 um we're uh yes we're recording we're back it's Monday it's watching me work we're gonna do what we always do it's one thing it's it's it hopefully it's more than one thing you can count on every week but uh when we get together we do the same thing every week we work for 20 minutes and then we talk about your work and your creative process we've been doing this show for a long time I can't remember when we started a while ago like 15 14 13 years ago so um here we are we're going to work together for 20 minutes and then you're going to uh ask me your questions about your creative process any kind of work you do is welcome and if you want to get in touch loli will tell you how to get in touch go loli yes if you'd like to ask us a question if you're in the zoom you can do so by raising your hand which is likely in the reactions tab at the bottom of your screen if you have any trouble looking for it uh you can just message me in the chat and i'll help you out and then if you're watching live with us on howl round you can send your questions via the public theaters instagram or twitter accounts 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 yay okay so let us get started here we go and all right so now here's the moments here the moments for your questions about your work and your creative process anybody has any questions i'm here oh looks like we have a question from lu you should be able to unmute thank you i know so how are you doing okay it's good to see you good to see everybody it was so zen there for a minute but i was like all right i'll just jump in and ask my question um didn't mean to ruin the vibes um yeah it's perfect okay um this is my question today because i'm literally working this is my question on my mind today so i've been writing uh in a process of writing a long form memoir manuscript and some days i'm squeezing out like a perfect paragraph in my mind perfect paragraph and every word i have to like organize it's almost like i'm doing a puzzle with the sentences like and then sometimes like i am today i'm writing like a billion words like and i'm sitting here i've been thinking a lot about this today it's like which one of these things is better can i control when one comes and when one doesn't not really so i just kind of ride the wave of it but i'm just thinking about the process of the process that i'm inside of and it's like i kind of feel like goldilocks but i wish i had more of a middle ground like i wish i could do it just right so i guess my question is i mean i work a lot on craft and all these other things in process but today i'm just thinking literally about like the quantity of the writing when one does writing like sometimes i feel so stuck in it's like a 20 word per minute thing and sometimes it's a 2000 you know it's like it just barrels out so i don't know i just want to talk about like the fault the literal volume of words or when one writes and i don't know uh huh well i mean which do you prefer do you i mean because both sounds sound like they've upside sorry i'm going to pick up my phone as i just dropped it both um they have upsides right or yeah i think even i even had to qualify when i talked about writing so much i was like i care about craft you know i think like when i write meticulously like that i sort of take pride in it it feels like um something really craft and thoughtful so i think there's an upside to that and that and then when i'm exploding like i am today it's like just the volume feels exciting but not even that i think the quality of my writing feels more surprising to me and then therefore i think the writing itself feels more surprising when i go back to read some of the things where i've like spent two or three days working on this much i feel like who's that you know like it almost has like a like an overwritten cover letter kind of energy where the stuff i'm doing today is like where am i going i don't like i don't know and i like the way that feels so and so it's like but you're not there every day right i mean you're some days you're in the yeah you know the sort of piece in the puzzles together i mean come on answer it's all good so all good you know i think the the problem is you know like you you get in attached to one thing or another so that sounds very zen or very like a pema children thing you know i mean rain sunshine yay you know it's the weather it's good it's i think i mean and what i do is that's what i love that's one of the reasons why i love the timer because if you're going to judge you know and we do get into the sun good is it is it right is it did i have a did i have a good day am i having a good day you know that's why i enjoy the timer because it's not about you know did i get a hundred words did i get five you know it's about i showed up there there yay hooray 20 minutes or whatever you know and then you can sort of check it off your list and feel okay about it yeah and sure you prefer sure you prefer when it all comes out in one day and it's perfect yay you know wow some days just like that some days is not you know i think the most important thing you said you're showing up every day or or you know most days you know yeah yeah i know i think the timer i mean i love the timer but it's interesting because i wasn't using the timer today because i was doing so good so i thought like i don't even need to time this because i'm in this great flow but i think now that i'm talking to you about this and i'm asking this question it's like i don't think that was that great because now i've put a quality i've put like the measurement on the like i didn't stop at a specific time i just and i'm like that was a better way to work and that feels dangerous to well you can try that i uh i work in a way that i can you know come back tomorrow yeah so whatever i gotta do whatever mind game i have to play i play the game that's gonna help me come back tomorrow that's kind of that's yeah so if i'm if i'm playing it in a way that like ah it feels dangerous you know i'm not that's that's less interesting to me than a way that's going to allow me to come back tomorrow whatever that's going to be that might be kind of you know i don't know uh risk averse or whatever this a stockbroker might call it i don't know more into the you know it's it i think it stems from my yoga practice i once asked uh you know i've been doing yoga for a long time and asked the teacher like how you know what's the best way to practice and they said you know we practice in a way that allows us to practice tomorrow so you're feeling great you know you're gonna you know do the splits for like 10 hours and show everybody in class that you can do hanuman asana for 10 hours hey oh maybe you might not come be able to practice tomorrow make the best way to practice you know um so you might want to do hanuman asana for whatever two hours or whatever you know so that you can do the posture tomorrow that's perfect thank you i'm gonna use that across my whole life not just writing right it's not yeah it's not a bad way it's not a bad way to um to be and it's funny because then you think about it on the next level i mean so it's so i know a sidebar so somebody the other day so i'm hanging out with these actors all the time which is joyful because i'm doing plays for the play gear and i get to hang out with the actors in the show so we get to like get to see what the acting life is like which is really really cool and they're amazing artists performing artists it takes so much to show up and do what they do every night after night and make it new and keep it fresh and all that so during one of the breaks we had one of the pauses um one of the actors had a little funny thing on on their phone you know that was a circle like and they were playing like i'm hypnotizing years they were going around and pretending they were hypnotizing people it was really funny people were laughing and they were like why is it always that people when you get hypnotized in these you know situations people always hypnotize you to be a chicken you know you see on those shows like haha you're being hypnotized to be a chicken and i was like huh that's what the world is doing it's trying to hypnotize you to be a chicken to be afraid so we're gonna practice in such a way that's going to allow us to come back tomorrow which is sounds like you're setting yourself up for like the karmic wheel to be like trapped on the karmic wheel but actually it frees you from it you see what does anybody follow me except me i think i'm following myself but yeah rebecca does okay some people you know what i mean so you're you're you're practicing in such a way that you're allowing yourself to show up tomorrow which isn't like forcing yourself into that next life you know i have to come back tomorrow not that kind of tomorrow but you're actually freeing yourself to um yeah so you don't have to be hypnotized into being a chicken because the world is trying to hypnotize us into being chickens not foul not that's what it looks like in a in a in a fun comedy sketch you're being hypnotized but actually underneath that the world is trying to go be afraid you know you know media is trying to scare us and sometimes it's effective there's my soapbox get off my soapbox thank you so that is that is that helpful though super helpful and well i mean in fact i'm in a part of my story i'll just say where i'm talking about my career in media and the truth and the fantasy so it really resonates what you just said yeah thank you thank you so much i'll be thank you everyone onward good for you onward thank you well it looks like nancy has a question and then gerald will have we'll have you after hi thank you everyone thank you i saw the play this unbelievable unbelievable um so i i have two questions i'll be brief one is a matter of tone i i find that i there's a part of me that i'm naturally poetic i'm you know filled with a mystical bloody adiata sometimes self-righteous uh because i believe in things i'm an activist and then there's the cynical very funny part that's a little bit it's not punk i'm never was never punk but it's got a little bit of an edge and i don't know how to bridge the two and i don't know if i have to but i think it it does disqualify me from having a real voice because it's who am i channeling today they're very they're they may it may all stem from the same root system but i'm i'm not sure and i think it's like i i'm in a little writing thing every now and then and one of the one of the people has done these sort of you know little books come out in little books and she went to columbia and she has a very specific voice it's a very funny she's funny it's very specific it's always you know it's her and and i sometimes think i don't know i could be um nathaniel hawthorne it's not really but that's just weird and i don't know if it's because i saw so many movies that sometimes my writing comes out in this formalistic way but i don't i just um that's the that's the one thing and the other thing which may play into it also is how do you stay in your seat how do you not feel the urge to go up to cuny and see this dissident russian director showing little bits of movement from the cherry orchard instead staying home and doing your dharma i i mean when do you not need to see any more at least for a while when it's all in there and that's the two questions sorry maybe people have those questions so it's not it's great it's like we could you know we could all mush it all together in one question but maybe not maybe it's like several questions it's like your question is like who am i like who am i and where am i yeah okay like am i am i funny am i punk am i both is there a way to be both at the same time why not of course there is of course you're just you're just okay so you're you're not a like your friend from columbia you're not a daffodil okay you know what i mean you're a fly you're you're your own kind of flower you get to be that you can be i mean you know in theater we have those masks i don't know who made those up the mask of comedy and tragedy is both you know i mean all these people are talking about gender fluid a gender can be fluid your voice can be fluid you can be both you don't have to be either or you don't have to be you know sand you don't you know please really you know totally you can be yourself yes yes of course you can be both you can be you can be funny in one breath and tragic in another breath and you can be you can synthesize of course you can you don't have to just be a recognizable daffodil although you know daffodils are nice but the voice it doesn't throw people there it doesn't give people agitation because it sounds so awkward and different and from from another's why should i care right first of all no no no no no sure you should care but i mean what it's not it's not it makes people feel agitated it makes people feel no i think in some of my the film work i've done i i think there's been a question of there's a tone that i have that has turned some people right off right off i thought i was just i was being me and being funny but it just turned people off they found i don't know smarky something so i was aware that that is something that can affect what you're trying to say it you know because what you're trying to say is coming from you and if you is you is sort of you know i don't know it's here you do sure you're you're i mean i think nance i think you we're going to give you permission to be your authentic self whoever that is i don't know who it is it might turn some people off it might make some people go wow cool but i think if you keep giving the signal you should i mean if you give it in fits and starts and don't really put enough out there so we can tell that it's coming from you then you'll never give yourself a chance to be whoever it is that you are so keep going you know and your voice will refine and develop along the way and you're allowed to write differently today than you did 30 years ago if you were writing 30 years ago you know i'm saying i mean picasso went through his phases you're allowed to go through yours davinci did lots of different things didn't he you're allowed to do different things these boxes that we're told that we should be that we should put ourselves in to make other people comfortable i think that does a disservice to all creatures everywhere you know yeah so that's that but why and i can't remember your second question could you just quickly remind me of what it is staying in the chair and not running right people you know whereby and you want to go up town and you want to go and see somebody doing something sure i mean if you feel the urge you know bring it what do you write on primarily your phone your computer your what what the computer great do you do you write on do you have an ipad or a do you take notes on your phone or you have no uh i i do i do both yeah yeah yeah great so when you go if you feel driven to go and see blah blah blah whatever you were saying someone else's show bring your notebook whatever that means to you and keep working wherever you are yeah yeah if you ride the subway work on the subway if you ride the bus work on the bus if you take an uber or a taxi ride in the taxi cab if you're waiting before the show starts take a few notes yeah sure go sure i mean it's it's a temperament thing some of us like to go out and always see all that there is to see some of us don't some of us are somewhere in between again you you are allowed to be yourself yeah i'm i'm serious yeah it sounds silly you're you're you're you're really allowed to be yourself you're right i know but you you you feel more comfortable the more you practice being yourself because who else are you gonna be really oh no it's not at this point and be be be the be the snarky funny dramatic for be be the be the combination voice i mean be that person and and stop listening to your friend from columbia well you know she was funny because we do these prompts and when she said to me you know i think you're a novelist she didn't say it as if it were a good thing because you know she just writes these wonderful essays that are you know they're completing themselves and i do start things that almost sound like that they're going to be the beginning of something i don't plan to write that whole novel you know limit limit limit your time with her okay spend more time with you yeah you know you got to get yourself your your self uh tape uh you know repair it up in here so the words come to your mouth and going into your head are affirming and supportive of your process whatever that is and you're gonna find out the more you do it okay thank you thank you so much sure thanks everyone thanks thank you nancy uh next up we have gerald you should be able to unmute now i can you hear me okay i hope it's not too loud hi i also i adored plays for plague year for the plague year too it was absolutely gorgeous and cathartic and beautiful um my questions about dialogue and i feel like how maybe this is ridiculous to ask but having your characters sound different you know that's what i i'm struggling with right now is um that i feel like there's a sameness even though i they're very different people they i want to make them have a different cadence and i can't figure out what the best way to do that and also can i ask what the other question i have is if i'm writing a one act is it a bad idea to prove it to present too many characters like is there like oh you know don't don't live more than five people in a one act i'm sure i'm sure that you know colombia university has some sort of about me i'm kidding but i'm sure that some of one some some some writing program in some town has some great formula in which you're only supposed you know your titles of your play should only be one word i've seen that a lot somebody start that that rule and they should only have more than they can't have more than hand characters you know um garbage you know have as many characters as you want have a million characters why not in a one act whatever you know you do you do you you're telling the story you know um so that's that's that so have as many characters as you think you need to have and you know if you want them to double and triple up by you know if you when you come to production then you have to think about how am i going to cast this and that's a different a whole different conversation so write the story as you think you should write it and the second thing is how to make your characters sound different correct yes right so you and you say they all sound the same and but you're sure they're are you sure they're different characters uh that's a good question maybe i'm being i feeling i not completely the same but or i worry about that but they are different characters oh maybe that's great no no no it was just a question it's like yes or no you know it's not i'm not you know so if there are different characters so first we have to establish that they are different characters so if they are different characters then then we can employ a mathematical formula or a truth a truth in geometry that also works in writing i think um so do you know the you know geometry right i mean you heard of it yes okay so you heard of one of the good there you go and this is all you need this is great two points make a line you've heard that right yes okay great so we apply it to characters and i'm just making this shit up so you know we'll see if it works where your character is where they start right yeah and where they want to go right like yeah you know like they they're in Manhattan and they want to take the Staten Island ferry to Staten Island maybe that's the you know so two points make a line where they go where they are where they want to go makes a line of dialogue what we want is going to determine what we talk about and how we talk about it i think one right where we are where we're going what we're grasping for what we're reaching for and and and what we want is going to give us some indication of what we're talking about and how we're talking about it right so an 11 year older who wants to get out of the door and be on time for school is going to sound differently from the mom going wanting the kid to to wear a clean t-shirt understand that was my morning okay you see what i mean those it does different two two points make a line where the character is what the character where the character is going create lines of dialogue and you can follow so desire is going to help you chart your diet create your dialogue and it will help you distinguish characters because different characters are going to want different things even if two characters want the same thing they're going to be two different people if they are in fact different people which you said they are so see geometry is very useful and you thought it was just to pass whatever seventh grade or whatever you you can and now yeah that makes total sense so it's all about you're so patient so it's all about wands so if i go back to their wands that and geometry just just what do they want where are they where do they start in your play what do they want well kind of yeah inform what they're saying do you outline all the time you do okay i didn't know i'm placed to the play here well well i had no idea what was going on i just show up every day and go i'm looking around what's going on you know so i didn't outline that yeah let each day let you know i want brianna to do this or i want no no i didn't want brianna nothing i said oh this is what is happening to brianna right now this is what is happening to george right now this is what is happening to muhammad jar for right now so that was very different i didn't outline at all i did though outline if you will the commitment to showing up every day in writing so a play or something a song or something so that was a sort of outline but it was not an outline forgive me if that was a crazy question of yeah i didn't let that worry out yeah i know i know you i know you meant i know you meant you just the idea is to show up and have some kind of a structure some kind of a guide rope to help you again like we're talking about like we're talking with luke create a structure so that you can show up tomorrow yeah show up tomorrow i want to create something today so i can show up tomorrow do whatever i can so that i can show up tomorrow that's kind of uh that's one component of playing the game it really helps that's wonderful thank you thank you thank you great question general thank you thank you um megan you should be able to oops hi slp i saw your show on saturday and i met you in front of the public afterwards and i was able to make it today so thank you so oh i'm it was so inspiring um so i'm kind of like i guess you would say still an emerging playwright i've been an actor for an eternity so this is a new world and i you know nothing like singing every day i know how to do all that but it's different like now also inhabiting the world is a playwright but really what i want to ask you about is the power of the timer you mentioned the timer and this is why you use the timer so what's sorry my dog heady was working that's okay the power of the timer um i don't know i mean it's uh i mean the power of a timer that looks kind of sort of something like this as opposed to the power of a timer that might look something like this right so let's put this down for a minute if you're going to use a timer i would suggest if you can afford it to buy one that is a just a timer so you won't be tempted i'm tempted to scroll them you know right so i'm tempted so i would suggest getting a timer that's just a timer that will already give you such a significant edge i think over you know being tempted to look at other people's business or your own business or whatever okay and then so if we're just talking about this the power of this is that it gives you a way to measure uh let's just say your success let's just say that you know right your success so your success is um i'm going to show up for 10 minutes every morning and right and when that time we set the timer when it goes off 10 minutes bit a bit a bit year you you're successful and how great is that it's amazing and and you just you know if you're beginning or even if you've been at it for a while sometimes you just need to accumulate success every day you get a win and that helps it's like saving money you know anybody here you know have a bank account or hope it's not all in bitcoin but you know i'm saying right if it is in gold instead but i'm no but the idea is that you know you put a little bit away every month you know compounded interest that's what we're talking about um it's a great way of looking at it because i've always been well i'm gonna write now and i'll write for hours which is kind of then i won't write the next day where i won't write for two or three days but i have that exact same timer so i will use that and it's very helpful because it's actually setting me up for success today i'm successful because i wrote for 10 minutes it's wonderful exactly or you can say if you like longer spending time i mean 10 ministers just got you know you can do an hour or two hours or whatever i mean whatever you want but every day trying to show well that's what i i would think it's i think it's more effective when you show up daily than if you show up you know look at me i'm writing for five hours and then three weeks go by and i don't write anything and then i show up again for seven i mean sure you can do that it's just i just find that kind of tedious i call that unnecessary drama this is my opinion other writers have their own way of doing things i like necessary drama i don't have time for a necessary drama right i like drama that like yes not drama that like like you know we say in yoga like fluctuations of the mind you know what i mean so i just like to yeah show up every day and modest in your habits and you can be like flow bear said what does he say be modest in your habits so that you can be violent and original in your work but but something like to be you know that's fine too well i'm gonna give it a go this week there you go there you go yeah thank you there you go and as much as you can Megan since you've been an actor for a long time borrow heavily from a field where you have had success you learned a lot you know you learned a lot being an actor so you know again it's it's it's very structured you have your half hour call the stage manager comes in and says five minutes places that you guys are on you're organized you know those organizational skills can help you in your in your play writing as you're getting started borrow from what you know it's like a gold mine you know so much already thank you so much you're welcome thank you Megan we have time for maybe one more question we have a few minutes left Mona you will be our final question you should be able to unmute now add to the love of place for the plague here not to one up anyone but i've saw it twice in November and once oh you cannot be there tomorrow it's my date my date with friends i'm like let's go see this so thank you it's very very very moving and cathartic so um my question i know we don't have much time um this i'm working on a project and um i recently in there was sort of two books i came to find out about and i sort of felt like oh are they sort of writing something that's like related to what i for my like that my project is and i was kind of like don't don't read it because like what if they're already doing your idea if i did just say you know what my sort of or like but then the other part of me is like i wanted you know what's out there so i know what's what's out there and and and it's not a dissertation it's not like i have to prove some you know what i mean i don't have to do exhaustive research but obviously it you know hope it is original um and i just wondered if you have any thought on that and i will say i notice if i like a certain writer or something and i read them a lot i and then i just write i find like oh i'm probably like borrowing some you know aspects and i would say moana don't read them if you're bar if you tend to sort of borrowing aspects you know unconscious and it's not bad it's not bad i would say do your work do your work and if you should happen to maybe talk about some of the themes in somebody else's work you can find that out later and you're we can work with your editor to maybe focus your work more specifically on other topics but because you sometimes might oh look up you know unconsciously borrowing things i would say just write your write yours write yours don't let anything stop you um or don't let anybody else who's talking about a similar thing get in your head right now i would say write your work you do be beautiful and brilliant and down the road after you have the end on it or whatever you don't you know then you find out oh someone else talked about it too then your works are in conversation you know you can honestly say that my work is in i didn't read your work before i wrote mine because you didn't yeah you can honestly honestly say that and if they are similar then that's that's because the topic is similar they have some things in common right you know right right right okay yeah that's that's helpful i guess there's no reason why i need to read it it's not no i don't think i don't think right now i don't think so especially since you might borrow something no you don't you don't want to you don't want to get into that write your work and write it is a long piece you're going to be writing is a long piece or short piece it's well it's um yeah to be written but um it's a it's a book and uh yeah i was i was approached by an editor to write a book and i had had an idea for like a decade and so but so that's kind of so okay so but i really have no idea how long or i'm just sort of going with it right right right and since you have a second question i have i know there's no time today but but maybe next week we're talking about if you have a team um also if your editor wants to if your editor knows about this other book maybe you can ask them you know to to give you some you know as you're writing yours to to help you know like what material would have been covered since you have an editor you know that's that's helpful but um but we can talk about it some more next time we certainly can okay thank you this is a thank you okay thank you so much thank you all we'll be here next monday so see you then okay bye bye thank you