 Hey, hey, hey. It's five o'clock. It's time for watch me work where we're gonna get some work done today It's April Fool's Day. No fooling. We're gonna get some work done I'm SLP. We've been doing this show for like 14 15 years We started out in the theater down the street from the public theater And then we moved into the lobby of the public theater and then when COVID came we moved on to zoom and here We will be hopefully forever more and And we are embraced we've been embraced by howl around the whole way new work department at the public theater Yay, we love the new work department at the public theater We're gonna work together for 20 minutes and then after that if you wish to Ask me a question about your work. You're creative process keeping in mind that We don't have time for you to present your work But we do have plenty of time to talk shop if you would like to do so Zoe from new work department is gonna tell you how to do it. Sorry new work development. Sorry about that Yes, thank you SLP and welcome to another great session of watch me work after the 20 minute work session Um, if you have a question, please go ahead and use the raise your hand function Down in your reactions button and we'll get a nice cute questions going and then from there We will call on your name and ask you to unmute. Thank you Thank you Don't further ado. We're gonna get started Okay, here we go. Okay. Okay Anyone have any Questions anything they want to talk about any shop questions here, right? Yeah, the question Please use the raise your hand function will fall on you. Thank you, Rocky. Please go ahead and unmute yourself Hey, how are you? Um, okay, my question this week is Um, what do you do when you want to meet characters and people that live outside of the place your imagination usually travels to Get a ticket and go there Ticket and go where they are. I Mean, you know, you want to meet characters Outside of where places where your imagination usually travels like say you usually write about let's just Pretend, you know, I mean, I know your your work is more thrilling than this Rocky but you say you usually write about characters who live in rural Minnesota And you want to write about characters who live in Miami So, you know, I mean, so you got to get to know Miami, you know, I mean go online Look it up. Maybe take a visit there get to know where they might be from is that that's really vague Because I don't know exactly what you're what you're meaning What do you what do you think just get to get familiar with the environment that you want to get familiar with and maybe You'll get some insights as to what your characters from that place might be doing or saying Or not it was it not a question of location um it can be I just got to this part where I realized I have to meet a bunch of new people and They can be anyone so Oh, maybe I'll take a journey Yeah, they can be anyone so so you're wanting them to be different from the people you usually write about I think so I Didn't I didn't I just got to this point so maybe it could be people some people I know some people I don't know but Because I realized it's like a lot of different people. Oh, it just kind of seems like it can be anyone and I'm like who it's just it just seems like an invitation to meet some new people I guess Do you live near a Subway where do you live? I don't know where you live. I'm sorry you cut out. Where did you say in New Haven? Okay, so there's public transportation in New Haven, right? Um Not really Yeah, there is The shot there's the Metro North, right? Yeah Okay, well, you could you could write take a little ride a little bit of a ride on the Metro North a couple of stops, you know And just look around look around say who these people, you know And if you don't ordinarily do that those are you gonna be your mind is gonna be flooded with images of people that you Don't ordinarily sit next to if you don't ride the Metro North very often and just say and and select a handful of those folks You know to base your characters on that might be fun See what the universe provides for you on any given day Fulls day-to-day people. Oh my goodness. What a good question And you get a ride on the Metro North. What could be better? True. I need a Thank you. You're welcome. Great question. Thank you Thank you, Rocky Hi, Julian. You can unmute yourself. Hi Hi, I'll be hi. How are you? Good? Good to see you. I also have to say shout out to Siobhan who I went to your school with She's next but anyway, I was just in New York and I saw Sally and Tom so Thank you so much. Thank you means a lot. Thanks for coming by Yeah, so my question is I'm in this process. Okay, okay, so what I'm doing is I am working on the character development And I'm writing things out and it's feeling like it's interactive and it's immersive But my question is how do you write outside of format? So right now? I'm listening to the characters and I'm communing with them and We're having our little kikis and I'm just trying to figure out, you know, what for you know I don't want to get caught up on format, but I want to keep doing work But I know at some point I'm gonna have to commit to format to get this done So I guess how do you think about that when you were like living with the story and you haven't quite, you know You're moving forward in it, but you don't really know the best format for it or you feel like it could be multiple You mean format like I'm not quite sure but I know what you're talking about format like what do you mean? Like it's a versus a screenplay Right sure sure sure okay, I get I get I get it so you ask yourself so how do you you look in your mind's eye? How do you see it? Do you see it on the stage? Right now I see it as an interactive like immersive piece So I see it as just being like the people are in the space with the characters and Unicating with them. So that's how I see it great. I'll write that Okay, I mean, you know, that's if that you know, you get to you get to call it like you see you get to write it like you see it So if you see it as an interactive piece then write that and just you know Start writing a little bit at a time like what's the story? What are the characters want that the questions in my experience are the same regardless of the format Right so novel it could be a play it could be a screenplay it could be an episode of television the questions are the same What are the characters want? What are they doing? Well, what's the story? You know, how did these scenes forward the story? Yeah, I've been asking those same questions and I started like dedicating to format and then I said nope It's exactly what you said. It's the same questions regardless of what the format is. So I think the reason I'm I'm at this Format crossroads now is because now I don't know where to take it, you know Am I taking it to my screenwriting group? Am I taking it to my theater people? But maybe I don't need to get there yet. Maybe I just need to But if you see it as an interactive thing the sounds like you take it to your theater people or your interactive group if you have An active group, you know, okay Yeah, and that's not sweat it too much the main thing is it just to take it somewhere and Start writing and if you find it's wrong in the wrong place and take it somewhere else You know, none of the groups are gonna crush it if they're good groups Yeah, no for sure. Yeah, okay. Sounds like fun. Thank you. Great question. Thanks Thank you, Julian. Hi, Chiffon. You can unmute whenever you're ready. Hi, Chiffon You're muted Hi, I am wondering if you have ideas or strategies about I Have two commissions right now that are theater-free on audiences And I don't only write theater-free on audiences but have to be working on two at the same time So I'm wondering do you have ideas or strategies you use to keep the characters in their own world and not interacting with each other when you don't want them to like and Influencing each other where you don't want them to Especially if they are sort of similar in demographic, right? I'm in two worlds of similar demographics But I don't I want to really make sure that I keep them separate But I'm just looking for ideas on like how to do that, right? I just just be specific about their story, you know I mean if one character is there, you know, they again they live in rural Minnesota be specific about whatever they're going through And they're just trying to decide whether or not they're gonna buy a new farm to plant Chronic to make money That's one story, you know, I mean, I don't know and the other folks are living in Miami and deciding whether or not They want to spend the day at the beach be really specific about what they're doing really specific about their story Really, I mean there and there might be some some Cross fertilization and but that's okay. It's your work. So you're allowed to do that. That's okay There's nothing wrong with that, especially if you're writing two things at the same time You know, but try to get really really specific or work on getting really really specific Thank you. You're welcome. Good question. Hi, Lisa You can unmute yourself Hello, how are you? Lisa? How are you? Good to see you? Thank you It's nice to be here. I am working on this play Which skips back and forth in time, which is fine and I realize that I'm kind of out skipping myself in time in that I Guess I'm basically asking for Organization hints. I don't always like to write in order Because sometimes I think I'll I'll say today. I want to write this scene and I'll write that scene Mm-hmm, you know in the next day I want to do that But I'm getting caught up in my own enthusiasm for a non linear screenplay and or sorry play right play so I'm wondering if I Don't know I feel like I'm there might be some technique that I'm kind of missing or Then I'm not doing this right or I've got the index cards on the wall kind of thing and I'm moving them around But maybe there's something else. So I thought I'd ask Well, that's a great question. So you've got the index cards on the wall And you said you're moving them around Yes, because the play jumps around in time and sometimes this scene emphasizes or adds to a scene that went before It's not entirely chronological But I don't think I wanted the scenes are the scenes go in a certain order Eventually they will yes right now. They're just kind of all Swirling around So you might want to just put them in an order that makes sense to you right now And write them in an order. I mean, that's you say you might be missing something an organizational tool, you know Time even even for the moment is a great organizational tool and You can use it instead of say I want to be so free of it that I'm disorganized. Yeah Yeah, and if we weren't working for 20 minutes, you know, we'd still be working or we wouldn't have shown up at all or What day is it? I don't know, you know So why don't we employ what we like and what's going to help us and don't worry about the rest You want it to jump around in time eventually great, but you can decide just for the purposes of writing What the order is that And then you can move it around as you become more solid with it Um, I keep talking. Yeah, I think I do agree with that um And I don't want this to sound hyper indulgent or anything but Uh, but sometimes I know that you know scene b should go between a and c But I don't feel like writing scene c and I decide I want to write scene g instead Right, that's fine. So but you on your wall, you have them in writing order Right in writing in order, right? So just Or in or in the order that they would appear in the play eventually for now, right? You have that order established write the Write the ones you want to write in the order that you feel like writing them keep them in The play order, you know, and we keep them in the order. They will appear eventually in the play for now write them in the order you want and You have to be okay with being confused Sometimes, you know, but just when you when you feel confused just look back at the line and go, okay Right now, I feel like writing g. I don't feel like writing c right now I feel like writing g write g And then if you feel confused be okay with that and just look back at your Timeline if you will your your your storyline if you will, you know, and that will perhaps give you a sense of Yeah, yeah, I know what I'm doing. I'm on the right track Even though I'd like to jump around um Yeah, just try to keep going. That's the thing. We are going to give you the same but just keep going That's what I want you to do just continue um, if you feel confused uh Write the next scene If you don't feel like writing scene c write g write r write scene x It doesn't matter write something, you know Is that Yeah, because you want to be free and with the freedom if you free yourself from chronology You're going to become a little confused and you're going to have to be okay with that Okay, that's all right. It's all right. All right. Good. I'll I'll put all in my confusion. I just tape tape them to keep them taped to your wall. That's a great great strategy. You already have Okay Okay, thank you Thank you, Lisa Emmanuel are you from France again? Are you back? I haven't seen you in ages Yes, I'm back Yeah, I'm good. Thank you. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. It's good to see you It's very nice to be back Thank you. This is my back Hey grace Are you gonna mute whenever Freddy? Um, hi, I'm sorry. I feel like this one's gonna be a bad one. How are you doing? Oh, I'm good. Wait, do you remember me? It's I don't know why I asked that I don't know No, because I just feel like because I haven't been here for a while But I guess my question is kind of like because one reason why I found like watch me work Is just because of like just your talks online and your videos because I also feel like you give like good life advice for like Writers and stuff. So my question isn't specifically like about writing But um, one reason I haven't been here is just because I feel like lately I've just been like sort of like living life more recently I don't know like just like really getting to like know myself better and to just You know do a lot of things to like really like take care of myself and like to like grow as a person and grow in community And like, you know start new relationships and things like that But sometimes I worry because it kind of makes me a little bit more like behind on my work Or maybe in terms of even my own creative work, which right now in my life I just mostly kind of do on the side because I'm like still like a full-time student I don't necessarily like have a creative writing major Um, it makes me like a bit behind and sometimes I feel a build a bit guilty If I'm like putting off time that I could be like working in developing projects to sort of just like You know, like live life So I just wanted to ask for just general advice for striking a balance or like how even important is it to like still like You know Really develop just especially like as like a young writer to like, I don't know like do you have any advice? Any thoughts? I'm sorry It's such a beautiful question because I of course I want you to have a beautiful life, you know A beautiful whole life and be be Joyful and and and enjoy yourself and I want you to when you get to be as old as I am or even older Older you look back and you go. Wow. I'm proud of myself. You know, so I want that for you I mean, I want that for everybody, you know, I think that's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself To look back on even the last year and go wow, we know well done like that. Whatever you do So you want you do want to take care of yourself and do self-care things and meet new people and and enjoy yourself And you want to put in a little time for your writing in my experience writing is like Grace you have like a A savings account in the bank at the bank It doesn't have to be a brick and mortar bank, but do you have like a do you put money aside? Uh, I mean, yes I try to yes, okay. I'm not I don't mean, you know, like if you put away a dollar a day like that I'm not talking about like mutual funds or anything like a dollar a day if you put away like a dollar a day Doing a little writing in the morning Or at a specific time every day. It's like putting a little money aside in the bank Mmm, that's also in addition to meeting friends doing, you know, whatever self-care things Maybe spa dates or hanging out with friends that In social situations that is great And if you're thinking about maybe maybe you'd like to have a life in the Arts, let's just say or a deeper spiritual life You'll want to do a little bit of your work every day just a little there's a smidgen So put that on the if you have a plate, you know of lovely things that you do for yourself Remember that that's the kind of self-care You know the in artistic process Is also a form of self-care But I also will say that I feel like the content of my work is not like as good Because I'm like because I feel like you know the place that like I feel like I need to go for my writing and my work is maybe I don't know. Maybe it's not I don't know maybe Sometimes when I'm too involved in like affairs of like my actual life It makes it harder for me to get involved into the life of like my characters and I wrote because I do feel like it's very like Sort of spiritually and like mentally like heavy and exhausting sometimes Um, but then I also think that like, you know, um sort of like even The experiences of my daily life and just like Exploring more and like doing more with my life will eventually give me more stuff to like write with but right now Like sometimes it doesn't even feel like it's worth like making too much of an effort because I just like don't like what I'm I think it feels like I'm doing like very stupid things. Like well, I'm not like stupid like very like mean you'll task like uh, maybe like very practical like planning of stories and like not really um really working with like the language for example, you know Yeah, and You know, it's it's good to put a little bit aside even if you're considering you're feeling like it's not high quality stuff It's because you're getting in the habit Of giving to yourself in one of the deepest and most beautiful ways you can It's like do you do yoga? Yeah, I do Great. Do you do meditation? Mm-hmm Great. Okay. So those are two excellent habits that you already have so you have a daily meditation practice You have a daily maybe daily yoga practice You you also have a little tiny small 10 minutes of daily writing You want to get in the habit of giving that to yourself? And it will grow and flower just that that's all just add that to the wonderful things that you're doing That's all Okay, thank you. Thank you. Great question Thanks, Grace Hi, Rebecca. Can I meet you? Hi. Hi, SLP. How are you? Um, well, how's it going? Uh, it's it's interesting. Um I have a section of the manuscript that's That's a mess And uh, and it's it's a mess because First of all because my great-grandfather keeps interrupting and like wanting Wanting me to do something which Um, I'm I'm not accomplishing and uh I never met my great-grandfather great-grandfather, so um, but It's also I mean some of it is a space time problems Some of it is How much of me is in there that's part of the the grand great-grandfather problem that I've been I started reading There's a book about web the boys and the first world war and I started reading it because of the current number of wars And I get to the second chapter and there's the name of someone who was lynched who was probably a relative by marriage in 1917 and it's just like I I'm feeling kind of caught in this um I'm feeling like I'm caught in something where I need to sort of balance what these stories mean And and move them along and and the space time problem is is it's a section about the black press And the as opposed to the white press and reporting on lynchings and such um so and I'm not I mean some of this is just kind of saying it out loud that it's it feels It just feels very odd to keep tripping over these these things and um in With my great-grandfather. I thought that I had the genealogical information and I realized it was wrong um And it wasn't because he was always lying about his age is because nobody was actually reading his age, right? He lied about his name which made which was the whole thing and then figuring that out Or maybe who knows if Maybe he had to make two different enslavers and he had two different names. So it's like that I get caught in these You know and the real issue is getting at Getting to the point where I can talk about the man who wrote about The main lynching in the book Who wrote for a kansas press? because And and memphis didn't even have a press at the time because you know, Ida B. Wells been run out and all that so So I'm just it's just I'm I'm just very Very frustrated with it at this point And I printed it that for our time I was just going through it was like this is a mess this is like What what how do I get to this point and I keep not feeling like I can get to the point about The internet. I'm sorry my internet's unstable the get to the point about The journalists who I want to write about And I don't know it's just because of my need to explain history to people or um my Inability to figure out where the character that is me. I mean, this is this is non fiction, but still it's not Me me. It's the person I'm In relationship to the material that's in in the manuscript me So anyways, that may make no sense, but um, it almost doesn't but I had to put on I had to put on my smart cap there. Um, um What is your the the character you talk about the character who's Not not you but the the character in a question. You're what do they want? in that So there's Me who will find a rabbit hole me me who will find a rabbit hole and go down it Given any opportunity and The Character that's me in this part of the manuscript Wants to know where her great grandfather was born And why he went to Tennessee, right? Focus on that because focus on what the character wants Hold on just stay away from any and all rabbit hole Um, because that it doesn't sound like the rabbit holes are helping right now You know, so just and you know the idea is you know, rebecca You're walking down the street or the the road you see a rabbit hole you go in Oh, shit. I'm in a rabbit hole. You say you get out of the rabbit hole You go walking down another street. You see a rabbit hole you get in you say, oh, shit I'm in a rabbit hole You're walking down the street. You see a rabbit hole. Guess what rebecca? Don't get in the rabbit hole. Don't go in the rabbit hole. You know, it's a rabbit hole Don't go in focus on you stay with your character because you're walking side by side her the character in the in the work, right? And every time you go in the rabbit hole you abandon her You like better things to do then figure out and help you get to where you want to go I'm going over here. That's you know, that's that's You know, so stop doing that Like do the job Stay with her Don't go in the rabbit hole. The rabbit holes are full of sparkly lures and You know carrots or whatever they put in you know, whatever is down there. Um, right stay with her So i'm sticking with you I'm not going to go in that rabbit hole. I don't care what so I don't care if the rabbit hole promises the answers to No, stay with her stick with her. Okay Just every time you see yourself about to click on whatever it is that you think Mm-hmm Focus on helping her get what she wants Remind yourself that that's your job right now Your job is not to be alice Or wasn't that the one who went down the rabbit hole? Yes I mean she had a good time whatever, but you know, that's not your job right now. That's not your job right now Where why he went to Tennessee is central To the section Okay Trying to figure it out. So figure it out. So so figure it out Figure walk around just make that the central thing that you're thinking about like all the time I can't figure it out. Mm-hmm. Did you say you can't figure it out? No, you're supposed to say I know already I'm just not listening hard enough because I keep going down these rabbit holes I know I know why he went to Tennessee. Whatever. I know I know the answer I just have to keep listening. It's right here. I just have to keep leaning in you have to hypnotize yourself into The the the outcome that you want instead of hypnotizing yourself into the outcome that you don't want This we know. Yes. Yes, this is yeah, I mean it's happened in other parts of the the manuscript where All of a sudden it's like Yeah Yeah, so just do it now you you have you've established that you have that superpower just use it here Yeah, you know It's it'll be fun. You'll you'll get to hang out with your character full time. Stay out of the rabbit holes. You're not a rabbit Yeah Not now. Okay report back please because you know we want to know Yeah, yeah I will I will let you know Thank you, Rebecca You're welcome. Thank you Thank you. Please go ahead and unmute yourself Hi Susan, how are you doing? Hi, how are you? How's it going? Very well. Thank you so much Uh, so two weeks ago two sessions ago you shared about how water boils better when the lid is on And you're really resonated with me and I kept on thinking about it Especially when I have conversations with people about my work I started to be more conscious about what I share what I talk about But I found it in practice It's actually really hard to do because it's so easy to get excited and share a lot about the work while you're still in the creative process So I'm curious about in your practice, especially when you are in the myth of the creative process Do you set a personal boundary About how much you share with people when people ask about your work When do you choose to share more information and when do you choose to be more brief? Yeah, that's a great question and and this works for me, you know, some people, I mean Some people can only figure it out if they if they have what I call a telebration before they have the celebration I like getting the work done and then having the party, you know, I like talking about it when it's more done than not That's my personal. So that's why I give that kind of advice But I set a very strict personal boundary. I don't tell people You know Some my students ask me my friends. What am I working on like that? I have piles of stuff that I'm doing that I don't talk about I do find people though a few people like my husband, you know, you know You know clothes people very close to me who hear every word every line every lyric from a song every chord Bless their hearts for listening, but I don't tell You know people out outside of my house my house my Bedroom and a half apartment What I'm doing No No, I I and I find that I can Hear it better if it's just in my head You know When a play has it has to have a workshop and that's different you have to Disseminate scripts to people and you have to share and you you have actors wonderful amplifiers And they tell they give you their ideas and fantastic and producers and all that. Um, but until then um I don't Thank you But I just want you I want you to develop also it helps you develop the confidence in your own voice You know, can you get into a habit of encouraging yourself or have like your best friend or Really close confidant on your spouse or whatever your partner. They're helping you encourage yourself. You know you're building that up Thank you You thank great question though Give a shout out ace ace is here carols here. I just want to say hi to people Oh, okay gracious back, but hi hi ace. Hi carols. Good to see you. Good to see you. Sorry Are we allowed to ask more than one question? I just wanted to ask a follow up question based on like some of the answers You gave after mine, but um, I guess what's one way that you can like because you talk a lot about like intuition and stuff and like Uh, like listening to your own voice and also like, you know, sort of making sure you are like falling Following like a specific path like when you're really like working on a story working on your characters But what's one way that um, we can like grow our intuition like as writers like Or like one tip that you like to do. Yeah, sure meditation practice Is kind of the best thing you have one already meditation practice and a lot of times you just um, it comes from Listening sometimes that means keeping your mouth closed and Hearing what you have to say, you know hearing what's going on in your head and going oh You know listening to your gut, which is your other brain, you know, you all know that right if you don't have you heard that Looking up on the internet You've got you know things going on in your stomach area that are mirror or mimic the things going on in your thinking area Um Just start listening in you know, if you hear yourself saying things like oh, I'm never going to figure it out I'm never going to figure it out. Whoo. Ha ha ha ha, you know try to listen into what you're saying to yourself And try to work from there to to course correct to encourage yourself to give yourself courage You know um And and enjoy your alone time You know alone time isn't lonely. Enjoy your alone time. Enjoy your lack of screen time You know, the first thing you do is wake up and you're looking at you You know your device or whatever you're wonderful. We love technology and You might want to try not looking at it first thing in the morning people First thing in the morning, you might want to sit in silence Even if you just sit up in in bed or in your sleeping place and breathe in and say wow, I'm so I'm so glad to be here You know attitude of gratitude. That's another wonderful thing Just walk around in your head and say, you know mentioned things that you're thankful for I'm thankful for zoom I'm thankful for watch me work. I'm thankful for this wonderful community, you know, just start to say things like that You know all that all that woo woo new agey stuff that we sometimes laugh at but it's actually a lot of it is very helpful You know, does that help grace? Um, yeah, I it really does. Yeah, I think part of the reason ironically I haven't been like writing is just trying to do a lot of that and really build my practice Because it really wasn't until like a couple months ago that I did start Working in a daily like meditation practice and yoga practice But I also need to make sure that I'm finding time to physically do writing and kind of You know, physically work with language and kind of remember like why I like started all of this stuff in the first place Um, because I do find that finding that practice like takes time um, but yeah, and it's also really interesting how like all of these like things are related like You know the personal things that like one does in their own life Like when he's in all of that like it all feeds back into like sort of like the language. So thank you. Yeah, it was super helpful Thank you For the week You do that. It's like the watch me work tip of the week like I'm not but it's it's what we're some of the things we're talking about today that you know, your creative practice is in my Uh understanding one of the best forms of self-care Your creative practice whatever that is you can be like some of us were choreographers Some of us are writers playwrights poets musicians. We like to just go for walks We or we do, you know competitive skiing or woodworking or whatever those things that you give yourself um, you when you can look back on your day When you can look back on your week and say I did a little something for myself I didn't spend my free time in front of the television people and I know there are a lot of good shows and we love our shows You know, but uh, you want to you want to replenish the well you want to give to yourself. That's very important Especially in these times Yeah, you know what i'm talking about Hey, we need to stay strong. We need to stay open. We need to stay strong and open It's six o'clock It's six o'clock It's april fool's day, uh, we love you. We're giving you love on april fool's day. No fool and Lots and lots of love. I love this community. It's so joyous to me To be able to meet with you guys, uh, you all on monday's At five o'clock. Thank you new work development. Thank you howl round