 So many devices so little time there Better so sorry many struggles. It is five o'clock. Can you know this already? Hello? From five o'clock for a whole 20 seconds. Yeah Yeah, so it's watch we work it's Thursday the 13th of August it's National or is it international left-handed people's day? So maybe we write if those of us who aren't left-handed Right with your left hand my son's left-handed and It's also five months since my show has been on hiatus, which is really crazy Anyway, this is watch me work. We've been doing the show for 11 years. We started in the lobby of the public theater I was at a desk with the typewriter and sat down to work and Asked people to sit around and work with me and then I took their questions about their creative process And I told them it was a play that we were making First the action and then the dialogue and we've been doing the same thing for 11 years Thank you to the public theater for supporting us all this while and thank you to howl around who came on a few years ago to help us live stream from the lobby of the public theater and Since this COVID thing has come on to help us create this beautiful community. We do the same thing every day That's why it's easy. We work for 20 minutes And then we I take your questions about your work and your creative process And if you have a question along those lines, Audrey is going to tell you how to get in touch go Audrey It's SLP So if you are inside of the zoom and you have a question All you need to do is click on the participant tab Likely it's at the bottom of your screen if you're on a laptop or the top if you're on an iPad or a tablet Click on that screen It'll pop out a little box and at the bottom of that box There's a raise your hand button click on that a little blue hand appears and we'll call on you if we have time If you're watching on howl around TV All you need to do is tweet at us to ask a question. That's at watch me work SLP with the hashtag howl around H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D or you can tweet at the public theater which is at public theater and why or You can write to the public theaters Instagram and those are noise Those are the ways. Okay, so let's get started here. We Okay, here we are For the dialogue part of the play That's right There are no questions at the moment. Oh good. We can just keep working. We've got a question Hey Larry How's it going Larry? Hi, I only have I have just a visual. Yeah, where's your background? Oh Look nice Very nice, so in that luxurious position of being actually able to Consider a structure and I have enough parts to actually have parts to mix and match and decide What my act two is supposed to look like and whether the things that went in act one belong in act one and stuff like that, so just Taking some of your advice Post it's not no cards, but I like post it's are fun. Yeah, you like your post it's huh other coding little left brain engagement, so just Calling out the process. That's great. It looks great to Larry. Thank you. Where's your Aurora borealis in the background? my son is occupying the station Thanks Larry That's really funny that's hysterical Up next we've got Christina Christina Hello again. Hey girl. I Just want to first I want to thank you for what you offered on Tuesday about going up for the work every day and okay, I mean that look whatever Way it needs to look so I you know Trick myself into thinking that I need to write a scene in every time I sit down to write a scene but What I realized was that I have actually been doing a lot of Work on the play not typing it, you know, like consistent work Alison music a lot So there's been a lot of not so much now that I'm not walking around the city anymore But a lot of time spent writing in that kind of way so I sat down Tuesday and wrote it all wrote about part two and three and it kind of just like blue So there's a version of it. Don't know what it looks like hadn't looked at it yet, but um it exists Um, so thank you for that because it kind of there's a valve that opened um Question I have is about Dramaturgie and inspiration I'm reading a lot of Baldwin and Angela Davis right now. She's doing wonders to my psyche and I'm noticing that my writing is uh Spicier or charged in a certain way and it's not necessarily a bad thing. I just Want to make sure that I'm staying on track with my play. Um, so my question is how do you balance? Your what you get inspiration from and your dramaturgy in a way that You can still let your voice come out in your writing and take what you need and let it go and then be SLP on the page Yeah, that's a great question Christina. I um, I I don't read as much when I'm writing Yeah, I mean that's just my personal thing, you know, I separate the two pretty much and um I mean, I mean to read Baldwin and Angela Davis is always great But if you're concerned about Your voice being able to shine through then just you know Yeah, just be mindful of that concern that you're happy, you know, I mean Uh, but you've you've written drafts of your play now. So maybe in this pause Before you do the next draft you can enjoy your reading and then you know Go back to your writing, you know, I just I just kind of slowed down the reading when I'm writing and Just in general Sounds like great reading And great writing congratulations on your writing too girl Thank you I feel like I I like I don't know I feel lighter. It's very strange, but it's it's freeing Great job Thanks, Christina I'm up next we've got rinald Rinald, are you there? Hello Hi, hey, hey rinald Hi, I'm actually new to this space. So I just want to thank you all for having the space to begin with. I'm very I feel very honored and lucky to be here um So I'm actually very young. I'm new to writing um and I'm 24 years old And honestly when it comes to my experience with writing, it's usually been academic or some kind of essayist type thing Um, and I love to edit. That's actually my one thing. I love to edit things. I don't know why Um, but in coming to this space It feels like creativity is like the main driver. So my question is is What is it that kind of inspired you to get into writing to begin with? You know to dedicate your life to this because these are the questions i'm asking myself In what ways like how what is my relationship with writing and how can I get more involved and in what ways do I think writing? um Can be a larger part of my life. So in what ways like when did you like consider yourself a writer? You know, and when did you start showing up every day to put in that work? And what's gotten you to where you are and kind of like You know, yeah, so that's yeah, so so ronald. So right you're new. So this is i'm going to do the you know The jujitsu move that i've done so many times in these 11 years because the question is about you Yeah, yeah, no, no, of course So i'm gonna say so i'm gonna say like why are you feeling moved to be a writer right now? I mean, you know to to start writing right now and to vote, you know, some of your life to writing What's moving you? What's what's what's firing you? How'd you even get here today? Oh, my friend christian's actually been part of this group. I don't know if christian's spoken I don't want to also put him on blast either, you know, but he's in here um So i'm here because i'm actively exploring it, you know, um, I do get like joy out of writing and I think they're There are things that cross my mind which give me inspiration. I generally think i'm a creative person um And I get satisfaction out of creating things, you know So I guess it's a matter of like the questions that I ask myself are Like how important do I think the things that i'm thinking are like, why should I be writing them? You know and like is it like is it worth the time? You know finding like those purpose type questions Because I think there's an inherent like a purpose in writing obviously like it's you've been around forever I like I see me doing some stuff, you know, but I don't know. Um, I don't think I've ever showed up Day to day to write something the way that this group has before, you know um So yeah, like I just inherently understand like the importance of writing But for me personally, I think It's just a side that I want to explore more to see like I feel like I have this talent I just kind of see what I want to do with it and in what ways I can unpack it I think that's great. I don't think, you know, those are great answers right now, you know And they resonate with you because they're yours And so what we would suggest is just show up every day for it, you know and Again since you're new this thing. It's a timer, you know, and you can tell the difference hopefully between this thing and this thing This thing is a phone your phone is crack And the timer helps you keep time because your phone is is full of temptations, you know what I'm saying? So if you can ronald Get a timer a simple kitchen timer and give yourself, you know 20 minutes a day just to show it with your notebook Right Who said was it thorough or emerson, you know, I know by going where I need to go. So the answers to What should I be writing why does writing appeal to me all those answers will begin to unfold the more time you put into the craft it will start to Talk to you or if it's already started to talk to you the conversation will deepen and become more rich Like you will be developing a relationship with your craft And if you just put the time in and it's the easiest thing To do and it produces magic. That's where the magic is that the magic is in the time that you put into it and It holds all the answers because you're going to be Finding the answers within you Which I believe Are the most important answers you're going to find Thank you so much. You're welcome so much. Thanks for joining Um, all right, um up next we've got camille Are you there camille? Yeah Hi, hi there Hey there. Hi I am also new to the community like from like and I just found out from my beloved yoga teacher over the weekend that this was happening and uh It's really exciting So my question is I'm I'm a writer. I write nonfiction my background's journalism and starting in about june well actually june 11th. I know the exact date I sort of set myself The artist way morning pages And it went for a little bit of time sort of you know, musing nice sort of rambling into like Memoir short Very short almost like flash nonfiction stories Of my life and I got really excited about it My husband's an artist and he kind of Said hey, why don't you put some of this out there? So I started sharing it on facebook and my friends are going crazy over it I don't I guess my question is I have a novel that I want to write and I feel like this period has really helped me kind of like almost like creative therapy going through the These short little memoir takes of my life And I'm just wondering Like how do I know what form this should take? Or is it Just a form of therapy to help me get to the novel writing So I wondered if you had any thoughts about that in your own experience Yeah, I would say if it again, we were talking about feel yesterday and if it feels Good and you're every day you're kind of encouraged to continue Then I would say right now Definitely right now It is the form that it should be in Do you know what I mean? I mean it's all good. It doesn't have to um, you know Be a Stepping stone to something bigger. It can be the thing itself. It sounds like it's going really really well That's it's fun. It's obsessively fun. Yeah. Well, that's great. You know, I keep it just like like it is Okay, and just keep writing them to you, you know, and maybe one day it's going to slow down a little bit And then you slow use writing more slowly and then it picks up again You know, and you you've got many many many of them these short bursts of memoir things Sounds great. Yeah, you know, and they could you can imagine them in a collection Of you know of whatever people were still reading, you know a collection, right that that could be kind of great Yeah, kind of great. Yeah Yeah Thank you. You're welcome and thank you in general to everybody. This is an amazing space Neil because you guys are here All right. Up next we've got verneeda Go for it verneeda All right. Um, can y'all hear me? All right. Hi everyone. Hi slp Hi, audrey Good to be here. Thank you as always for the space Um, I am coming in with a an update slash Uh, I guess part two to my last question. So I'm continuing to move forward on my hot but smart article And I've been pulling together my allies which is which is great and I'm very excited about that But um, I think I talked last time and I really took the heart the piece around I wrote down my goals. Um, I talked about, you know, doing kind of my brain dump first and having had the experience of Going so far out with the stream of consciousness having a hard time pulling It back in well, I have like my three very succinct bullet points as far as the goals for the piece I feel like I have gotten um all of the points that I want to cover Are there however, I have still done this brain dump where I now have seven thousand words that I'm trying to call down to You know under two thousand even sixteen hundred things kind of long um, and so, um What I have now though, it's like there's just like a lot of versions of any particular point that I want to make, you know, anyone Sentence I might have drafted four different versions of that sentence and I'm having a hard time deciding which of these four versions is best to move the piece along and support said three goals So any if I thought to ask if you had any thoughts about that? Yeah, so it's like the edit you're in the editing phase kind of right you're in the editing phase and you have um right, um So you have to focus we talked about the other day about putting blinders on right you've got a lot of material And now you've got to focus okay, so I would say focus on one bullet point a day Okay, will that get in in the way? I mean, will that still allow you to make your your finish line that you want to get to for nita? um I probably do need to move a bit faster than that my over my thought was I was trying to get at least like a rough didn't have to be polished but a rough First draft to one of my allies tomorrow and um so that he could take a look at it over the weekend Okay, okay. All right. All right. No, we can we can do that. It's where are you? Are you in new york east coast west coast? Okay, okay. I'm just trying to factor in the time. All right, so tomorrow so like eod tomorrow end of day Yeah, okay, so um, you're gonna take do you have All day to write tomorrow? Yes, okay, and it's Whatever it is 5 30 so it's going to be six o'clock the end of this okay, so you take You take an hour with each bullet point then you have four Okay, so take an hour or take an hour. Uh, yeah, do you stay up late? I can okay. I'm just I'm just trying to give you like an hour on each one Okay, so if you can't or no, how about this even better? How long in the bullet points like like what this this? Oh, I see I'm trying to I'm trying to give you if you spend 30 minutes on each bullet point Today, okay, so from six to Whatever, what is that two hours of writing? 30 minutes you just focus on one you don't look at them all you know go You know just focus on one bullet point for 30 minutes Okay, so after this watch me work is over you can set your timer work on one bullet point Stand up like we told we're talking to somebody the other day We read it aloud just one bullet point for 30 minutes Okay, just focus on it. Look at all the versions all the variations of sentences whatever for 30 minutes Enjoy it for 30 minutes when the timer goes off go to the next bullet point Just focus on that one. Don't go look back at the old one. Nope. Nope. Just just focus on the one you're looking on bullet point number two Just focus on it for 30 minutes beaty beat the timer goes off Go to the next one and so on till you've done worked on your four. Okay Okay, put away sleep on it repeat tomorrow uh at least like Two more times or one more time really if you want in a second time if you want to do it again Okay, so then in that that makes sense and then by I guess my follow-up question to that is Because there is a lot of material in the sense of like there's the three bullet points are where the goals like what's my Point that I want to make or what is it that I want to be the outcome? Of the article But then I also created this outline and that also has a lot of bullet points so that I could you know structure How I'm telling this story in order to achieve the three goals However, you divide up the work what you need to do for nita is divide up the work and focus So if you've got three bullet points in an outline, you're going to spend a certain amount of time Working on each thing Do you understand so you so 30 minutes working on a bullet points? Work through those and the outline spend 30 minutes working on it. Just focus I I feel like you've got a lot of work and it's very hard to just focus Yes Okay, so again and what's great is that you're going to hand it off to your your friend one of your allies by end of day tomorrow Which gives you plenty of time And the best way to work on it between now and then is to isolate the parts that you need to work on Okay If you start going from one bullet point to the other to the outline to this that you know What am I looking at? I'm looking at everything. It's very overwhelming. It also hurts your neck Okay Yeah, so focus and then go to the next thing focus go to the next one focus go to the next one, okay? Okay, I'm with you. Okay Thank you. Sounds like you're doing a lot of great work really does. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited It's freaking it's getting energy behind it. Right. That's really great Thank you rinita Oh, sorry Appreciate you Timothy you're next I'm clicking again. Hold on Are you there Timothy? Oh, there we go. Yes. Cool. Hello. Uh, hi This question sort of goes uh in the guise of what you were saying about showing up every day And it's kind of simple, but I was wondering are are you always working on something or do you recommend that or Is it More important to even show up every day when you're like finish something and haven't started the next thing or You know, what are your what are your thoughts about that? I joke my husband was like so when you're next not working on anything. What are you going to do? And I'm like, don't even don't you're making fun of me um The my difficulty is that I do a lot of um work for hires So I'm in this like I said five months hiatus I've been working on this genius series of things every single day seven days a week for the past five months So that when we go back into production with covet we're going to be ready Um, and I'm writing two movies so When I work on when I'm not working on anything I'm usually doing something You know, I like to I like to do things You know what I'm saying? But then like you guys when you have you know research, you know what I mean? You can you know or or maybe reading, you know our friend Pima children You know that could be kind of that's showing up for yourself. You can show up for yourself and your work in so many different ways Sometimes sitting on the beach or in the backyard or in the park You know just soaking up the vitamin d is showing up for your work also so I think most importantly is the getting into the habit of showing up for yourself I think that's the the the most important thing so that you're creating this this garden for yourself to return to When it's time to do a job Does that make sense timothy? Yes, yeah, okay. I don't mean to become like workaholics I just mean to create that space so that if you have kids or a spouse or whatever or live with folks And they know that you're working. They know that you value that that Schedule for yourself if you will That's kind of what's wrong. Okay. Thank you. Thank you timothy. Thanks, timothy Um, up next is ellie Hello. Yes. Hi This is my first time here as well. So thank you all. Um, I just learned about this and this is really fun and amazing to get to write with people my question is um Something I've found myself struggling with on my writing recently and I just actually got some Feedback and critique that parallels with my own self critique Is that just the tendency to over explain? In my writing and kind of not trust the the story to do the work itself I find myself really drawn to writing Strong thematic pieces with a very strong core essential theme and idea But then I sometimes find myself getting dragged into writing the theme What instead of writing the story And I'm wondering if you have advice on how to balance having like that strong theme and letting that be a big part of the story But having the characters still lead the story and not getting dragged into this over explaining and kind of giving the theme space to be If that makes sense. Yeah, so why are you attracted to theme ellie? um, I just I I really love um theater for social justice and I've really drawn to uh I always say I'm drawn to writing things that um deal with tragedy and trauma but Through a lens of hope So kind of so I'm really drawn to writing um That focuses on on on themes of like how do we move forward or how do we deal with certain issues? So I find myself usually writing about one particular issue But then for example the last piece I did um where I got this feedback was I Produced it at the college Penn State. I just graduated from Penn State Congratulations. Thank you And I produced it there and it was all about drinking culture on college campuses and the effect that that has on students on the university on parents who lose children to alcohol abuse and so I find myself really wanting to write about one single issue But then I feel like sometimes the issue will cover the actual story Right, right. Hmm So if you were going Because while you're talking you know everything you were talking about Had words in it That made me think of people But when you used the kept using the word issue I didn't hear any people in there Just tonally so if you're Walking, I don't know. This is weird if you're walking into a house And you look around the house I want you to see the people You know, I mean the the thing you play road about college drinking that's a really important issue But more important than the issue are the people Right, right. We want to we want to I mean we want to know the people Right So like a play like Oh, I don't know, um, you know King Lear, do you know that play King Lear, right? So the issue of that play is oh, I don't know Power and the abuse of power and what love what is love really and parents and children right kind of right stuff like that. I don't But who the fuck cares Right He's an old grumpy dude. He divides up his kingdom and asks his daughter who loves me the most and then He walks around trying to get hugs and shit and he brings his fool with him and Cordelia and Right, right. Why does the dog have breath and now no breath at all? I mean issue What who cares get into your characters your people Social justice plays are very important to write but they wouldn't really Fly if they weren't they didn't have great characters in them. Right, right Okay, so Fall in love with your people So if you have net and if you think of an issue play that you want to write say who is that person Who's going through that thing? You know get in with with the people You see what i'm saying like who is she? What's her deal? How she's struggling? How does she get from day to day? You know, so the issue and I got the issue or the theme will start to Fade away, but it won't be any less pungent Right or present because you would have you the issue is going to be like wine Everybody's going to be like totally seeping intoxicated on this amazing issue, right? I've uh, I've yet In my 190 billion years of writing I've yet to write a play where I even know what the theme is I read about people tell me. Oh, that's the thing. Okay, great Yeah, I think I sometimes get too bogged down being like this is when at the end of the day Your right meaning is subjective So even if I have this strong theme everyone will get a different thing from it Yeah, and again part of your power as a writer is you don't Need to tell people what to think right I find plays and novels and movies that that are like that very thin in their writing Yeah, there's just there's a theme and you get it and homelessness is bad. Yeah, okay great. Yeah, you know You know, we all gotta join together and be friends. You know, uh, whatever, you know But you tell me king lear. It's like, oh man, there's so much going on in that play Yeah, we're fences. Wow. I don't know the theme But wow the characters right And actors are going to get excited and they you know and and your director she'll get thrilled and your designers, you know You're creating a world, right? Right, so get excited about people. You like people. Do you? Oh, yes, I do Well, there you go Thank you. That's great. You're welcome. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thanks Ellie Um, all right, we've got about 10 minutes left and we're going to go to Lynn Are you there Lynn? Hi, I have one question and when you talked about theme just now I couldn't help thinking of white noise and how you know, I mean You cared so much about the characters that I mean it broke your heart and and Of course there was theme and it was you know You know, it hurts you but it hurts you because it hurt the characters You know because you showed the humanness You know, so okay, that's about you. Okay. That's what's about you. How you doing Lynn? I'm doing okay. I I I have like two questions one Also, I was reading Pema children and um I had the honor of going for a weekend up to that amazing place where where she used to give seminars, you know, just like weekends and it was quite remarkable, but I when I was looking at her book last night I saw this Recognizing our kinship with others and I was thinking about that and how this space is so um Remarkable in this and it's It's remarkable in the way that um You know, I write for now. I I do my writing. I do my work. I put my ass in the sea and I show up But when I show up with other people doing the same thing there's there's a kind of power to it that I do not have when I'm alone Right and and that's what makes this so remarkable. I know we just do 20 minutes I'd love it to to be longer, but you know, it's just a It's an energy thing which I I think is remarkable and Inexplicable for me Uh, so my question, okay That's that my question is when we spoke the other day you said talk to your characters And talk louder And so I was walking in the park and it was really hot and my mask was so wet you know and all of a sudden These other characters came for another piece another play You know and I thought What it was so kind of loud, you know, these characters these other characters talking to me and nothing to do with the play I was working on Uh, was that you? Keep going And So who do I follow? I mean should I just follow these people who are talking to me? But just it's a different story. It's a different, you know My sister Lynn how easily you get distracted my phone beeps You're like Okay Yeah, you you can have you can have a little a little pad of paper if you want I mean, it's great that you're going out and you're talking and you're talking to your characters. That's great Okay, so and you're listening you're opening your ears up great and you're hearing things And you're excited about what you're hearing great. That is not No need for you to get distracted otherwise, I mean Then you could start working with those characters and get distracted tomorrow You know, and then you're just going to jump from thing to thing which might not be very satisfying So I would suggest you can walk around with your notebook, you know, not this but a notebook and you can Jot down some of the things that you're Hearing or you can take your phone and record some of the things that you're thinking about, you know and jot them down later um But I would suggest You know, if it's it's monday, it's it's thursday and i'm going to focus on this project You know, or i'm going to write on this project for 20 minutes and then I will jump to the next project But but uh, just be mindful that when my phone went off you were like, huh? Yes, focus is really important. Yeah. Yeah, because I mean because I mean it's important Because you want to you want to you want to accumulate You know, you want your writing to start to continue Because you've been writing a lot, you know, you want your writing to continue to accumulate And especially in these times where we're just pulling so many different directions It does help to just keep your focus Yes, it really you're absolutely right. I have my health sleep cycle is different now because I don't lie But you know, I'm I'm going to sleep like at four or five in the morning. Oh, wow Right, you know So It feels like that, you know, it's not it doesn't feel bad. It's just I like to be on more of a schedule You know my life so So it's more like what you're talking you talked to Bermuda about I mean you gave her the structure of her day tomorrow You know, she has some she has it, but she also has a deadline You know This hour work on this part this hour work on this part, you know, like that I mean that kind of focus and that kind of structure is So important and I And it's completely made up. I mean, it's it's not completely arbitrary because you know, she has a deadline She has a but it's completely specific to what she wants to accomplish So for example, if you know if ronald we talked to wants to get you know Wants to deepen and unpack his his desire to write He has a structure. It's 20 minutes a day focus on it You know, we can identify the goal and then we can create some kind of a means to achieve Something like that. Um, that's all it is It's I mean and we can do this on our own for ourselves and we have done it Those of us sort of finished things or at least shown up a couple of days in a row You know, larry's got his post at board. I mean people we're doing that for ourselves, right? I know Yeah You know So Thank you All right, we've got about a minute left and we actually don't have any questions And I thought it'd be a good time for me to chat about what's coming up So, uh, just so everybody knows we're actually going to be taking a hiatus for the next few weeks And we're going to be changing our structure when we come back in the fall For uh post labor day So we will be working that out in the beginning of september and we will keep you all posted as we have new dates As we can when we come back in the fall And that's that's pretty much it Everything we've been talking about whether it's whether we've been talking specifically about your project What you're going through what you're trying to achieve Everything that we've talked about Hopefully has been useful to what you're going through now What you might be going through in a week or so and again the most important thing Is that you continue to show up for yourself Continue to show up for your work That will solve In my experience again a million years of writing that will solve Ninety nine percent of the problems and the other problems you can't solve because there's somebody else's shit And you know you got to let it go So to get your own work done Just keep showing up to your work And when you find yourself thinking oh, it's too hard Spend a little time more time with it Beautiful things will unfold for you. It's it's I mean everybody On this in this group has had that experience So far so Okay And we'll be back. We'll be back. Yeah, and I'll be sure to email everybody that we are clear We love you and be well. Yeah. Oh, thanks for the heart mo. We love you guys and I'm so proud of you guys Look at what we've achieved. Yay Love kisses. I know thanks. Thank you. Thanks Audrey. Have a good hiatus