 So thank HowlRound for coming on three years ago or so at first to help us livestream and more recently in what was at March or whatever it was to help us do it this way during the COVID thing. So what we do every day that we meet together is we write together for 20 minutes and then I take your questions about your work and your creative process. So if you have a question Audrey will tell you how to get in touch. Thanks SLP. So if you have a question and you are inside of the zoom all you need to do is click on the participant tab it's likely at the bottom of your screen if you're on a laptop or the top if you're on an iPad or a tablet you click on the participant tab and inside of there is a little button that says raise your hand and you can click on it and a little blue hand will pop up and I will call on you if we've got time. If you're watching on HowlRound.tv you can tweet at us at watch me work SLP with the hashtag HowlRound H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D or you can tweet at the Public Theater which is at Public Theater NY or right to the Public Theater's Instagram and that's it. So we're going to begin and you're ready. I am I have on my little thing you do amazing. We're going to go to Charles. Hi guys. Hi, how are you doing? Good, great, great. So something very weird happened to me and I want to see you on it if it ever happened. So you know I'm writing something about the war and I you know every now and then the PTSD of the war comes back what I'm writing today while I'm doing that and I started a big explosion happened in my in my homeland and it devastated me and devastated everything. So I was so angry so pissed I feel everything here in my chest but at the same time I want to create art with it. I'm so blocked I didn't know what to do with that energy. I just wrote something like as a like a poem or something but I didn't know have you ever witnessed or had something like this related where you put it in a character or because I feel I want to do something with it but I don't want to also get it lost. So that's my question. You feel like what do you mean you don't want to get it lost? What do you mean? I don't want what I'm feeling that that bubble that that thing that I feel now that emotions that human side that that that's real I don't want it to get lost by I just want to put it in in a character or write it but at the same time I'm very blocked of writing it right now because I'm very devastated but by what's happening and the entire thing. Can you can you write it in the first person just like you're talking to us right now? Yes I can. I did write something like this right now but yeah I did. Yes I can. I mean yeah I mean what you're expressing right now is very beautiful and very true and my feeling is I wouldn't want it to get lost in the commodity of it. You know what I'm saying? Exactly that's yeah. Yeah yeah yeah so I think I mean if you have if you just write it down now as you're feeling it now then you can later you know find the appropriate place to put it you know. Thank you thank you I thought yes thank you. Wow and that's I was just watching that a little while ago on the news. Yeah it's devastating but yeah it's life. Thank you. Unfortunately that is a part of life. Yeah yeah I feel for you man. I really feel for you. Yeah but keep writing it down you know you know even if you think you're done you know maybe write a little bit more if you think it's not gonna fit in what you're writing write a little bit more you know. I will. Yeah okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right we're gonna go to the room. It's so good to be back. Four days is too long but thank you all for being here today. My question is about the idea of work so I'm working so hard on my project but the numbers of words is not necessarily coming I'm doing research I'm in I'm embedding myself in subjects I'm interested in I'm writing about memoir I'm surrounding myself with photographs of times I'm taking notes like but the output hasn't it's not coming the way that I would really hope and I think I'm working but I'm not I mean I know I'm working because I'm not like watching Netflix and I'm you know I'm not like you know ignoring the stuff you know I'm working but the output is still not hasn't like you know flowed it's ebbing it's not flowed the way I'd like and so I was just curious here I thought on the idea of work and how long one can work without generating the product and what did that mean and should I just kind of roll with it or try to time myself into writing you know I'm try I have the time I'm doing the things but like I'm just much more interested in kind of immerse immersing myself than I am in the focusing and the output of the writing so I'm just curious your take on that it sounds like you're doing the work I mean right you're showing up every day you're you're putting the time in in the way that you need to what it sounds like the glitch is that the the output isn't doesn't look like you want it to right now right yeah so this is you know part of being a professional so welcome to the pros right okay I mean welcome welcome to the pros again you know what I'm saying I mean it's not like you're not a pro but welcome to welcome back to the pros and just to remind yourself that um that what you want it to look like and what it looks like shouldn't negate that fact that you are doing the work I mean I just tell you what I'm what I was working on before I turned on the show the genius Amita Franklin I've been working on that writing scripts for that since January 2019 and I will many you know pages in the hundreds of rewrites in the hundreds so you have to um I think John President Obama gave that eulogy for John Lewis the other day and he talked about perseverance and how perseverance matures us um it's very moving eulogy you know uh if you just want to watch it it's very helpful to remember that um yeah perseverance is what matures it's one of the things that matures us so here you are in the perseverance stage you're working you know if you weren't working if you were slacking and watching Netflix then we'd have another conversation right Lou you're putting the time in you want it you want to be somewhere else with it but you're not um so sorry I lost your I lost your picture I was looking at your picture and I can't find it but anyway where'd you go I know okay we can we can move if she wants to come back but that's basically it thanks no worries um all right we're gonna go to Gerald hi hello hello how are you I have a question I um so I showed my novella to two people who are husband and wife who are great writers I respect their opinion and they really connected with it but their idea not by end their idea is that it should be a YA novel that they are so convinced that yeah that this is really for young adults now the thing is my my protagonist it's is uh 55 in their 50s so I would have to really I'm open to doing the work and I trust their vision and I don't know what to do I I'm so lost because I feel like I don't want to just scrap the 19 000 words that I've written but it makes a lot of sense for it to be a novella could I do both could I I'm really lost trying to figure out making this you'll fit it into a novella for YA right well because you said you showed this this this writing a couple your novella yes and their comment they they connected with it and they suggested it could be a YA novel of YA novella yes yes so but when you kept you said I'm connect I'm struggling with how to fit it into a novella so you mean into a YA I'm sorry it's okay yeah okay okay yeah that's that's really tricky um I mean you could do both you already have one form you know you could write you could write the other one if you really think that that's a cool idea um you could go ahead and and do it that that would be all right if you trust their opinion and you think it's a good idea um you know sometimes you give books to editors and they have cool ideas and then you take their ideas it's just that at that point it's already sort of on the track to getting published you know so I would um I think you could write it I'm sure if you feel if you feel like I mean you know your friends you know you know how you feel about their their feedback what do you feel about it what does your stomach say well I really was committed to it to the character being 55 years old and not be a novella and I mean sorry not be sorry I miss uh saying the wrong word and not be a YA book yeah that I was I saw it as a novella for adults and this is a whole new avenue and and part of it is not trusting myself and that's my struggle that I think everybody has a better idea than me and maybe that's the underline talking to you maybe that's the underlying thing or maybe I could do both but I just don't I feel like I don't want to just drop it oh the the novella for the adult thought for for adults because I I put so much love and care into it and to just go down this YA not the other tricky thing about about um some people view characters over a certain age is less than interesting and there's that you know no or or let's just say let's just be real women over a certain age less than interesting you know so um so that's a tricky that's a tricky thing too you know um uh you could get a you could get another opinion when did you hear this feedback when did you hear like how many days ago like two days ago okay okay okay so you can let it you can let it cool like don't do anything for a week write on write something else you know what I mean and then if you're still thinking about it you could get another opinion you know um that is helpful and you could also check in with your gut again you know but it is tricky with these you know you get opinions from really awesome writers that you have respect for and suddenly think oh yeah that'll do it and then the next great writer that you get an opinion from says actually your main character should be a rabbit a white rabbit you know and you go ah that's it you know so it can get a little tricky let it cool maybe Gerald you know okay I love that yeah yeah just work on something else because you've already done the work I mean shit you've done the great work you know what I mean you've done the hard work you've written damn thing you know well it needs it still needs a lot of quality and you know but sure but you know yeah you're just um get someone get yeah you seek some other opinions maybe that's really good yeah yeah thank you thanks Gerald all right we've got Larry up next hey Larry hey how you doing hey man how you doing I am you know I've been having a good time writing and it's been flowing and I'm enjoying it I've been probably for the last two to three weeks kind of approaching a draft of a first act and I just keep writing I've just been kind of going with the flow but it's kind of a little bit like the horror movie where you're running down a hallway just keeps getting longer and I started to have this thought like I wonder if I need a deadline like I wonder if it would be helpful to give myself a deadline and you know no this is something I'm doing for me no one's waiting for it uh or they don't know they are um so I guess I was just wondering about your experience about giving yourself a deadline or giving yourself some self-accountability or something like that I was just wondering what your thoughts were yeah yeah I mean the question is you know do you brush your teeth if you're not going to see anybody all day you know what I'm saying how many of us are wearing bottom parts of our outfits you know um yeah so Larry I mean I'm all into those kinds of things um uh I call them finish lines because deadline sounds kind of like sad and you just imagine Larry if you and me were running like running and we were like we're gonna run yeah I don't know how far we're gonna run or isn't it much nicer to go we're gonna run the marathon it's still hard but at least there's a marathon there's a finish you know right so yeah so I I enjoy doing that I uh like if you say sure I'm gonna wrap it up by hammering a date you can make up the date you know okay and stick to it and then just kind of show up and stick to it I like those sorts of things like opening night Larry you're a director right well yeah yeah exactly so it's like opening night you know or freeze the show or beginning of previews or whatever those things are that we you know I guess is a little bit of a superstition like I might jinx the flow that I'm feeling but I also think that the flow might also be a little bit I don't know um in the way uh huh like I could just be making stuff up right anywhere there you go yeah and and you know and it's again it's it's like if you're doing you know like you're directing something you have first preview you're gonna jinx the flow of the good rehearsal by saying well we have to kind of have first invited audience in by that date you know I mean I mean you know if you do jinx the flow you're gonna be forced to find tools to unjinx it and then you'll have like great unjinxing tools in your tool belt that's great you know so it's all good okay I appreciate it thank you Larry thanks Larry um all right so we don't have a question at the moment oh wait Lou is back her power had gone out your power it was out are you back I'm in um I'm in North Adams Massachusetts and the storm is coming right through so I'm sorry so if I feel terrible I'm not talking about writing your scripts and I was like right here and then you know no it doesn't matter I I um but I did forget what we were talking about we were talking about work and if output equals work or if work is work what is work yeah let's let's let's let's give you a definition that's going to work for what's going on right now right right so and that's in a way you know I do a lot of things called lowering the bar and it was fun when we did this show in the lobby the public theater and Carol remember I would bend all the way down to the ground and get this close from the floor lowering the bar lowering the bar right or just embracing where it is that you're at so Lou for right now work is going to be showing up every day for a certain amount of time that you will determine and doing what you feel you need to do to inch your project forward okay and also work is also going to include for special extra credit work will include you keeping your eye your mind's eye on whether or not you're bullshitting yourself because at a certain point you're going to go I'm just researching you know and if you can feel that I'm like oh no you're not low you're bullshitting yourself then at that point you stop put pause on the research and get back into the writing even if it's not flowing right because work will be just showing up at your writing for your writing time and maybe typing and sitting there and scratching your head and pulling your hair and chewing on your glasses and putting back on your doing that you know for however long you know okay so it's about so work has you know an element of I'm trying to think uh maybe the hidden thread of compassion in it maybe try I'm making this up as I'm talking to you but I'm trying to you know what I mean it's a phantom thread of compassion if we can just trace that thread sometimes sometimes we're we're we we get excited about our finish lines or we need a certain word counter we need to turn it in by a certain time or turn it you know get take the notes so much but we need to also remember to trace that thread of compassion that is part of work that is part the part of work that gives us joy you know that that feeds us you know that gives us that replenishes our sense of optimism like that Helen Keller book I was reading to you guys a few weeks ago yeah I remember you know you know does that make sense yeah compassion thread of compassion yeah that makes a lot of sense thank you so much okay thank you and check back in and see like you know because if you start bullshitting yourself then we're going to give you a different okay that's fair thanks okay thanks Leo thank you oh I clicked all the wrong button so sorry Carol you're up next unmute unmute unmute there you go here hi hi look good to see you all again likewise what you were saying was just made me think how during these hard times and when you're having different difficulties that are upon everybody in life that's when writing is most important it seems to me that's that's when I have I can write with the deepest feelings and compassion or even get from the writing find out what I'm feeling but still it's a sense of working and I find journaling every day is really important for that and helpful look sort of like that's if I if I do that then I know I've like played my scales so that when the real idea of the problem solving for what I'm working on as a project comes comes when I sit down it's there and it pours out so I just wanted to share that and just say how happy I am to see you and to say that everything is going well how's he doing how's he doing he's doing but that we've heard this the word my favorite word right now he's in a safe place is what a doc what the doctor said so that's great so that's great so you know it's still day-to-day and he's still has he'll have to be there for a couple more months oh wow in the mickey well till the because it was four months premature so they wait till four months you know till they yeah we're ready to be born right it's been quite a journey and um just uh it's precious what can I say and it's Rowan is his name precious right Rowan Rowan yes Rowan okay with an a yeah yeah okay yeah everybody remember take a breath for him yeah yeah just yeah thank you I thank you so much for taking those breaths and and for being with us on through all this and it's it was very helpful it and it's still going on but but to see a picture now of my granddaughter holding him oh wow and he's dressed dressed in in a t-shirt that says I of a digger and it says I dig my mama oh that's so that's great just see that so it's a sweet image oh that's great oh that's really great so that's the row port as we call it that's really great it's funny I'm looking I see my favorite yoga teacher Barbara Verrachi she's here today and Barbara says that if I can paraphrase Barbara Verrachi um that it's the times when you don't think you have time to meditate or do your yoga practice that's when you should do a double yes she always tells me that like I said how do you time to meditate today she's like that's what you should be doing it you know double up sister you know and those are the times um you know give yourself an extra scoop yeah I also find that that's um that poetry is coming out more oh like how about that like like flowing out I don't I don't even know that I'm about to write a poem until I start writing uh-huh see see what it is so it's it's sometimes troubled times can can be very productive true so I wish the things we that that you all um it can just make the most of these moments how was the storm have you had where are you the sun the sun the sun just and I'm in upstate New York and strangely enough the sun just came out after it yeah a whole day of heavy rain so yeah same here but it's passed through Massachusetts I guess through through loose town yes I think we were lucky with this oh good luck to you all so we actually we don't have a question at the moment I'm good we can practice our posture I know I'm very excited about that we've got a question from Bernita there you go hey Bernita hi SLP hi Audrey hi everyone so I was gonna wait but I was like okay no one's raising their hand um so I guess this is kind of a check in so interesting development around the um article then and working on confronting former client the magazine initial positive response from the editor-in-chief yes let's do this let's collaborate on uh looking at the disparity between what the company says it supports and what it actually is doing now the editor-in-chief is retracting you know backtracking in terms of participating and I guess what's coming up for me is um just I'm taking a lot of inspiration from John Lewis's last words I think it's absolutely amazing uh the piece the fact that he wrote in like his final hours and um that call to action to really stand for what I believe in but I can feel it like I can feel I have taken on a uh a quite large undertaking and when addressing topics or writing to um writing to uncomfortable subjects I guess so to speak how important is it to say get your backup lined up and not necessarily just you know factual information and what I'm putting in the world and whether it's you know and it and it being true not only to my experience but also like evidence space but um you know going at it when you might be on your own versus you know trying to identify all of the people who would support said writing um you know before you go further into the you know and further into the ring that I have already started yeah sometimes we're needed we have to go into you know battle you know by ourselves you know even if we wish we would have allies you know there's there might not be anyone around um but I feel like and I feel like it's it's it might be more effective if you did have some allies in this you know so you didn't have to carry it all alone I mean you can still lead the charge but it's good to have to know that you've got some allies if at all possible you know what I mean I'm not saying if you don't have any don't do it but I am saying if you do have some allies in this then contact them in some way you know you said you had a mentor who was you know talking to you about these subjects you know if I remember correctly um I because because um uh uh uh being a warrior can be isolating you know I'm saying I mean I pick up my sword every day and run up that hill and sometimes I got to run up the hill all by myself and sometimes along the charging up the hill I might see somebody go come on you know you got to come with me you know sometimes the people I thought were my allies turn out to not and there's and that crosses racial gender all kinds of lines you know there's not solidarity in the community like we would hope so but it's I thought I always feel more I always feel more courageous when I can when I have others with me you know so if you got folks um enlist them if you don't got folks and you still feel passionately then then keep going and certainly have all your all your facts and everything all lined up I mean it sounds like you've got that already but you want to have all your facts and everything also ask yourself is this the best time to make this strike you know this this this this make this effort you know this is the best time to make this effort since the person said yes I'll be collaborating with you and then ooh they're retracting you know um yeah I think so I mean um what it what comes up to me in the retraction sorry I'm calling um what comes up for me in the retraction is like that this is the inflection point right like this is the crux of the the systemic structures that kind of keep the status quo in place if we don't push forward to um really get under the hood and reconstruct um so but this is this is helpful I do I was actually in my 20 minutes starting to jot down names of not only allies as far as potential collaborators to the work or the other people who have been directly impacted by this magazine um practices but then also just thinking about like people that I could call on to who would support me and saying like yes Granita is a qualified producer yes in this situation if she was denied the opportunity to even submit a proposal for the job that there's something there's a disconnect there and um so my goal is not to I think just as I have started this process it's becoming revealed to me that um I want to scale up and I want to make an impact and I think there would be a bigger impact if I wasn't out here being a lone warrior um and at the same time I recognize you know when someone says to me like hey why don't you get together with all the other black and brown people that you were working with on this project or at this company I'm like there are no others like it really it was like me so I hear you I hear you but it's cool that you're looking not just at in the in the company but maybe there's someone in another company in another situation you know that's kind of thing maybe you can find allies that way and also they'll just give you tools and tips as you go forward too you know. Yes. Okay keep checking in Granita. Yeah thank you Granita thanks. Thank you. Thanks Granita. Um all right we've got about seven minutes left and we're going to go to Elizabeth. Hey Elizabeth. Um I've been watching for some time now and I'm really delighted to be here. Thank you. Huge impression on me and I am trying to get more organized in my work and living every day or at least five out of seven days a week. So in the meantime what I'm faced with right now is I have wrote a play some years ago maybe five, six, seven I don't know about something that was personal to me and I decided when I came back to it that I didn't want to I wanted to go through creating an outline without looking at the original play. So I've been doing that but I have now hit some roadblocks and I'm not sure I mean I'm there's a I know the beginning I know the end I know how it's about the setup is I know what I'm at at the three quarters kind of point blah blah blah but the point but the actual writing of it I'm not even sure about and the things that that don't meet my mind I haven't solved in terms of the outlining. So my question is do I go look at that other play or do I leave it alone and just stumble forward? Yeah oh you're you're a hard you're a hard case Elizabeth no because you're tough you're tough girlfriend you you're allowed to look at the play girl you wrote it you wrote it it's yours you know what I'm saying I mean you're like yeah I'm not going to look at it and I wrote it five years ago and I'm gonna see if I can remember it it's not easy it's not easy well I'm saying I think what you're you're creating is a real fresh take on it yeah which is really great but yeah and but if you if there's some pieces that you think gee it would really be helpful to see how I did it X number of years ago okay you're completely allowed to go back to it you know and then you can either reuse those pieces as as is or you can refashion them to fit sort of the the newer model that you're creating okay thank you oh you're welcome permission to go look at your own work yeah you're allowed okay thank you all right Flo you're up next awesome I found the button yeah this is time and I'm really grateful to have to have the opportunity to ask a question so it's about keeping the momentum right so I I finished a draft and I was starting to of a full-length play and I was starting to submit it and then it's sort of like stopped my creativity around it and so now I'm working on another project and my question is about the balance right between the the play that's that's has a completed version of itself right I'm a little bit of a perfectionist and so I'd like I'd like to really nurture it and give it the chance to grow um with with mentorship and so it's like the balance between just producing it and having having it done and waiting and applying to really have the support to have something greater than what I can do on my own so I don't know if you have any advice around that uh huh so you you finished a play you have a completed draft did you have a party no did you did you buy yourself some flowers or I suppose I I did yes I just know that it was for the play for you you did the work I mean you know so you but you you you did some kind of like happy dance or something right yeah it's it's true it's funny because you know it's like it's all of these like you know stepping stones we have to yeah it's a little bit of a landmark but I want to keep revisiting it I want to I want to become even friendlier with these characters and get more truth in it so it's like I don't really feel like it's great but I get your point but when I I mean my child is not old enough to go to college yet but when a parent sends her child off to college they they keep talking to them I mean they have a party but they keep in touch you know you you're going to keep nagging them to whatever pick up their socks or whatever you know so you're allowed to keep working on it but you I just wanted you to recognize that you've reached you know you've you crossed a finish line thank you okay so you're going to buy yourself some flowers or have a bubble bath of what you do to enjoy yourself and then you're going to you want to um do you want to workshop how do you want to keep nurturing this play what's your game plan well there is somebody who who I really enjoy their vision and that I would want to to direct a reading it just it feels there's also an actor there's yeah there's an actor at least a three character play so there's somebody I see really good for the part that's like similar to who I am so so like it it's possible to to hear it and get a couple of people and and hear it together but it just feels like because everything is so uncertain now like I just want I want that it feels momentous for everyone and and so it's I know that they could be the spitfall of keep reworking and reworking something and of course everyone everyone wants there to be a production at the end but there's no no right but there but so we so we do what we can and we let the rest go yeah that's that's that's part of being a pro we're gonna do what we can we're gonna we're gonna do what we can we're gonna let the rest go so what you have you have a director that you like that you could approach they're your friend or yeah they're great and you have an act this actress person is your friend also yeah I mean she read you read it fantastic so you've got you've got two people already you just need two more actors and they're gonna be thrilled to be involved in a project you have you can have a zoom party you know what I'm saying that it's I mean you can have it be you know a reading of your play and happy hour or you know or something like that I mean or have the happy hour after you have the reading of your play or just you know some way to celebrate however you think that you're appropriate you know and that's another finish line that you will have crossed you know yeah you're making it feel casual it's nice because yeah it's cash but it's it's all it's very serious it's like we don't have to like clinch about it you know what I'm saying it's okay reading your play it's going to be lovely it's going to be fun they're going to give you feedback afterwards you're going to be appreciative um they're your friends you offer to do the same for them maybe sit in on one of their readings or something give the you know so you reciprocate when you can yeah I agree we're going to work with the tools we have you know instead of mourning the the things that we don't have and can't manifest right now yeah that's exciting thank you it brings happy clarity yeah yeah and we're gonna have a nice time as nice as it can be given the circumstances yeah thank you yeah thanks good great question no flow thanks well it's six o'clock it's six o'clock here we are okay we'll see you tomorrow we'll see you tomorrow as a reminder please sign up by three p.m eastern every single day or you know the day's warrior and I'll send you a link between 3 p.m and 4 30 p.m eastern we'll see you tomorrow bye thank you thank you bye thanks people thanks Audrey thanks