are people in this world who live in the first world country can appreciate this also, all of us here. There are people in this world who have it harder than some other people. Some people have it harder than others. Some people work twice as hard for half as much. That's reality. And we're not trying to make, you know, no one's trying to guilt anybody or anything. We just have to acknowledge that. And if we acknowledge that, like in a good therapy session, women can move forward. We should all go to therapy. That's what we should do. Make America go to therapy. It's all like, oh, that would be horrible, wouldn't it? For great. Anyway, there's plenty of stupid comments for lots of people. Yeah, just a few more minutes. Anybody want to perform it? Do you have a strategy for if you get a comment that you think might be stupid? Yeah. But you're not sure? Right, right. What do you do in the moment right after you hear it? So it's coming out of the producer's mouth and coming toward me. Yeah. I mean, you, in the moment, in my experience, and this is, again, born of the fact that I am a woman of African descent. So I'm going to do a different kind of future treatment than you were logical. But I'm just saying, right? Because if I get all, like, black up in there, I am certainly not going to get hired for the next job, like, no way. I mean, I've heard, I hadn't had an ancient years ago, a white guy, back in his ages who used to throw things in meetings. And everyone's like, oh, yeah, he's such a cool dude. He throws shit when he gets back. If I throw stuff in the meetings, I will not be invited back. They'll, like, lock me up, you know, if I can do it here. What I have drawn for you is I have to say, wow, that's really interesting. And I write it down on my notebook. And that's what I do. And I go home, I would say write the notes down on your notebook. I say, don't, like, vomit back the note that the producer unnecessary. You know what I'm saying? You don't need to be combative, whoever we are. I mean, I think if you're very Muslim, you need to be combative. So write the note down and then sleep on it. And you never know, some notes that sound stupid initially have a grain of good idea in them and some notes that sound great. You know, when you try them out, don't work. So sleep on all the notes and I'd say don't vomit back into the producer's face. Unless you're like, I don't know what it is, like Aaron Sorkin or whatever, I can't think. He's not aware that there's none of the plagiarism. There's a hole. There it is. That's alright. He's late. He's woke now. I'm sorry. I'm calling everybody up. Yeah. I mean, we haven't helped you but you might have any more burning questions. Did everybody see that when you made the speech to sign the executive order and then he left the room? And I was on April Fool's. I was like, ah, this is perfect. That was amazing. And that made me really laugh. You know what else? Are we good? Well, next week we're going to be here, yes? Thank you. Thanks, Avery, for finding the camera. Thanks, you guys.