 I'm not thinking of myself, I'm just going to talk about it. So who's here for watching your work? Oh, we have three. We have three. This is perfect. Okay, usually we have more people, but three is a great number. Lots of great things come in threes, and today will be no different. So I'm really glad you're here, and I'm here. And for people who don't know what watching your work is to you guys, I recognize you. Have you been here before? Yeah, it's been a while. I'm looking. Have you been here before? Yeah, you look familiar. Okay, so you guys know what this is. Great. A lot of people don't know what watching your work is. They're like, so I sit and watch your work. Like, yeah, yeah, that's part of it. But basically it's a free writing class for people. Anybody, you don't even have to sign up. You can just drop in and I'll talk to you about your writing. Or your creative process, if you're not a writer. Or if you're thinking about being a writer, all that kind of stuff. All right, so you guys know what we're going to do, right? What we're going to do is we're going to sit and we're going to work for 20 minutes, and then we're going to do the rest of the time. We're going to spend a Q&A, which is basically me talking to you guys about your creative process. So any questions you have are welcome because that's what I'm here for. And after you're going to tell the folks who are going to be watching online today. So if you're watching online, what you can do is you can tweet at our Twitter. Are those unicorn socks? Yeah, they're flying, rainbow unicorn socks. Those are very nice. Thank you, thank you. So if you're watching at home, you can tweet at us at Watch Me Work SLP and do hashtag howl around, which is H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D. Exactly. Let's say again, that's complicated. H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D. And what's the first part? What's the first part? At Watch Me Work SLP. At Watch Me Work SLP, hashtag howl around. That's a lot. It is a lot. The secret is if you really do at Watch Me Work SLP, it'll be fine. I'll see you at it. So we'll answer your questions. We will. Amazing. Truthfully. Truth will answer the truthfully. That's true. Truth is not in fashion, a la mode, not a la mode, as they say. But here we are going to swim against the current convention. Swim against the current convention. That sounds good. It does sound good. Like someone already wrote it. Okay, so I'm going to start my hair set. Here we go. Let's see. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Nope, not that. Do you have any questions about creative process? If you're my name or your name. Because there are a few of you. So in the back. And your name is? I'm Jim. Jim. Okay, I don't have to write my name. Are you here for Watch Me Work? Yeah. Okay, if not, I'll just leave you alone. What's your name? Amy. Hey, Amy. Are you here for Watch Me Work? What's your name? Jamie. Okay, anybody have any questions? Comments? Answers? Solutions? The treasure is buried? You do? Jim knows. Yeah? No, I don't know where the treasure is buried. I do have a question. Yes, you haven't. I now have a draft of a play that I've written. And I won. It deals with the sensitive subject. Okay. Although it's not a realistic play. It deals with the end of slavery in the South. Okay. There are two black characters and four white characters. Okay. As you can see, I'm an older black man. An older white man. So my question is, I have no problem giving a fence where I want to. Right. How do I share this work with a wide enough audience? Right. To make sure that I'm not stupidly being insensitive to certain things. Does that make any sense to you? Sure. I'm assuming it's like beautifully written and righteous. I'm just going to go there with it. Okay. So your question is it so plays the deal and any subject? We'll just say. We'll just lift it out of the specifics because I don't know your play. But any subject. So we write it in play or something about a sensitive subject. A subject that could make some people go, hey, what are you doing? Why are you saying that in your play? Right. And we wonder how you workshop it, what's the next step? I guess I'm afraid just putting it say in a forum like on the internet. Oh. It frequently is, oh, I find those forums are insensitive. Yeah. Because people can say things when a consequence is. That's true. So very anonymously. Very true. That it just winds up being people throwing stones. Right. Right. I have no problems with it really being picked apart. But maybe I would more like a live forum. Yeah, I think that's the only way to go. And regardless of the subject matter of your work, that's the only way to go. I mean, you said it really well that you want to get feedback from people who are going to have to stand behind what they say. And at least be visible. This is me. I'm saying this to you about your play. You know what I mean? You want to generate an actual conversation instead of just an opportunity for people to say, hey, hey, hey. Or whatever. Right. So that, I mean, that's great actually. That's a lucky thing. Right. Because I'm sure you know people. Right. You know a few people. It has four characters you said. Six. Six. Okay. Okay. So that's six characters. I bet you know six people who might be able to read the play. Do you? Can you start with that? Yeah. And maybe you're living room with a living room with a friend. You know. You know. Maybe. Yes. What do you think? Yeah. A friend of mine has offered when she, and is a director. Oh, great. She teaches in North Texas now. Right. She'll be here for the summer. Great. And even invited. I guess maybe my fear is the audience for that would not be racially diverse. And that's what I would. But that gives me a start. Yes. Yes. If there is a start there, then the job is much smaller. It is to ensure that the audience for that reading is more racially diverse than it might be if I didn't make an effort. Exactly. So tell me this. So there are six characters. And what's the racial, what's the... Two black characters and four white characters. Right. I mean, you could even... You're casting in a way ensures that the audience will be not 50-50 but racially diverse. And you don't have to invite anybody to the reading, other than the actors and the director. So you could... No, totally. It's called a reading of your play. And it could be... You could sit in chairs or in a circle. You could sit at a dining table, for example. And just sit around and read it, you know. And then talk about it. You know, you mean that the actors would be your audience also. And they could give you feedback. I'm hoping that they'd be people you know or know of. You know, you kind of are inviting people that you have a good vibe about into the early stages of the project. That's what we always want to do, right? So then you have to sit around at the dining table or in a circle and read the play. And then you have a conversation about it. And that's one way to have to start off a work. I mean, I've done plenty of readings where there's no audience per se. There's just us around the table, you know. So that's... I mean, and then from there, you can maybe do a read-read if you want. Or with your director friend. Maybe, oh, that's right! And now in a week's time we're going to do another read-read. And this time we're going to invite people, as I said. For a two-weeks time, if they're here for the whole summer, you're a director friend. And when you do one at the beginning of the summer, you do a rewrite. By the end of the summer you have another reading. Maybe invite back the same actors. And then invite a proper audience, you know. A handful of people or whatever you want. And then you can do the work about cultivating the audience. And maybe have a... Maybe want a Q&A after. You know, talk back after. No, that's helpful. Because actors have to get into a character the way no one else does. Exactly. And they can critique it in a really particular way. Exactly. Exactly. They're a wonderful resource, you know. Actors are a wonderful resource and great allies in the creation of theater pieces. You know. And sometimes give awesome ideas and notes. You know. Or help you understand the character. Even if they don't change a word, they can help you have a... You know, oh wow, I see this character in different lighting or something. So yeah, actors are really, really, really helpful. As a movie director. So, it's not like you're new to it. Because you've finished the draft. They actually started here in December or something. Right on. I'm so pleased. I'm so proud of you. Sounds corny. Like I'm not your mom, obviously. Or, obviously, or maybe I am. Yeah. But congratulations. Age is kind of her first. Right. Well, we're a soul family here. And congratulations. That's awesome. That's why I sit here most every Monday. Because I know there are a lot of people who write and do creative things that can't afford the tuition over at NYU. Where I teach. You know. Or don't, you know, for whatever reason, aren't going to be showing up at NYU in time soon. And it's nice to have this place to encourage people. And to hear about how you're doing. Fantastic. So you'll keep us posted. That's really great. So when is your friend coming town? For most heavier director? It should be the end of... We're in May now. Yeah. So the end of May. Fantastic. Fantastic. And her term is over. Fantastic. Because I say she teaches. Yeah. So you could have a reading, hopefully in June. Do a rewrite in July. Have another reading in August. Will she be here the entire summer? Kind of. Yes. Great. And have those two read. One with no audience. And the next one with... Maybe you can hold. Always getting very caught up. Right. Go. And it slows, it sort of slows me down. Like, and I haven't figured out a way to... To sort of push it aside. Right. And just continue. And it's kind of like always going down. A rabbit will try and think three steps ahead. And then I just don't... I do the opposite. I just don't finish. Right, right. Right. And so I haven't... I guess the question in there is like... Do you have suggestions as to... As to how to... Literally tell myself that this thing isn't that important. Or at least it's not important right now. Or just to stay... Yeah. Focused on... Yeah. Or just to stay... Yeah. Focused on what the immediate sort of narrative ahead is. Right. That's good airing, right? Yeah. So there are two things. There are two things. Has anybody else ever had this problem before? You get... You know... It's like you're walking down the street. Someone says, Hey! Hey! Hey! You're going... You have a meeting to go to. It's like, Hey! Hey! Can you get off the sidewalk and you're walking over here. Talking to this person. Yeah. And you know that... They don't really have anything important to say to you, but you're... Right? I mean, would you ever do that? Or it may be important, but it's just not important right now. Ah, so this is the thing. Okay. Okay. That's very good. I love that you answered that way. So this is what you have to do. The first and foremost, tell yourself, and this is true, that what that person is going to say to you while you're on your way to the meeting is not important. I don't care. You can look, I don't care what you have to say. You know, there you are, you're okay, but I don't care. And people notice that they change appearance and they will change appearance trying desperately to get your attention. You see? So, I'm not being specific about any certain thing that you have because basically, you are believing that maybe they might have something to tell you. It's not true. Okay? That feeling is generated by a concern that, well maybe what I'm doing is not important enough or good, so I'm going to go over here. Okay? So, where you're going with your work is more important than what they have to say. If they start talking and you have any words to say, if they start talking and you haven't even gotten off your path, so listen to them, you could just write little post-its of what they're saying, but keep going. Your job is to continue in the direction of the finish line. Right? That's number one. Okay? So you kind of have to like, the mantra, like, I'm just going to go to the finish line or whatever mantra, talk to the hand, whatever you want to say to those people. Okay? The second thing that might help is make an outline before you start. Okay? Yeah, I do that. Great, great. So even with an outline, even with an outline. Well, it's just that, like, I find myself like, I'll be trying to work through something or even what I was doing just in these 20 minutes is I'm sort of, I'm re-entering something that I started writing two years ago that haven't happened much since. Right. And I find myself just like trying to, trying to create that outline, but then like, thinking of like, backstory elements that, I mean like, your idea of sort of having something on the side to write, seems both like the best idea and that I could also like, get lost in that, you know what I mean? But that's, it's those kinds of, it's those kinds of things. It's just like, trying to sort of structure from the top and all the little details that, and then getting caught up with the question of, does that make sense? Is that realistic? Does that, you know, that's where I sometimes spin out of the, yeah. I understand. The loudest voice in your head needs to be the voice of whatever it is that's going to get you in the finish line. So, does that make sense? Right? What's the answer? Good enough for now. Right? Whatever answer you can give yourself to get you to the finish line, that's the right answer. Is that important? No. Right? Keep going forward. Okay, you can, I mean, it's not like, you know, FU and all that. I'm just saying, you can note it down. I'll talk to you later. Do you have kids? Yeah. Great. How old are they? Four and two. Great. You can do, You have, you have no, this is no, you have no problems. Oh, okay. You're a dad. You've got two kids that live with you. You interact with them. Oh, okay. You have no problem. You're a dad. I have a six-year-old. This is easy. This is like, you've got two kids. I only got one. Look, what are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing, dad? I want you to, you know how to keep, right? Because, wait, come on. I think we have to go over here and play on the bench. But it's time to go to school, right? Or on clean care, right? So what do you do? I get frustrated. Okay. You're a freshman. Do you continue to walk in the direction of pre-k? Or the laser? Right, right. Yeah. Come on. No. Child. We've got to go. We need to get a pre-k, so I can get on with whatever you have to do. Right? And their lives are not going to be ruined, by the fact that you didn't play on every single park, bitch. That's what my son used to do. He used to jump on every single tank. And you can only leave so early. And you don't, you know what I mean? So we're just, right? So you can do this because you're a dad. So you've got, you've got this covered. You totally got this. It's your dad brain. What I find in brain and parenting, I don't know, are other people, parents, parents, you grow an extra, like, track. You have an extra brain, like Kyle has many stomachs. You have another brain that you've got when you became a dad. There it is. You've got all your dad stuff, man. You can totally do this. So what I want you to do, outline, stick to the pal. Stick to the pal. Keep walking your pal. Anything that you feel like is going to get you. Oh, it might not make sense. Maybe I'm going to text you. It's good enough. I'll fix it later. Oh, at the beginning of the work, I thought she was 80, and now I'm realizing that she's 63. Maybe I'll go back and change it. No. You understand? You know, it's just like your kid, wanting to go on the movie. Okay? You're going this way. You're going this way. Or when you take a road trip with your kids, right? Yeah, we just stopped doing it. We just stopped doing it. Okay. Okay. I'm like, I'm counting to three. Sit down. You walk into it. Do you really want to go where I'm going? We're going there. You have to do your part. The extra voices in your head will give you lots of information. They need to do their part and chime in when it's helpful. Okay? So you got it. You got it. I'm not worried. You just need to realize that you know, I got this. You got this. No sweat. This is a piece of cake. You got two kids. Lord, have mercy. Yeah. See? I know. I know whenever, yeah, the fine print, it was, yeah. Right? I know. It's like, well, keep us posted. Okay? And this is one thing you can do to help you stay on track. You come here, you just sit around with people who've managed to wait through whatever stuff they've had to wait through to get real work done. And that is really good energy. Okay? So come back, you know, we're here. You can't believe I'm here. I can't believe you're still here. Like this, because literally, I used to come separately two, three, four years ago. Right? And I thought it was like a short-term thing. No, no, no. We've been doing this since for a long time. Yeah. They renovated the lobby right here. We, you know, we've been, these tables weren't here. You know, exactly. These tables were not here. You know, the plaster was falling and we just keep, you know, showing up. Because it's important to me that people, other than people I see every day, like at NYU or whatever, have a place where they can talk about their writing, without being involved in stuff special all around. It's like Shakespeare in the park. Only it's not Shakespeare. It's not in the park, but it is free. If you don't have to wait, it's better than Shakespeare in the park. Hey, there you go. That's what we'll put on the board. It's like Shakespeare in the park. You press right here. It's not in the park, but it is free and you don't have to wait long. Yeah. Okay. Text them. Anybody else? Get stuck. Yeah. Does anybody ever get stuck? Ever? Stuck, right? I know. Stuck is like my real name. I know. So, so what do you, what do you do to work? Do you have any things ever work when you get stuck? I tend to take a lot of walks. Walks. Walks are good. Yeah. Free writing. Free writing is great. Right. Free writing is great. And I just end up with a lot of funny dialogue that has nothing to do with any kind of actual plot, but it just keeps going. Right. I remember, right? Did it get you over the, a little stuckness? Or does it? Not always. Right. So it kind of just puts you in a like a roundabout. Right. And I start, it kind of goes into circles. They're just having conversations. One thing that does help is it helps me a little bit with character development. Oh, good. So they come more to life. Right. Oh, good. Where I really get stuck is, is the plot just doesn't seem to go anywhere. The plot doesn't seem to go anywhere, right? Are you an outliner person? Do you outline? You do outline. So before you start writing, you have a map. You do. So the fact that you said the plot's not going anywhere, does it go somewhere in your outliner? No. It's time to sort of, I think, what it is is that even if I have the outline, I can't get from one place to the next. Even if you have, even if you know the next thing is... Right. You don't know how to get there. Get from it. It's just from one, one spot to the next. Right, right, right. How, what transpires to get them to that next place. Right, right, right. Okay, so you said when you get stuck, you do a lot of free writing and that helps you develop your characters, which is a good thing. Right. Because maybe you're stuck and you don't know enough about them. Right. Right? Because if you know what the next scene is, you know what they're reaching for, you know that, right? So Mary and Joe, they're in the scene and the next scene takes place in the car because they're going on a road trip. So they have to get from the apartment to the car. You know what they want. Are you clear on what the characters want scene by scene by scene? These things. So while you're free writing, you can do a little, sometimes it's helpful for me to do, to kind of stop like, take my pin off the page and stop writing, writing. So many beautiful things that come out in all that kind of stuff. And just go and do math. Math. My kind of math, which is basically make little charts. Like, okay, I have a character named Hamlet, let's just say. Do we all know Hamlet? Yes. Hamlet, great. Yes. Good. Okay. We all know Hamlet. Okay. So Hamlet, I have a character named Hamlet and he wants, what would we say? What does he want? You know Hamlet. How his father died, right? And he finds himself on a, in the first scene. Where does he find himself? The outline looks like this. Same one. It's the, the castle walls, right? And his, one of his friends, he's not on stage yet, one of his friends says, I'm like, who goes there or something? I don't know, paraphrasing. Okay. So by the time Hamlet comes on the stage, he wants to know what happened to his dad. So everything he does, scene by scene by scene, is moving him toward that goal. The thing that gets him stuck is that he's not sure if he really wants to, or if he finds out what he's going to do about it. Right? But maybe not a good enough, he's a tricky character. But he wants something. He's reaching for it every scene. Right? So, you have a grid that says, Hamlet. You're stuck. Right? The character's name is, he's a different, or types of Hamlet, you know, character name. What do they want? What are they doing in this scene to get what they want? What are they doing? Right? Hamlet, he's talk, he's daring to talk to the ghost. You see what I mean? What is he doing? He's not just standing there. He's going, wait, dudes, ratio, and friends. I'm going to talk to the ghost. None of them are talking to their story. He's going, I'm going to follow it. Remember, he follows the ghost. Right? And he has a private conversation with the ghost. You see what I'm saying? What is he doing in this scene to get what he wants? And you do that with every single character in the scene. What is he doing in this scene what are they doing? And in my world of theater, talking does not count as doing something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What are they doing? You know what I mean? He's daring to talk to the ghost. He's going a little further than they did before. You know, he's doing something. Right? So... Bless you. Thank you. Okay, you see what I mean? So go through it. When you're stuck, just ask, what are the characters doing? And if you don't know, turn to the character and ask, what are you doing in this scene? What physical activity are you engaged in right now? Again, talking is not as good as... Does that help? And then you can get... Then you can see how they go from one plot beat to another. I mean, in some place, yes. And it's a taste thing in place that I love. No. In place of... I mean, Shakespeare, the dialogue is what's happening, also. But those plays action. Man, you know, they're bringing in bodies on, you know, dead bodies. They're throwing themselves on the ground. They're fighting up their kingdoms. They're, you know, gouging out people's eyes. I mean, shit, that's life. It's kind of like life right now. You know, a lot of talk, talk, talk, talk. Yeah. So just try to give them something to do in addition to talk. We'll put it that way. Hi. What's your name? I'm Han. Han? Yes, I am. Just the thing about talking, you know, but if the dialogue is too bad, he actually... Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, I will. That's a very good point, Han. Did you hear what Han said? What is a dialogue is where one character's trying to convince another character of something. Yes, that is action. Yes, that is action. Most often, that's not what our dialogue is in place. People talking about their state of being and being. The play goes nowhere. Right. So, yes, you're exactly right. And I would consider like a chase scene. You know, one person not wanting to do something, the other person chasing after it. I think that's kind of like a car chase almost. But yes, you're correct. Thank you. Yes, Jim. Yes, Jim. You said a similar thing several months ago, and it was very helpful for me. But the wonderful thing is that you have four characters in a scene. Right. If you're asking each... what each of them wants, you actually are setting up like almost vectors of force, force and intensity. Right. So, yes, you said a similar thing for an individual scene. And you've got your conflict mapped out, and you know where it's... or can know where it's going and guided. But I've... That was very helpful to me really early on in this. When you do have several characters, it's wonderful because like I said, you've got... it's almost navigating it for you if you really map out what everybody wants moment by moment. Moment by moment. Thank you. Thanks. That's really important. And then, once you're really clear about what the character wants you by seeing the play takes on a life of its own, it starts kind of moving along on its own and you're not necessarily... you're not approaching the play of all of the play's kind of... okay? So, thank you. That's really helpful. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome. Sometimes, you have something you can think of. You're friends with Erin over here. Oh! No, no! Because Erin has a similar question. No, no. Okay. This is all the same question. Did you guys... Did you guys up in the top really loud? Not because I want to. There's a party down there. Okay. So, Hans said, so you've got an outline and then you're listening to the character's voice and you find that it's totally pulling you off the outline. And you think, this could be helpful. This could be good. This could be better. And then, what kind of writing are you doing when you step off the outline? What kind of writing are you doing? Log scenes look like that? Instead of following what I thought I was... Right. Right. I would say you have an outline that you feel good about. That you know what the characters want each day and you know what they're doing in each day to get what they want. Right. To move. I would say you're veering off when you step off the path, one step is fine, two steps is fine, three steps and you kind of can't see the path anymore. Right. Stop. Look at your outline again. See if somehow your divergence from the path I'm obeying to your outline. Right. I would try to get back on the path. I really, you know, I try to stay on the path. What I do is I do a thorough outline like am I really feeling each day? Am I clear about what the characters want each day? When I find myself strained from the path I really were to get somehow back on the path and at least bring to conclusion this thought, the original outline. If I can bring this thought to conclusion then I can look at it, I can invite some friends over to my house and have a meeting and then I can see what it is instead of trying every little thing that might pull my attention. You're talking about Aaron, who was a kid. Do you have kids? No. Okay. Well, they pull your attention from people. They pull your attention. That's okay. But we have to decide just have to keep to your path and this might be interesting write a post-it note, keep a notebook of every interesting idea that's going to take you off the path. It might turn into the very thing that you're looking for but if you are constantly hopping off the path it's going to take you so much longer to get your work done and it might be frustrating. Okay. Because when you talk about it you make a sad face. I mean if you were like, hey! Keep going. You're on to something that's great. Your face kind of was a sad face. Or a worry but you know like, ah, again. Yeah, what happened was that I ended up thinking, oh do I have to see Ryan as a new outline face up and I thought this is good. Right, right, right. It's bad. It doesn't sound like it's you know, exciting or anything. It's like being married or dating somebody that you really like. Have you ever done that? Yes! Okay great. Okay so, you know, there you are. You guys have traded wings and you're in love and you know and look at him. Look at that one. I'm going to go over here. Six pack abs or whatever. And kind of try to find the good thing about the best. And then you get to a certain note. But really, I would say get to the end. Take notes though. Oh I'm thinking take notes. Right, take lots and lots of notes on your phone, on a posted brand. And then at the end of your draft you can then take a look at those notes. And maybe they can be incorporated into your draft that you already have. Yeah, yeah, I'm not saying throw it out. I'm not saying ignore it. Just let it pull you from getting your work done. Great. Well I mean are you rewriting, you're rewriting the second draft though, right? And then that's a difference, that's a difference. That's okay then if you're going to re-write and you're bringing in new things. It's tricky. If you find yourself not getting your work done you're making a choice that's not helpful. But I mean the second draft, the second draft. Yeah, I'm thinking the first draft. The second draft I'm thinking how do I start branding out? Well that's a rewriting question. No, it's totally fine. It's a little hard. But it's a rewriting question. So there's a rewriting question of finish the first draft already and then how do we know what you should say and what you cut, right? And that's tricky. Have you had a reading of it? Have you had folks read it for you? Okay, okay. Different feedbacks. Okay. Have you had a live reading of it and you invite some people over to your house to come and join the local where we invite some people over to our house and sit around our dining table maybe. That could be really fun. How many characters are you playing now? Do you have four friends? So you invite your four friends, right? And you allow them to read your play and then you can have a conversation about it. And at that point after the conversation about what's on the page, you can say to them, and I got this wild idea about substance drugs. What do you guys think of that? Yeah. Right? So there's a way to start a revision process. Okay? Thank you. Okay. Great. It's just so fun. We are done. If you're behind the camera, thank you very much. We're going to be back. Thank you very much. We need to be first. We need to be first. So thanks for coming. You guys are great. Great questions today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.