 Also, do you know how I changed the written? Oh, thank you. You're welcome. I thank you for your attention. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's good. So I'm going to take a flag. Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Hey, right, how are you doing? Not too bad. How are you? You're well. I'm sorry. Happy New Year. Yeah. Happy New Year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, it's nice. Thank you. Do you want to take a look? I remember. But you're changing. Jay, and Jay, you keep going. Oh, I know, you seem like more than a couple of years. So I'm just seeing if I can. You've got more change. So me, everybody, we're doing work. We're doing work. Okay. We're here. Okay. And we're going to, does everybody know how to turn this? I know. I'm going to turn it off. I thought I would like to be a jack. Oh, great. No, you're not. Yes, so why projection do you have a coat that's interesting? Does someone like coat that's interesting? So look at the art. Because I have a friend who makes art like that. It's not his art. I think it's something that people saw. Oh, don't copy that. So a lot of money I'm sure it is. That's interesting. So this is watching your work. This is an approach with the lobby of the public table. This is 2018. And we're back for another round of this thing. Does everybody know how we... You know what we're doing, right? We're going to work for 20 minutes together. And then for the time remaining, I'm going to take questions about your work and your creative process. Okay? So I'm going to deal with it. My name's Tara. Hi, Tara. Welcome to watch your work. So what we do is we work for 20 minutes together. Okay? And then we... I take questions about your work and your creative process. Okay? So and everybody knows when you ask me something about my work, I turn around and I think about your work. So it's really an opportunity for everybody to talk about their own work. So great and happy to talk about it with you. Okay? And I think we have people watching on the internet. Yeah. Yeah. Hi. If you're watching at home, what you can do is you have questions is you can actually tweet at us. Ask, watch, rework, SLP, and just put the hashtag HowlRound, which is H-O-W-L-R-O-U-S-D. Yeah, we'll get back to you. We'll answer your questions Thank you. Yeah. If you're not working on a project today, a specific project, or if you want to do... I never do comps except, you know, now. Because I got to thinking, you know, about a lot of people have new years' resolutions or whatever. And I was like, eh, that's kind of a weird game. So I thought, if you could give yourself anything for your birthday, what would it be? That's a fun way to think about that. So if you want to think about that as a way to... it's still January, you know, and we can still sort of do this collective focus and think about this. So if you want to think about that and what that might be for yourself, and that might be fun to think about as we work together for 20 minutes, so... It will write everything, don't you? I mean, it's like amazing. It's like amazing. So, okay, so right now we're going to do questions about your work and your anatomy. We have answers for solutions. Or what space you're in, shapes your writing. I've been consciously thinking about that more and putting myself in different... to notice how my own spatial sense... I'm thinking, I guess, the size of the space that I'm thinking about. Right. What's your name? Holly. Have you been here before? Yeah, I was here before Christmas. Okay. Hi. On the holiday. Thank you. Um, space and... I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I do know that clutter, especially if it's personal clutter, could make it difficult on one. Could make it difficult. I mean, that's me, know what I mean? They say you're at home and there's a sink full of dirty dishes, for example. And it's your job and the family to do the dishes. It could make it difficult to get your writing done because your eyes keep darting over to the sink. I'm assuming that your apartment is the size of mine. Like, you can see the sink with the desk. You know? And I'm looking over there. You know? So, I do know that clutter sometimes could make it difficult to focus on your work. Um, but... I don't know. I mean, I really think it's the size of your... Do we talk about this? Of your family. Can we talk about your spatial relationship to the mind? Can we talk about how far characters were from you? Right. Yes. Now remember, you were sitting, like, right over there. There was another narrator here who said that she... Far away from her... Or you said that maybe she was far away from her characters because she was thinking too big picture. Right. And I feel like I'm really close. Right. Right. But I'm curious about time. You know, like, if you're in a coffee shop, there's a pace to that. Right. Versus, like, in a silent room. Right. I don't know. Right. Yes, yes, yes. And... Yeah. Exactly. Except that, you know, if you really think... If you think, well, I need a perfect ivory tower to get my work done. Right. You're setting yourself up for a life in an ivory tower. Right. Or seeking out ivory towers. I mean, we want it to lay down, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. So you kind of, like, bloom where you're planted, go with the flow. But if you have a preference, and it's easy to manifest for yourself, then I would say, like, if you like, if you prefer coffee shops to libraries and both are readily available, then definitely go to the coffee shop. Right. But I think that with some helpers, like some earplugs, not your phones that send like music or whatever, but actually... Yeah. They quiet down the noise. You can sort of find the space in your head. That's really what you want to find. That space in your head. In yourself. Which would be less rocked by what's going on outside so much. Even the dirty dishes in your sink if they're your responsibility, you know? But it's a good question. It's a really good question. And sometimes I found that I had to go to a different space just to get a different perspective on it, you know? Yeah. But if I didn't have that different space to go to, I'd find that different perspective at my regular writing space. In a busy place. Right. Versus if I, like, broke the same scene when I just woke up from my house, there'd be, like, a different rhythm to it. I'd find it. Okay. Okay. But that's good to know. That's good to know for you. And so, if you want to have a consistent tone in your writing, you might want to think... Yeah. Let me always write up where I work out or, you know, I'm kind of getting tested here. For me, I try to plug into the inner thing which is less changing. Okay. Yeah. It's more connected to the story of the characters and all that. It's very good to know just about yourself. Yeah. Because, definitely. It's really fun. You're throwing out a question. Oh, yeah. A birthday thing. I'll set you right to work on a project that I've worked on. Right. Oh, it might be nice just to work on something just spontaneous of the day. Think about what you might give yourself for your birthday. Yeah. Yeah. It's a different way to think about viewers' resolutions. Mm-hmm. Well, you might... If you can give yourself anything you want to do yourself, what might you give yourself for your birthday? And that's... It sort of makes it very specific, you know? Because you can still say, I want to go to the gym every day and by my birthday I will have a great gym habit or whatever. And you can still do that, but it makes it more specific about you and less about me and these resolutions. It's a good warm-up. It's a good warm-up to write in. To write in. Oh, yeah. That's true. That's true. Asking a question. Uh-huh. That or something. Yeah. I think the best warm-up is just to start. I'm very funny about that. Yeah. Yeah. Just, you know, play. I mean, when I give guitar, like warm-up, you know, people do, you know, the exercise. I just, like, use the actual activity as a warm-up. Yeah. But there's... Whatever works. At the end of the day, it's whatever works for you. You know, whatever helps you get your thing going. Definitely. That's the most important. That's the thing you've got to do. Oh, yeah. Thank you. I've been making a lot of progress. I've won a lot. Yeah. Working on it. Yeah, working on it. And, like, one of the characters, he's starting to really come into his own. Right. And, you know, with a back story, you know, that's coming in to full. Right. To play and bumping up against other characters. That's just the way he is. Oh, cool. But it's been interesting. A friend, you know, I shared a work with. You know, she's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, she can really, she really loves a character. Right. I love writing characters. Right. It's like the first character that I ever put on paper that I really enjoyed. Right. Writing about that. That's great. I can hear them in my head. I can hear them in the way older men, I know how they talk. You know, I can just hear them. I know, the clothes he wear. I know, you know, it's like I almost know him. Right. Yeah, it's just amazing. Right. What do you do? Yeah. You do know him. Got you. How about that beginning model? I'm thinking you're working on that beginning, is this the piece, the sever model? Yes. You're working on that the house act? Yeah. No, that's what I mean, is he's coming in from the right man. So, and the thing I'm realizing is that I don't need the front-loaded so much. Uh-huh. I'm going to let him reveal himself throughout the story slowly. I was really trying to front-load everything. Uh-huh. I want the audience to know everything about him. Uh-huh. But he's just so interesting and he's so alive that, you know, I can spread him out a little bit. Uh-huh. Congratulations. That must be, it sounds like it's a really good feeling, right? Yeah, it is. Great. Yeah, Phil has been working on this for a while and he would come in and talk about some wrestling that he was doing with the characters. Yeah. And it sounds like they're working with you now. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I was telling you about I went for the inspiration. Right. Come on, the inspiration comes from then. Right. You know, lean into it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's what I, you know, I was doing it. You know, like one day, he just, I just started hearing, you know, his voice. Right. Right. And I started imitating his voice, you know, with my friends. He's like, wow, that's him, that's him. That's really great. I've known my life and my older people. I just, I just know them. That's so great. That's so great. Yeah, because you were like, yeah, and it was, you were leaning, like leaning into it. But can you, because I know now that you're really into it now, right? And it's, the character's really with you. Can you talk about what it was, what it felt like before the character was really good? I mean, how, how did it feel like physically? You know what I'm talking about? Was it like, was it, what was it? It, I felt more like, like a dread, you know what I mean? I said, right. To approach the writing. Right. Because I felt like, there was a lot missing. Right. Like the story. Right. I realized that he really liked the art of the story. Right. Like it's like all, it's got like all the pieces with like, snatch and incline. Right. It's like a magnetic attraction. Right. He's being fleshed out. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. But I feel, like physically, I don't feel like, like I said, it was always a dread, you know, the golden, the like, trying to figure it out. But like, it just helped knowing that I know him. Right. Because I know the character. Right. You know, that's how he's going to react when a younger person asks him a question. Right. And he doesn't know the answer, but the high, the fact that he doesn't know, he doesn't know, he'll look it up in a book. You know what I mean? I know, I've known people. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So like, it's more enjoyable. Right. Right. Right. It's more enjoyable now, but before you got to that enjoyable part, you felt a dread. Yes. That's, that alumnus, when we feel like we can't get to it, we feel that same dread. That's, like, it's like an element's got his foot on the chest. Or this horrible, like, feeling. And what you do is you persevere. You use grit and resilience, and you lean into it a little bit. And the dread gives away your joy. And it happens over and over and over and over and over. For you, for any writer, any artist who's ever made any of them, that happens at some point in our careers, that you, you have to deal with this dread and you have to really wrestle with it and push back against it or, you really don't have to write words with it. You have to just acknowledge it and keep showing up. And then it's just placed like a joy, a real joy. You know, the light around you is like, yeah. It's great. It's really great. Sometimes I felt, for some days, I felt really rotten. Right. When I avoid knowing that, when I get back, I'm going to mess with this character, but we're going to work with it. Well, that's great. It's like the light of the day. That's really great. That's really great. Yeah, and that, right. And so the light spreads from your work into you and you can carry it all through your day. Right. Right. Right. And also, when you start sharing with more and more people, we can carry it through our day because that light in what you're writing is communicable. It communicates to us. That's how art works. That's really great. Yay. Happy New Year. All right. Yeah, really. You know, we all go through the end. If you've gone through it once, you know, you've gone through it once. If you've gone through it once, you can probably look forward and go through it again. And it doesn't make it any easier in a way to say, oh, I went through that last year when I was writing such and such. It still feels like it will never come through. It still feels like you'll never figure it out. A character will never speak to you. You know? But it's always, always, always. If you show up and put the work in, the character's waiting for you to come up to the side. Or the work is waiting for you with the right amount of perseverance and diligence. Yeah, Karen. I had this... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's okay. I'm sorry. It's okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, go. No, no, no. I called you out of your name. You didn't have your hand up. I called you Carol. I'm in front with you. Do you want to talk? No. I just called you the wrong person. That's my bad. What did you call me? I called you Carol. Okay. No, no, no. I don't feel like Carol. You know my name. Okay, I'll be Carol. No, no, no, no, no, no. I have a friend who is covering somebody and angels in America. Okay. And so I was running lines with them. Right. And I have seen angels a number of times. Right. But, and I think it's amazing. But I've never seen it on the page. And in seeing it on the page, it was like a revelation. If the genius of, it was, I, the masterful genius of the, this word following that word, particularly. Right. I mean, and my heart went, you know, because when you see something, it's a different experience for me. And I thought, oh my God, that's. And I guess because I'm just a terribly insecure person I'm Carol. I, you know, I felt, well that's, that's writing. Right, right, right, right. Right. And that, that's, that's, that's, that's tricky. No, no, it's a tricky, it's a tricky, it's a tricky thing. You have, we always have to remind ourselves that what you see on the page, especially angels, what was angels written? What did they write? Yeah, 90, 80, 90 cent, whatever. You know, 90 something, right? You always have to remind yourself that what we see in books did not come out like that. It didn't come out like that. It didn't, it didn't. Okay? That many place, place like angels have been done many, many, many times at home and crafted and polished and, you know, so we just have to remind ourselves of that. That it didn't come out like that. That not to deny the changes in the mastery and all that, not to deny that at all, but if we, let's just say, let's make a blanket rule that anything that makes you go, ah, I can't write today. It's like bullshit. It's just a sweet, I'm just gonna be like, a sweet big generalization, anything. I have to do the dishes, I have to feed my cat. My cat has to go to the bed. My kid has to be like, and so I can't write today. Anything that ends in the sentence, I can't write today. I can't do my work today. It's bullshit. It's bullshit. It's resistance. It's bullshit. And you just need to strike out that part of the sentence that you believe. If you're believing that, then you're just right. You're not helping yourself. And I love that you brought that up because we all do that. We all have some version of that. You know? I gotta clean my apartment. I gotta go to these meetings. I have to think that whatever, I can't get my work done today. And we make those kinds of excuses. And then before we know it, the month is over and we haven't gotten nearly as much of our work done as we can hope. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So it's bullshit. So next time you find yourself finishing a sentence with and so I can't do my work. That's built like you can draw a line and fill the blank. And so I can't do my work today. If you didn't, if that's the end of the sentence, then what comes before that, you can circle it and say, bullshit. It's bullshit. You can look at it in the eye and say, you're bullshit. I'm just pointing to that. I love someone on the skin. Okay, it looks real. That's it. You're bullshit. You know, you're bullshit. You're bullshit. And shut up. Get out of my way. Talk to the hand. Whatever magical powers you've got and you've all got them, you know, where is he? Where is he? Look at him. Apply to that thing, whatever it is. Or my mom called me to date. She got me in bed. My spouse had a hangnail and he sent me to bed. I got to clean the tub. The babysitter didn't show up for whatever it is. Often when I'm here, you know, people talk about they're doing research. Yes, yes, research. Right. Well, I think everybody should be angels, at least one part of it. To see how a master does research, but he gives you the experience, not the research. Do you know what I mean? I mean, it was like so... You could see all the work and the research that went into it, but it's not... It's just alive with humanity. Right, right, right. I was like, whoa. It's just wonderful. And humbling, I mean. But what if... Drop. Could it be humbling? Would it drop? People laugh. I can't remember but I'm still talking about angels. It's good to talk about angels, but that amount of interest in someone else's work is not helping you at the end of the day. Inspired, but I get that same place. You know. I would say... I think I should stop reading. Yes, yes, yes. No, no, really, really, really. Yeah, take a break. Guess what? You might not need to read so much about the people's work. Guess what? You might need to do more of your own. I said, I swear. And you think that gets in your way. Yes, go. I would say like what has helped me still helps me, but like, I know what you were saying about when you were like away from it, from the womb, and it gets kind of dry. Right, right. And you don't know how to key back into it. What always keys me back into it is that like the original two thoughts that I had about it, I still have it. I know it's in there somewhere. Right. But I always, I just keep reading this thing over and over. Over and over. And then it's like, I said like those curious that's flesh and flesh starts flying back in from different places. And that helps me just going over it, over and over. Over and over. You know, because it's still there. You know, it's still there. It's just, it's inside. And it's not going to leave. You know, you got to worry about it leaving, but just keep reading it over and over and over. That's great. That's great. Or if you can't bear to read it over and over, if you can't bear to, that's great. When you work over and over again. You can't bear to. Just make a list of the characters. Just make yourself a list of the characters. You don't even have to look at the page. So look at the pages very, very strong. If you don't have that, but you can't bring yourself to them, just make a list of the characters. Maybe her name is, because you're whatever. Or Fred. Fred, you know, whatever. Make a list of the characters, or maybe talk to yourself about them. You see what I'm saying? So that's a great suggestion. And there are variations on that that you can do according to your ability to face your work. And sometimes you need to, you can't face it staring on like this. You kind of need to look at it like that. It's a New Jersey. Oh, Crystal Frederick. She says, I'm hearing new characters, but I don't have a story, or setting, or even a conflict. What do I do with them? Where do I put them? How do I even start a story? A story like a play. It doesn't matter what kind of story. Oh, great. So you're hearing new characters. Crystal, do you know their names? I mean, it's okay. You can be able to ask her. She'll certainly give it on him. Crystal may, if you can hear some names for those characters, right? And then you can just start having conversations with them. I can interview them. So one's name is Rose. Hey Rose, you know, you can ask her questions. I can go on a speed date or something. Or on a longer date. Right? You can sit around and you can talk to them. You can actually interview characters. It's a great way to get to know them. And maybe by interviewing your characters one by one, they will start to reveal some kind of story. Maybe you could ask them questions like what do you want them to do with anything? That's a good question for a character. In a play, a movie, a novel. What do you want more than anything? Or what are you going to do to get it? Ask them questions like that. And that will reveal some kind of story. You know? Right, congratulations. On meeting some new characters. Happy New Year, Miss Bob. Yeah, we miss you and we adore you. Something to do. And I guess to discussion about writing every day. Yeah. If anyone has time or the ability to see the new Adrian Kennedy piece at theatre for a new audience, it is fantastic. I took a student's degree at everyone. It was a really great show. But she hasn't. It's her first original play for ten years. And she wrote it in six weeks. She's set a message for the New York Times. But she said that she was taking notes every day. That's what she described it. She was just in free form, writing every day. Usually between three and five in the morning, she said. And... So even though the play only took six weeks, she was writing every day random shit every day for ten years. And that is all important for this. I don't know. I sometimes try that. Like I'm standing in the car, like I write about a history, or do you like history research? I don't know just something where you're expressing your ideas and interests. And then I maybe, like, speak to the research thing you're talking about, because he seems so under the surface because he had all that knowledge. And then when he sat down to write the play, he knew it so well that he didn't have to be like, oh, and then it's statistic here. Because he knew it. And who is this? Adrian Kennedy. This band is Adrian Kennedy. What's the name of the new play? He brought her heart back in a box. He brought her heart back in a box. He brought her heart back in a box. Adrian Kennedy is one of the great American writers. She's fantastic. She's fantastic. She's a great, great, great writer. Where? Do you already know the audience? Do you already know the audience? It's in the same bar in the Brooklyn Cultural District area. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How long has it been? I'm not sure. Easily for another three weeks because I think it will be opened on the weekend. Okay. Great. Great. Do you read the books? Great. Great, great, great writers. I'm glad to have you. I like that you said about reading less or consuming less. Right. I find something that's hard for me is living in New York. They're just so stimulus. Right. All the time. And I think, I think in our culture, we're taught. We're told that consuming things is like relaxation or pleasure. You know, like consuming television or consuming food or alcohol or whatever. But we're just like bombarded. Don't you feel battered by it all? Yeah, I find, I mean, I love reading and listening to music. But I find I don't write as much music or I don't write as much if I'm reading so much. It's like only so much can come out if so much is going in all the time. I don't know. That's all I have to say. I know, consuming. Yeah. Bye. In my experience, consumption is a form of anxiety. I remember when the World Trade Center fell and the director was go shopping. Right. Because we wanted to get the economy back on track. We wanted to show them where they are. That we're okay. So go shopping. Show them you're all right. It's actually consuming more than you actually need. I think it's actually a function of anxiety. I think we are, there's lots of, you know, there's a lot of stuff going on. We hear people who are hoarders and they're on the shopping channels buying stuff compulsively. I think there's a lot of anxiety. People try to calm their anxiety by consumption, by buying stuff, by gorging on news, you know, reading the, whatever the news feeds. I know people who wake up in the morning with some of my students over the years and talking, they wake up and I hit my news feed and they're on Facebook, Twitter, you name it. They're ingesting it before they even really get out of bed. I think that's a function of anxiety. And it's okay. It's okay. Let us now recognize it and make steps to disconnect the two. You know. I really do. I think it's, I know that when I'm more anxious I am reading more than you speak. That's it because somehow if I just, you know, I'll be able to do something about it. We're like, can't we think about this? It's going on a lot. That's the best computer I've seen for like a few years. You didn't like this technique before because you thought it was grammatically unclear. No, no. Why do you only want to fuck Trump? See, not even his wife. But don't show me what's the name. Show me what's the name? Oh, yeah. A song. Story Monday. Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky. Storying. Daniels, is that her name? Yeah, that's her name. I was going to go through a story on that. See, that's part of this, this, this, it feels like a cloud over us all. Right. You know. You know. And as an artist, I mean, it's really every artist, every emerging artist or older artist, you wake up in the morning and you know, you want to it's just devastating. The Women's March this year was so hopeful. That day was so needed. It was so, because it was different. There were men and young women. Last year there was this division between Bernie and Hillary so that the coming out of people was not the same. It was all of possibility and hope. Right. Excuse me, he opens his fucking mouth. No, no, no. If it keeps you from doing work, what is it? Right. Period. Period. You know, you need an intervention. Right. You need an intervention. You really, really do. It's an opportunity to open up your focus game. It's not saying it doesn't exist. It's not saying it's not important. It's not saying that there's not a cloud up in the sky. Right. It is also an opportunity for you to up your focus game. It is. That's what it is. If you were going to allow it to end the way of you doing your work, then, you know, three years from now whatever, you're going to be this and then you're going to have to make a decision. Right. Not to deny the existence of difficulty, but if I start talking to you about all the difficulties going on and, I mean, you really know that. But, yeah, I mean, I like it, but you know, I like it. It's good to resume. Self-care makes me happy when I turn it on. So I look at it and then I like register it. Yeah. But it doesn't help me. Maybe. But then that's the thing. If it's effective for me, then I think it's great. I mean, I don't dislike it. I just like it. You know something you want to be thinking of. But I mean, I really think that that's kind of a way that we have to go about thinking. And not just in these times, but, you know, when Obama was president, which is about what I know that. Yes. Yes. There were also difficulties we had during the day getting our work done. That's why, yeah, own our own it and we must just keep moving forward. And it's, yeah, it is hard. It is. And it sucks. We must ask somebody. What are we going to do now? It's time to go. I'm going to go and get some work done. I hope the rest of you will be fine. We'll see you back here next week around. We'll be back next weekend. Thanks, Argy. Thanks, Agri. Thanks, guys.