 Okay, we're in the lobby to look at the area. This is Lauren Parks and this is Patty. And we are here to do our weekly hand, which also doubles, because we like to multitask and it doubles as a plan. And so what we're going to do first is we're going to do the action, which is we're going to write together, we'll work together for 45 minutes, and then we're going to do the dialogue, which is that we will take your questions about your work and your creative process, and we will do our best to answer them. And we don't have any questions. I'll read from Emerson. That got some Emerson today. And for those of you who don't know, Emerson was in trouble, he was in trouble. It was amazing. So a little plug for a dead man. So if you guys are out on the interwebs and you want to tweet in your questions, Patty has the address. You can tweet your questions at watchmeworkslp with the hashtag new play. Watchmeworkslp hashtag new play. Okay, it was that. We're going to work for 45 minutes and you're going to help me keep track of it. I'm probably going to work, usually I work in my tech writer, but today I think I have some things already on my iPad mini, so I'm going to just work on my iPad mini. And if you feel like low, think Emerson. He's great, he's amazing. Does anybody know about Ralph Alder or Emerson? Anyway, we will, if we've got other things to talk about. So let's get going. Now we're going to do the dialogue part of the play. Several things. One is Emerson. One involves a story about some cooking tongs. So if we have no questions, I hope we learn to those things. But unless you'd like to talk about some cooking tongs, it's kind of interesting. To me, anyway. Anybody have any questions about your work and your creative process? What's that purple thing on your keyboard? Is that like a little purple layer? Oh, wow. Oh, that's pretty. Let's remember them. It's like gummy. Ooh. Ooh. Does it count? Does it count? Is there a pink one? There's a pink one, I bet, in the story. Oh, really? Anybody have any? Sorry, I'll just seriously, this is a serious show. But I'm not always, but just then, I was listening to a song called Poor Ellen Smith on repeat because I'm learning the walk from guitar. So I figured I could have it just leak into my head. It's about some ladies, a historical song about a woman who was shot by her lover and he told everybody to do it and then they caught him and he stood on the scaffold and said, I need to do it. You're gonna hang into this man. And right before he dropped, he said, okay, I did it. Oh. Oh. Anyway, but it's a great song and it's got some great lyrics and I'm learning the bass, the walk, the guitar back up. Poor Ellen Smith, yes. So I was just listening to it on a loop, which is, which is fun. We're no music or some practice earplugs for silent today, it's mostly the sound of your head. I'm a big fan of that too. You know, I'll tell you something, too. Once in a year, once in a year, once in a year. Right. And they used to like, when we had a lot of training out, yeah, things, you know, every one of the audience down there. Tell me again, tell me first your name. Jenna. Jamie. Jamie, okay, so Jamie's got a play, he's writing two characters and what was the situation? You can see it sitting in, there's two characters in a bear bunch or a bunch. And basically, basically what the book was created in their relationship and once they served independently in my life, in real life, in a way, intertwined. Right. And once trying to get at the other, right, but they're not, how do you do that in terms of not having to have a sparse dialogue? You just figured it out. I have a lot of action with sparse dialogue. You just said it. How do you do that? How do you create a lot of action with sparse dialogue? Well, I mean, you just said it. You create a lot. Really? I mean, you're rolling your eyes. A lot of these answers, though, are takes question, you know, two stages. One, the 77, the 77, the 77, the 77, the 77, the 77. So that's being produced. But what do you, it can't be that you don't want this in the book. Yeah, it can. It is. Why can't you do the 77, the 77, why do you have trouble accepting that to the front? There are two questions now. One is, how do I do sparse dialogue and a lot of action? Okay, the answer to that is write sparse dialogue and a lot of action. I mean, that's exactly what it is. Okay, that's it. You figured out that already. So that's not a problem. Okay, just write a lot of action in no dialogue. So where most people, you know, you see their page and it's top, top, top, top, top and then a little say direction over here. Yours is gonna be, stay straight, stay straight. Okay, so that's what yours is gonna be. So that's what it's gonna look like and all you can do is go in there and fill up the blanks. It's easy, just make up some action. That's easy. She stands on one foot, she nods her head. She does a summer song, freaking it out already. The other thing is why is your director of your play this about to be produced or this being produced is telling you that they don't like what you've written? They don't like the way it's written. Yeah, which is kind of the same thing. Well, can you get another director? No. Why not? You've committed. I know it's like being married. I know, so it's okay. Again, you can't do this. Right, gotta get? Gotta get. Gotta get. Right, so. You can't do anything. You know, it's fine, but I'm going. It's just gonna be. Yeah, so you just make up either of you, listen to them, take their feedback and change their play accordingly. If you think that they might be right or you dig your heels in and change anywhere from nothing to a few things. Yes, so you're somewhere in that area of I'm gonna change some things, okay? Where you decide to change nothing and you make that decision and keep the draft that you really like and just see it as like, and just try and say it. I mean, it's, you know. But the thing is, is that you're in a difficult situation, you do not necessarily have to suffer. You know, this is the thing about life. You're gonna piss people off. If you are true to yourself and you stick up for things that are important to you, sooner or later, somebody's gonna get mad at you. And you know what? They're gonna get mad at you. If they're getting mad at you for the right reasons, you're being kind, courteous, and generous, and sticking up for something that you need to stick up for, meaning yourself. Then people are gonna get mad at you, okay? Let them, well, what can you do? You know, if you're gonna tip to us through life, hoping that nobody gets mad at you, then that's tough. That's tough. For you, that's gonna be tough. That's called people pleasing and there's a program for that. We as playwrights don't need to be people pleasers. I think, for me, in my experience, we need to answer to our characters. And that doesn't mean that you're gonna run through the neighborhood provoking people to get mad at you. That's an extreme, and the other, there's a program for that too, okay? So it's neither of those things. It's just standing up for yourself. And the best you can do is just muddle through it. Muddle through it, you know, that's a great thing about having to play. You can have it done in another city, another town, another town. I would say I would suggest that you speak your mind to these people and appropriate and then appropriately or helpful way. And that's a skill that you're gonna be learning. Welcome to the theater. Anybody else? Stacy, your shoes, I'll just call them. They're just big. I know, I like them. I've not had to buy a shoe since 1995, so I'm really enjoying them. Oh my gosh. I live in Charlotte, so I like them. I'm sure you're gonna be writing, well, that too. It's like I'm enjoying it, but I don't wanna burn out. Like I'm really enjoying the media about our stories. Right? And they're different media, and I'm good with that. Yeah, but it's just like pace is amazing. Yeah, so Stacy's writing four different things, four different projects, four different stories, and she's asking how do we keep that up and we don't burn out. Yeah, sometimes you burn out. Sometimes a car runs out of gas, you gotta go to the gas station. You know what I mean? Sometimes you gotta, you know, you're on a road trip, you gotta pee. You know what I mean? I wanna go to the small pee. You know, the next slide, the lady who, you know, wore the diaper and went to kill the astronaut. You know what I'm saying? Ha! You know, I'm just saying. Think about it, right? We don't wanna go there, we don't wanna go there. You wanna take a break. Sometimes you're gonna burn out, sometimes you're gonna wake up and not wanna do any of the four projects. Sometimes you're gonna wanna just, you know, or whatever, go for a walk or whatever. And that's okay. That's okay. If you love them all and you have made time in the day for all of them, you know, make kind of a week or however you're scheduling your time, which is major, which sounds like you figured out, which is great. And just keep doing it. I mean, some people work on only one thing at one time, you know, and other people can work on two or three things or four things or eight things or whatever to work or work on one. Like, everybody's process is different, I guess. And I feel, you know, it takes longer than me to kind of get tired when I'm working on different things because I'm hopping into different worlds and it's just not that constant, you know. But really, in reality, you're only, I believe that you're only working on one thing at one time. Really. And that's the sort of, really. Because when you were working on, say, Project A, you're only working on a project today. And then you work on Project A for an hour, and then you turn to Project S. And you only work on Project S. You're actually really working on one thing at one time. It's important to remember that that's how you are successful at doing that. You're thoroughly immersed in what's in front of you. And you switch channels, you know. Like, you're watching 27 channels at the same time. No, only one at a time. You can switch channels. Because I'm doing it once and I'm doing it as three channels, you know. And I imagine I'm doing it all this time. What do you want to do? Just talk to me? I don't know. Well, we need to do this for a little while. Yeah, we need to do this for a little while. Attention, yes, this is a little while. Something can have attention, whatever it is. Something can have attention. Something can really get a concentration on it. Rarely. Something can be rare, actually. It says I know people who really want to be able to do that. But it's great to be able to concentrate whether you do one thing at once or something. The main thing is to just be able to sit down, plug into your thing, and focus. Oh, 88 feet. Oh, check. I love this. Back in the day, I don't think it existed. It's like the terrible twos. Everyone tells me because my son is almost two and a half. And when he became two, I had a legion of people, legion strangers, literally running up to me. Oh my God, now I'm prepared. But no, I'm not choosing over. It would really, people phoned me in the mouth and tried to give me, you know, it's like, doom is coming. And I was just like, I don't know. Let me see. I haven't seen it yet. We're almost at the half point. So, I think it takes two. The terrible twos take two. I don't think he's participating. I'm like, Aaron, how are you? Just need to see you. You're working? I am. Yeah, how's it going? Yeah, then I go into the shoot, I know. I'm having a story that was a short film, a story that became a bigger and bigger figure. And then I started realizing how much sort of like autobiography I was putting into it that I didn't think I was. And now I'm seeing that it is. Part of me like doesn't want to sort of like rely on that in a way. Like I don't really know how to say this, but like part of me doesn't. Part of me is nervous, it's becoming so, if that makes sense. And I'm not sure whether I should be concerned that like putting parts in, and mostly emotional stuff, not like actually, oh, this happened in my life, so I'm doing this, but like, the foundational like motivation, feeling or lack of motivation, lack of action, things like that. So I get a little concerned every now and then like something resonates so much that like, am I, is this actually the easy way I would rather than an interesting story? Do you think the story is, the screenplay story is working as a? It's story? Well, I think that's the, that's why like I'm trying not to worry too much about because I actually find me feel like it is starting to work whereas like I was having a lot of trouble with it, but cool. Right, right, right. I mean, mostly I'm just going with it, but that's not what I mean. Uh-huh, uh-huh. It sounds like it's going well. It sounds like it's going well, and sometimes that little, hey, it's too much of you in the screenplay. Now let's do it, oh, it's all about you, now it's all about you. That's some bullshit, in your head that you just need to, it's working, it feels good, it feels good, you can still have a critical eye, too, you can still cut and rewrite as needed. And good, you're not so attached to the moments that you can't cut and rewrite where necessary. It's feeling good, it sounds like it's working. I would say if it's working, keep going. And if you can recognize yourself, your emotional beats in the screenplay, that's not a problem. It's really not, I mean, I have the book of cries, you know, that's not a crime. I should get one of those for you, I'll be the judge. A white wing. Yeah, a white wing, it'd be like, you want a big powder pump? Yeah, a big powder pump thing, I'll have the big books, cries that writers commit, you know? That's not in the cry book. That's a good way to do it. You're part of it, you're putting yourself in there. So here are the toms. Not a lot, not a lot. Okay, well the time, the cooking time, everybody know what cooking toms are, you know, the same, you know, not this long, they're covered with some kind of substance to make them, you know, you can put them on a stove and make it hot, you know, to the touch of it. So my son picked them up a couple of days ago and put them on his ears and called Grandma and walked around the house talking to Grandma with him. And I was just, well, and he was, well, interesting to hear, but hi Grandma, how are you doing? And he was listening and talking. And I'm like, what's with the toms? And then I realized that the toms, look, and then I started thinking, where does imagination come from? Because we're not, well, at least he was not born making things up. And some, I started thinking about imagination where it comes from, where it might come from. And part of the ingredients are lack. You miss something and the urge to be united with something that is not there. And so we walk around sometimes, we go, gosh, I don't have this, and this isn't working out, and this fell through, or these kinds of things that we berate ourselves and chide ourselves or matted ourselves because things, we don't have everything we want. And yet imagination, one of the ingredients of imagination, as I observed it, is lack. He misses his grandma and so he creates something so he can call grandma on the phone. He didn't ask me for my phone. He actually wanted to pretend that he was calling. He didn't want to talk, he didn't want to pretend, which was one of the first times I saw him pretend to do something, which is really interesting. So let's, let's cooking tell us. Now he calls her all the time. And then I talk to her and tell him to do, grandma's told you to do this. That's very helpful. I don't know if this stops working anymore. No, it's, that's when it gets really, and it's just all gone. Oh good, it's gone now? Yeah, it is, yeah. I wish I was, I wasn't in a place to relish my son when he was that age, so I'd love to hear you do it. I know, I relish it all out. I can hear you, I wish I'd relish it out. It does, I think relish, relish, anytime. You know what I mean, that's a thing that you can do. We can, like, that we didn't have. You know, we can, like, model us some things. We didn't have, we didn't get, or, we're not getting that, or whatever. But I think that lack creates a place for magic to happen. It's true, I'm gonna reach him, I'm gonna, I'll be out of time, we'll help each other. We have a, I'm gonna reach him, so if somebody else has a question, he's a tripper, he's a tripper. Ralph Waldo, there is a guidance for each of us. And by lonely listening, we shall hear the right word. Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom, which animates all who it floats. And you are without effort and tell to the truth, to the right, and the perfect contentment. There is a guidance for each of us, and by lonely listening, we hear the right word. But lonely listening, not like, you know, high-falutely conversation with smart people, but lonely listening, which is quiet, small, modest kind of industry. Sitting down and just taking out your pen and your paper, your notebook or your laptop or whatever, putting the title. And there comes the voice from you. So, we done? Good, 79, and it's in the essay called Spiritual Laws. We have great folks for you anyway. I say it about school, for sure it is for God's sake.