 It's so funny that we, this is the time we get together and work together, but think of all the hours of work that we put in, you know, and we're like, you know, during the week we don't see you. I know. Sorry, I'm instilled in a kind of a hangover. A lot of time, a lot of interest. So here we are, we're at Wash Me Work, and we're at Where We Work, and we talk about your work, your work. So if any of you have a desire to work in a supportive community, whatever your work is, it doesn't have to be writing. It certainly doesn't have to be dramatic writing. It can be any kind of any kind of work that you're doing and working on. And ask questions about your work or your artistic process, your creative process. Here's where we are, and this is what we do over here. Wash Me Work is intentionally the city title. The me in the title is you, actually, we're talking about you. So we're here to talk about your work and your creative process. And you have to sort of surprise faces. Yes, yes. It's like a play, you know. I think, you know, the play works really well when you realize it's not about the author or when your spouse or somebody says, you know what, this isn't about you. And, you know, that's what I say to myself. It's not about me, it's about you. So what we do, does anybody know, have any questions? Oh, excuse me. This is a scene from this moment. What we do is we, it's also a men of theatrical, what do I call it? Men of theatrical performance writing class or something like that. So it's a play also. This is a play in the sense that, you know, all the roles are staged. This is a play. We create the action together first by doing our work. And then we create dialogue together by having a conversation. I know. Just like that. So we do that. And the goal in mind, for that to come to a conclusion. What do you want audiences to take away from this? The feeling that, you know, you can get your work done. And there's a community to support you. But also live stream, thanks to Avery behind the camera and all of you here who help us get this off the ground every time we do it. And the live stream and folks can contact us in real time. Thanks for the question. All of you can tell us how to do that. Hi. So you can contact us in a multitude of ways now. So you're on HowRound.tv. There's actually a little chat on the side that you can log into. And as we're watching that, Twitter. And it's at Watch Me Work, SLP, hashtag HowRound. It's sort of the LRU and D. And we're also watching our Instagram and Facebook. Yeah. Okay. All right. So is everybody clear on what you're supposed to be doing for the next 20 minutes? Also, if you want to, you know, stare at the space, that's okay too. I'm going to do some work because I got work to do. So we're going to set our timer and synchronize our phones. So hopefully you got some work done and you didn't. That's okay too. This is your life. So here comes the dialogue part. Here we, you know, answer questions about your creative process. And, you know, anybody have any questions? There are many. There are several. There are five. They may have a good gram. Okay. You need to have a good gram. John Douglas. Okay, now I can remember you. I'll just attach your, like this to the actor. Okay. Okay. Okay. J.D. Cool. Okay, J.D. What you got? So I'm coming for a couple years. I think it's really cool. Right, right, right. I think it's really cool that I do this. And I've never asked a question before. I kind of felt like I knew what my answer was. Oh. Which was that I needed to write more consistently. Right. And a couple years ago, as far as sitting down for the first 20 minutes, I was sitting in the time. And now I can, I sit down for almost a half an hour every day. Okay. Right. And today was an hour. So I got to have a hard time. Okay. Can everybody hear J.D. talking? He's that kind of, kind of sorry. I'm just going to repeat what you said to this point. So he's been coming for, to this watch and work for a couple several years. I mean, it's a very, very tasty, and I keep getting my name on it. But, and he's saying that at first it was difficult. At first he asked a question. Right. Because he figured it was just violent now. Or I'll have to start to scream. Thanks. Now we don't want to go to Lackley to start to scream. Because she won't stop. So, so he's been coming for a few years. At first he didn't ask any questions because he kind of knew, well, hey, I got to sit down and put my time in. Right. And put the time in 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, consistently daily. And now? The pages are piling up and that feels really good. I finished a short. I kind of work consistently on a couple projects. That feels good. That's great. I don't know though. I'm having a real problem with my relationship to my work. In that I know that it's important and I want to keep doing it. But I just am really unsatisfied with everything I do. And it's just, it's frustrating. I kind of don't know how to feel about it. Because I want to keep doing it and it's important. I know I got to keep writing and keep polishing and stuff. But it's just, it's kind of like that rough time when I'm just not satisfied. Right. I don't really know how to feel about my work in this particular period where it's difficult. Right. It's like, I've been coming for a couple of years and I haven't asked a question. So the first question is going to be amazing. That's really great. So did everybody hear today's question? Because it kind of got quiet. Thank you. And thanks folks for the lobby for trying to get on with it. So a question. Do you have a, do you go to the grad school? Do you have a reading group? I'm in a writer's group where we meet once a month. Okay. And do you keep each other accountable? Okay. So how would you like it if you had a relationship, like a romantic relationship? And I said, how do you deal with your spouse? And said, why don't we keep each other, we meet once a month, and we keep each other accountable. How would that feel? How would you feel about your spouse? Right. I mean, that's not like love to me. Right. Right. Right. Right. I'm trying to hold it. Right. So you're showing up, you're being a good guy in a relationship, and you're being kept accountable. Right. Right. And there's love, right. So where's the love? I always call that, yeah. But we won't pretend to sing it, because it sounds like I'm a bird of black, and now we have it with you. So at the risk of being corny, I'm just going to say, if you don't know how to feel about it, do you need to be given permission to really love your work? What is keeping you from getting excited about the sweat of your brow, the fruits of your labors? Sometimes I get ideas, and it's great because I have a daily practice, and I keep the ideas down on paper, and that feels really good, because for years I would just keep notes in my notebook and do anything with it. Right. So some days are exciting, and then some days I just... What about your writing group? Do they give you love? That's lots of encouragement. Lots of encouragement. Does it feel like love? I mean, the writer group is great, but that's not my work. I mean, how they respond to you. Oh, they're very encouraging. They're very encouraging and loving. So visit it with me. So great to hear you're getting hugs from your writer's group, but what's keeping you from... What do you think it is? Why are you excited about your work? I mean, I would like my work to be better, but I know intellectually that I need to not expect the first few things I produce to be masterpieces. So I know that intellectually, I still want them to be better. And only when they're better will you really get excited about them? That's a horrible attitude, but I guess that's sort of how I honestly feel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when you were... I know, so think back. Back in your life, like when you were two, I know it's clearly back. It's all great. And we can't remember, and that I think is the downside of evolution, right? If we were, you know, hopefully the more involved people will remember that. Because that's where I think maybe I'm guessing somebody, caregiver, mom, dad, whomever, gave you a lot of encouragement for doing like things that we would consider like, not that much. You know what I'm saying? Like when you were one, you were probably like crawling, right? I mean, I was, and drooling, right? And probably excused by inappropriate language, shitting in your pants and peeing too. Right? In your diapers, right? I mean, unless you were like, right? And you weren't reading, you probably did not. Or writing, or walking upright. And somebody in your life gave you tremendous amounts of encouragement, maybe. I was lucky, yes. Right, okay. And so, back to those eyes, some of us, we had somebody there, right? Who fed us and closed us and cheered us on for like, mom and dad, having a party, right? See? I don't know if they called you JD. If they came, oh, come on! And there you went. And they cheered you on, right? They were like, well, when you can, you know, when you can run, and that's when we're going to just cheer them on. Right? So we have to think back to those times, and we forget those times to our peril. Because we can't imagine getting excited about this. Right? But that's what we're doing, and we all do it. I mean, I do. So I'm assuming everybody does it. But we all do it. We all take baby steps with our work. We all have things like first drafts, right? Even if they're great when they come out. But most of the times they're not. Most of the times they're shitty, and that's okay. And the trick is to get excited about your best effort, even if it's not great. And in a way to get more excited about the fact that you can keep working than producing something wonderful. That's like the trick. Right? So I would say what you've done is you've gotten really good at sitting down for 20 minutes. You've gotten really good at showing up here. You've gotten really good at sitting down for an hour. You've got this daily practice. Here's the time to level up to the next level. You're going to get, you're going to start feeling good about your best effort. That's the next level. This is the level that you're on right now. I mean, it's not like I work so good. Don't give me any notes because I'm perfect. We're not talking that. We're just talking, yay me! Hooray! You can do your zone pat on the back for finishing a draft. I'm not finishing a page. I'm just sitting down for 20 minutes. I do. I'm constantly doing this. Good, good. Because the kind of work that I know I have to do, I have to constantly be cheering myself off for doing this. Because this is all I do, actually. When you see it, when we see it, I think it looks like we're this. It looks like it. But actually, I'm just doing this really fast and consistent top. And it's great. And it looks like, oh, look, she's walking. I'm just like, right? Okay. And all artists, I mean, I don't know if all artists do it, but those of us who can sustain some kind of career, you have to be okay with just your best effort. You know? I mean, I mean, different artists work different ways, but you don't want me one of those people with the cocktail party. It's like whining and complaining. This is not you. But like, oh, me, oh, me. Oh, please. Just, you know, do your work, love for your work for what it is. And the other tricky thing, the secret, the secret is the more you love it and pat yourself on the back and it gets excited about the process, the better it's going to get. Because you're going to enjoy the process. The more you enjoy the process, the more you're going to do it. And the more you do it, the more you will improve and the better it's going to get. Right? And that's not to say again, we're not saying that you love your work so much, you can't just say anybody, that's not what we're talking about. Okay? So this is the level of your own. So welcome to the level of now you get to love your work. And you know, it's a real, it's a place, you know? Okay? Thank you. You're welcome. Great question. And you don't have to wait two years to ask me another one. You can also ask that stupid question and we'll add those underlying questions too. Okay? I'm sorry. I always knew before that the answer was to just keep showing up. That's why I know. Yeah. Okay. Love you. You gotta love me and brother. Yeah. Baby steps and pat yourself on the back, you know? And just know that you're in a community that does that. Okay. We've got your present. Oh. I'm just gonna tap some candy. Oh. Okay. Thank you. How does this... Hi. I'm gonna eat this while you're talking to me. I know. I think I went to the break. Yeah. And you said to me, Oh where is it? You said get some stars. Oh yeah. She said get some stars and, and so on Amazon they have gold stars, small one. I chose small because I'm a bit like you and silver stores and every time I sit down every day and I put a store on it and for some reason you know so I would on Amazon they were like three bucks get some stars you know really get some stars also you can get yourself some little stars like you get yourself some you can write yourself a valentine oh dear JD I'm so proud of you for writing every day shit what you're doing is you're creating these loops these grooves in your mind of like encouragement and it really helps so yeah another question I mean it's one it's sort of like my question I was doing this workshop with this amazing playwright she's so amazing that I feel why am I writing you know it's that feeling of she's amazing and it's not comparative so much as like and she's really worked so hard and now is getting direction right you know it's not that I'm in awe but I'm in awe you know what I'm like right right right yeah yeah so right so when you see other people in the fields who are doing wonderful work and you really you like them and admire them and maybe they're your friends or whatever you're doing great things and you're wondering yourself why am I doing it you know right and well why do you think you're doing it yeah that's great right you never had that person cheer you on for your best effort every day right right right and so it's hard so it's a skill that you have to develop in yourself right yeah yeah yeah it's I think it is stronger because you have you know more reason to you know it's it's weird I think there's so many things that we can tell ourselves there's so many reasons that we can give ourselves to stop doing what it is that we're doing and sometimes people do and they talk and they say I can't write that because you know if my mom ever read it she'd hate me or I can't write that because my community would cut me off I can't write that because people would realize that I'm really a whatever whatever so there's hundreds of reasons right so I can't write that because you know somebody is already writing beautifully what am I even doing in the field if there's that person right but the field means everybody and if you are drawing to the field and you have a right to be there you have a right to be in the field you know what I mean? you do you know you have a right to be here and in practice you know JD needs to send himself some valentines and maybe you do too maybe you know star is good you got the gold star send yourself some valentines and practice you know we don't know what the food said touching the ground and saying I have a right to be here so it's while people that you admire can you know wow inspire you you know you have to sure and also they can make you oh shit you know why am I even bothering you have to remind yourself that you have the right to be here because you too have a song and you have a right to sing it and just because they're good and getting it kind of well-deserved you know traction and attention and whatnot doesn't mean that they're the only fucking song that needs to be sung you know what I mean? I mean that would be a real shame and you know I was thinking you're about to work everything you know so knowing that you are a thing that is part of the everything so the everything you're a thing that's part of the everything you too have something to contribute regardless of your age and your gender you know whatever whatever whatever you know you just do otherwise if you didn't you wouldn't feel the need to do it and you'd be very happy being a brilliant you know a physicist you wouldn't feel the need to write you'd feel the need to solve yet another equation I'm not really sure what physicists do but I'm sure it's something involving that kind of thing you know what I mean you know what I'm saying and it's just true although the world as it is constructed will it's conspiring to tell you otherwise you know so yeah are you on Facebook? spend a little less time on it well I don't spend a lot of time I want to be able to tell you about things yeah yeah yeah living less than that your head would be activities and successes or food choices you know what I'm saying I mean kind of yeah just kind of stuff away from that it helps it really helps just focus focus on your work especially if you've had an upbringing or whatever history where you haven't encouraged to do that you know now's the time to to give yourself even more of your attention yeah man hi what's your name? Bo like B.E.A.U. oh Bo like B.E.A.U. hi so I just like a two part question okay I'll see if I can like so I'm at very much in the beginning stages of my career of writing so I'm having trouble getting to the chair every day to write or at least finding ways to do that I was just wondering if you have any favorites like little tactics you have to get yourself to write or at least get yourself to start automatic writing or okay what's the second question the second question is juicier oh okay I'm working on this piece right now that's it's very personal and it's very painful to write and I don't know if you had any ways of navigating like that the process of writing is something that's very hard for you to write yeah well it's good because often you know when we have two per question it's the same answer like said like two different ways which is good which is lucky it's actually all the same answer like everything is we are all things that are part of the everything so it's all the same answer so how do I show up to my writing practice every day and how do I write something that's difficult right just to simplify you know for the purposes of same answer because for you right now writing is really difficult so of course it's difficult to show up at your writing practice because what you're writing is difficult right so it's like difficult okay so we can I think we can give you things to try that will solve both you move both things forward right the timer I used my phone here but pretend I didn't use that usually I have a digital timer or you know one like this although this isn't this is really cute but you know it's a problem really it's really cute and there would be a sound cue in some booth somewhere that would make it rain but it's Monday and the stage manager isn't working but we have it's just a digital timer and set it every day for say you know 10 minutes right and show up at your writing place every day for 10 minutes and if you want to start you can do the same time every day around like are you a morning person a night owl an afternoon kind of person that's a really good question too I would call myself a night owl but I find what I write the most is in the morning if I find myself I wake I'll wake up at 7 in the morning and I'll stumble to my computer and write 10 pages it's weird sounds like that's your idea of writing time so how about every day try the 7 a.m. turn on your timer I would suggest not using your phone your phone is cracked and I can tell it's the first time they've heard that so they're addicted but it's okay so you turn on a timer use your phone if you don't have the means to get anything else but 10 minutes just 10 minutes see if you can be 10 minutes every day 10 pages once a month okay that's really exciting and you should do one of those movies about the artistic process which is bullshit but show up every day for 10 minutes if you want to up the time 15 minutes 20 minutes every day for 20 minutes can you do that because that's what's going to make your process and when you have difficulty I have to show up at my desk for at least 10 minutes whatever the fuck that's an actual technical term whatever the fuck and I don't know if you work in a notebook or a typewriter or a computer whatever the fuck I'm working on this project so you're going to have a specific project and when you're working on this difficult I say difficult because it just needs some attention and you're going to be attendant to this project in the morning for 10 minutes let's say 20 minutes at the most 10 minutes at the least so you don't get any points for showing up and doing like 7 hours and then blowing the rest of the week off that's like that's building bad habits we want to build habits that are going to be nurturing and calming and not play into those stereotypes of the artist whip your hair back you know that's some bullshit that's some movies you know what I'm saying you just be a craft person you show up you know you sit at your desk or if you don't want to sit you can stand at your desk do you like to sit so standing desk or you got to put your little step stool put it on a regular desk and then it makes an instant stand to desk you don't have to buy anything fancy you don't have to buy anything you're so powerful I just can't I'm just old and I've been doing this for a long time that's what it is it's just like I've been doing this for a long time I'm just telling you some shit that I've been doing that's all you know what I'm saying but 10 minutes every morning try that okay give that a go okay it's going to be fun but tell us your name again I'm Jim hi and I like I mean I'm older than you you said you're writing the particular piece you're writing is difficult and I wonder if you don't also though find that somehow a relief or therapeutic even I have always found the difficult things are the ones that are usually worth doing is there any way you can tap into that and particularly congratulate yourself that you are doing now the thing that you need to do I definitely feel that that's why I keep gravitating towards the top because I know I need to write about them but then it's like you know when you write something you say about that it's just like the unveiling of myself it feels good it's scary to approach it that's a really good point Jim thank you for that so congratulate yourself for doing the difficult work of the grave and show up every day do you have a question remind us of your name I'm Laura I'm on my second round of putting my solo show up oh great thank you I know for me like for me the work is focused and kind of I had a lot of ideas and I don't feel like I know how to approach work intellectually in terms of like themes killing your babies and which ones to keep them sorry that's more about it but um I kind of don't know because when I approach it it's like ok this feels honest this feels this is what's coming up I can't really say yes this is needed or no it's not and so I guess like how is it ok that I don't know it's a matter of just getting that second eye or I don't know for someone else to give that kind of little back to get it right it's helpful to get other eyes on your work did you everybody here at Laura's working on solo show so you're talking about rewriting and working on the second draft yeah so you know focusing on what I'm trying to say and how I know if I'm doing that right um for me when I talk about my work I just talk about what I know I have not yet written something I know the theme the message, the issues I have no interest to those things at all I think they're interesting to people like scholars dramaters, directors you know audiences and all that kind of stuff I don't write from that place and I don't know if they are but I do know the story I'm trying to tell and the story has all those things in it but I don't really identify them to keep going but I know how to follow the story so if you think of your what you're working on it's a story you're telling even though it doesn't have to be a linear narrative kind of thing it's a tale you're leaving like what's her name what's her name Ariadne you know it's an arm you know Ariadne is a mentor you know the story about the it's a long story about you know in any way this woman has sex with a bull she has a mentor if you put it in the grave if you speak to people you know people too are faster so one day when in town she saw a nice man and told him he'd be sacrificed and he said here's a ball of yarn and so when he goes to the cage and by the way out it's a yarn but in my mind it's a story right so you can follow the story without knowing the themes issues, message and you have because you have a story the yarn of our makeup, I believe you knowing stories recognizing stories, being told stories telling our show stories it is as much of being human as doing this I think it's like walking up right it's kind of something that we do with each other you know so I think you know what a story is you know what a good story is you know how to make a sentence to communicate something all that car snow day you know how to make a sentence like something else needs to be said and that's more work and kind of that jumping into the unknown great it's not completely unknown because I guess have a sense of where I want to go ultimately so I think follow that before you get other eyes on your work telling you what it needs develop the ability to tell yourself what it needs and self give yourself notes it's like J.D. not wanting to ask a question because he kind of knew what he needed to do develop the ability to kind of know what you need to do first not discounting the importance of other people's notes but oftentimes people will give themselves notes and it's if we don't yet know what we're doing it kind of throws us off track they don't mean to, they're just trying to help so develop your own sense of I know my story is on track and you can see this really what it means to be on track have you ever been on a train or actually been on a train you know what it feels like you know what it feels like if you've ever been on you know what it feels like that's the feeling of your story being on track the similar kind of feeling that's not necessarily an intellectual thing it's a visceral thing because it's like this I know, here we live I don't have to read books anymore or study philosophy or dramaturgy or anything or scholarship doesn't mean that, it just means that some of us ride that way which is cool so cool if you guys do this by the way it's really cool of course how do you go about character development you can start in a lot of different ways you can just start writing and seeing the most interesting say your characters are people we're just doing that so you can start just by writing and seeing who comes to you who starts talking to you that's kind of a good way who's going to catch your attention like if you walk into this room and you're like well, I'm looking at you, okay great you're my character, what do you like and then once you choose somebody and don't worry about choosing wrong because every choice you're going to make is good and correct and then you can talk to your character say your character's name is you know Jane and Jane is an accountant who lives in New Jersey she's awesome, she's like the best accountant in the world you want to get to know her so you just want to sit down and talk to her you can interview her, you can get to know her she'll start telling you what she's up to and before you know it she's got a character in Jane and then you can ask her so what do you want me to know what's the story Jane and then Jane might say I'm really interested in my job I can't find my job so there you go it's that kind of arbitrary way it sounds very arbitrary but it's effective and it's fun that's how I do anybody else a lot of you are characters anybody else have any think about starting yeah, come there's a character with a lot of time just waiting waiting there somewhere it can be a year before it could be something on a little note something something something that you don't even know what it is exactly something something something something right, right, right a lot of time you get ideas for characters long before you even know what they're about you hear someone's name and you go oh I like that name so write the name, you get a notebook and start writing names down oh it would be cool to have a character who I don't know played a lot of golf and have a notebook just full of ideas for characters and maybe not worry about what their story is just quite good that's fun too just start right right and sometimes you don't have a character you have maybe a town or a situation I want to write about a bus stop okay so who's there so sometimes it's a situation or a town or a place or you would just like just do that yeah that's a good question yeah it feels like okay I want something to change or feel different right they're almost out of this life we're watching no I'm just saying sometimes when you have one character you want to have something in opposition that's viral that's a fun way to do it too imagine you have one person someone in opposition whatever is fun for you I love that whatever is fun I know it's called work but it's actually you know they watch me fun we have to make it like a little working and we're done we're done at 6 o'clock we've done an amazing job today tell us when we're going to be back we'll be back on March 25 yay stay there