 Welcome, everyone. We'll get started in just a few minutes. Hey, SLP. Oh, you're muted. It's five oh, it's five oh one. Yeah. Hey, are we ready? Yes. We're ready. Welcome to Watch Me Work, where the me and the title is you. We've been doing this for 12 years. I finally figured it out. 12 years we started in the lobby of the public theater. And now thanks to the public theater and HowlRound, we are able to do this on Zoom, which is so lovely, so lovely. And what we do is we work for 20 minutes together, and then I take questions from you about your creative process, your work, whatever you're working on, whatever your concerns or questions are. So if you have a question about your work and your creative process, you can ask Lolly to tell you how to get in touch. Hi, everyone. If you have a question and you're here in the Zoom with us, you can use the Reactions tab at the bottom of your screen to raise your hand. If you have any trouble finding it, you can just message me in the chat and I'll help you out. If you are watching the live stream with us on HowlRound, you can ask questions by sending us, sending your questions via the public theaters Instagram or Twitter accounts or the Watch Me Work Twitter account, which is at Watch Me Work SLP with the hashtag HowlRound, that's hashtag H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D. So that's how you'll ask your questions. Fantastic. Okey-dokey, and we're gonna start. And then, yeah, so here's 20 minutes. Dude. All right, question time. Right, question time, question time. Feel free to raise your hand in the Reactions tab if you have a question. Looks like Rebecca has a question. All right, Rebecca. Hi, Susan, Lori, how are you? Rebecca, it's good to see you. Good to see you too. So my question is about the place of an artist statement in a pitch letter. I've never quite known what to do. I have one that I mostly like. I've never quite known what to do with it. And whether it's part of the biographical statement or how that works. To whom are you sending it? Initially agents. Okay, do you have online material to supplement it? So I can include links to things that have been published. Okay. And my website is coming back together slowly. To emphasize the writing is... to forward the writing as opposed to the consulting. I was just thinking, because often, if you get something, you know, paper, you know, and you're reading it or it's an email or something and you're reading it, it might be nice to have a link where you can just put a face to the name, you know, just to get like a visual thing. Because especially these days, we're so visual, you know. That might be helpful. So you're sending it to agents. So I'm guessing you're being, you know, honest and talking about what your work is. You're communicating your passion. What's important to you. Things like that. And with an eye on like how it might be, for lack of a better word, marketable. What communities it might interest. Yeah. I haven't included that yet. I have from a previous query letter. So I went to this website that I looked at a bunch of websites about how do you write a query letter. And I said, well, you have to tell them where it fits, like compare it to something else. And I was like, all right. And so I did a little bit of that. And yeah. I think that's good. I mean, and again, it's like people. And, you know, you think that folks would have more imagination given the exposure we have, the greater exposure we have to each other, but it seems to me that people have less imagination and more thinking what's it like, you know, because I mean, because you think of the things that are made these days and they're always, you know, you know, Star Wars stuff coming out as rehash of something else, you know. You know, people in the sales business, those agents and whatnot, want to know, yeah, is there a market for this? Usually the market for what we're making is connected to something that has sold before. Right. You know, unfortunately, but that's, you know, that's kind of how it goes, but that's good. But that's good. So you thought about it's like this. And I mean, it doesn't have to be like just one thing. Like this meets this kind of thing, right? Yes. And I've always, well, recently in the last year or so, I started describing it as part memoir, part travel. Oh. Journal part detective story. That says more than, oh, it's like, you know, it's someplace between, you know, a great migration story and murder mystery. I mean, like those things don't necessarily compute. So, yeah, but you can add, you can actually add that on. I love that part memoir, part travel, part, you know, part of the story. You can add that on to your detective story. As if this work met this work, you know what I mean? Like you can also get really, you really got to kind of. Yeah. Along, you know, and that's, that's not bad. That's just, that's just what we, we have to do to interest people in what we're doing. You know. And do you have a list of folks that you're thinking of sending it? Yeah, I've been gathering. I get publishers lunch every week. And I do look at sort of who's publishing works that are not a straight. John, I mean, you know, straight and all the senses of that word. And, and, and look at who they are and where it looks like a good match. So I have about, I have seven or eight. I guess my, my plan is some number of agents and then, you know, you know, pack with it, try publishers. Uh-huh. That, you know, we'll see. It sounds good. It sounds like a great plan, Rebecca. Oh, thank you. So what are you thinking? Like, you're thinking you could approve on, on your plan. Sounds like you're doing everything right to me. You know, this. The, the kind of market part of it, that suggestion about, you know, this meets that in the light of the, the way I've been sort of describing it makes, makes it easier to think about the marketing part of it. Cause I really, right now I have none of the marketing. I have a lot of, I have a lot of, a lot of marketing in there and, and, and, and I really, I just want, what I really want is for them to get the flavor of the manuscript before they get to the 10 pages jammed into. An email. Right, right. Right. I mean, it looks bad. I mean, as much as I try to make it look good, there's no way of making 10 pages look good. Well, I mean, because depending on the size of the page, they're reading it on, it'll just, it'll, it'll flow, but it's not double space at this point as, because double space and an email is even harder to manage. I think. And. All good. No, I'm, so anyways, I want them to get the flavor of it before they get to the, the pages. Right. What about sending them an attachment, like a PDF? No, they say no, no attachments. No attachments. No attachments. Put 10 pages into the body of the email. Everyone in the agent say that now. I wonder why that is. I don't know. I don't understand why that is. Probably cause people sneak in the whole book. But then the agent only has to read 10 pages. I don't understand the agent line. Oh, no, do I? No, no. Just trying to do what I'm told. Okay. Oh no. Okay. Okay. That's, that's fair enough. Yeah. I'm just trying to think. What else can we do to make it, you know, more successful? You know, do you do affirmations? Not really. No, I don't. You don't like them. Well, you know, I try to do a gratitude practice. Okay. But sort of straight up affirmations. I. I mean, I do a meta practice. So I guess that's as close as I get. It's not, it's not your thing. There's affirmations are your thing. No. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I just, you know, full disclaimer. I appreciate very much affirmations. Partly because they don't cost anything. I love them. We're free. And the alternative is. To my mind, this is just a personal to my mind, but I call it your negativity. And, and that is, that can lead to some toxic thinking in my mind, in my personal practice. I interface with the marketplace. You know, on a daily basis. Hearing, you know, all kinds of shit. From people. And my affirmations sort of allow me to. To remember, you know, what's really going on. So, so it's kind of a, it's like a, it's like a power. A power tool or a sword or a shield. You know, that in my belief, you know, that the spirit provides me to maintain my. Good feelings about my work. And it's free. Again, you don't have to buy anything. You don't have to subscribe to some weird. Where people are sending you shit in the mail. You don't have to, you know, you know, pay, you know, pay somebody Venmo every time you do an affirmation. They're free. So. And I find them, I find them useful. And again, the alternative is. To take in some of that stuff. Because like, just so what you say, you know, this is a suggestion, you know, there's no way to make 10 pages look good in an email. I think that you could, you could. They open up your email and they're going to be really enthralled with your writing. It doesn't cost nothing. You know what I'm saying. They open up my email. They're going to be captivated by the idea of the story. And they're going to be like, wow, enthralled with the writing, just expecting something. And so. Some good feedback is, is. I find very helpful. So, but it sounds like you're doing everything right, Rebecca. You know, it sounds like you're, you're writing a great. A letter, you know, of introduction. And it sounds like you're, you're, you're really, I mean, you've done a lot of research to get sort of the right angle on it. And it sounds like you're going to be sending it to the right people. And you certainly, I know you've done the writing work. So I was like, you're sort of positioning yourself, setting yourself up for success. Well, I will, I will add the, you know, there's a, so meta as a Buddhist practice for folks who've never heard of it. And it's four different phrases, sets of phrases. And there's one that's. Wishing good fortune to myself and others. So I will. I will add more of that too. And I'll, I'll try to send my emails with them. Yeah, that's. Sister, you can amplify that you can turn it up. Yeah, I could turn it up. I really could. Yeah. I wish, I wish good fortune to myself and others. That's beautiful. You know, it's not, it's not weird or selfish or, or, you know, it's very, very beautiful and very, and if you crank that up, you're also wishing more good fortune to others. So for my sake. Okay, I will. Zoom, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I'll add watching work tonight. But into my things that I say, and I'm going to be thinking of you and everybody on the zoom. How about that? That, that works. What are the other three? So it's, um, loving kindness. Compassion. Good fortune and equanimity. Fantastic. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Sure. Thank you so much for that, Rebecca. We really appreciate that offer. Jay lists looks like it has a question. All right. Yeah, I like the idea of affirmation. I have something in my mind about what you mean, but I would really appreciate it if you could give us an example of what you mean when you say affirmation. Sure. Sure. Great question. Great question. Um, my information's come from, I mean, they're not. Uh, it's not a specific, like a part of a beautiful tradition like the Buddhist practice. Um, they come from anytime I catch myself saying something like, Oh, gee, that's going to be really hard. For example. I am, I'm, I'm really working always to kind of turn it around. Or G for example. Um, gee, this meeting is going to be really hard. They didn't like what I said last time, for example, you know, Hey, this time, the meeting is going to be great. These people are going to love my ideas. And even if they give me notes that at first seem difficult, I'm going to find the great note underneath the note. Or every note they give me is a great note. I have said that many times to myself as a mantra, when I go into meetings, every note is a great note. Every note is a great note. You see what I mean? So it kind of turns it. I am affirming the, the, the positive in a situation. Or if you're going out on a date, you know, oh, I don't feel so great today. I don't look great in this outfit. Hey, I'm going to sit there. We're going to have a wonderful time. I'm going to really enjoy this person's company. I'm so glad that I'm going on a date. For example, you know, like that. Does that make sense? Yeah, I was trying to wait for the host to unmute me. But that does, that does explain it. And I'm going to think about that. And that sounds like something I really want to do more of. So thank you very much. That was clear. That explained it. And that's what I'm going to be doing. Well, you know, I got to say that we are, you know, a lot of us are conditioned to, you know, like my dad would always say, you know, I mean, lovely man. I'm a realist. He'd say, I'm a realist, you know, bless his heart. Yes, yes. And, you know, so he didn't want to sort of, you know, say things that weren't realistic. And, and he did very well with his life and, you know, he's passed away several years now, but we kind of don't want to be too big for our britches or don't want to dream too big, unless we'd be disappointed. But again, what I found is that it is a wonderful alternative to negative thinking. Yeah, I think I need to practice exactly what you're saying. I go to these various meetings and I'm like, oh, I'm sorry to hear you. I go to these different meetings and I walk in thinking, oh God, you know, we really want to do this. But I think that it would be a lot better if I did a affirmation and thought about it before I got involved. So thank you. It's a lot for me to think about and I think it's really positive. And that's what I want to do. I want to be on the positive note rather than the, you know, the unpositive note. So thank you. I hear you. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you. Anyone else have questions? Looks like we have one from Linda. Hey, Linda. Hi. I'm really glad to, to visit your class and I've visited your class seven years ago in public theater a really long time ago and was so amazing experience. And I had follows, followed the Zoom meetings as a blind passenger. And my question is sort of linked to what you have said before. I, I, I ask myself how I can work on yeah, negative experiences to, to transform them, that experiences into, into something positive through art. I'm not a writer, but that, that, that, that's at the moment my main question. How, if it's possible to achieve that or, or maybe how, how I can push myself to, to get in this direction, to get rid of that stuff happening around me, maybe I sometimes cannot react on and to transform it through my work to something productive. That's my question. It's a beautiful question and it's, I think it's completely possible. And I would say that that is the great, in my experience, that's the great gift of our work. You know what I mean? That, that it is a mechanism. It is a thing through which we can transform our experience. I found over and over again that my work is how I can help myself and wonderfully enough, an added gift other people move through experiences, whether negative or positive or, or, or neutral, you know, I feel like that's what, I mean, I look at when I think, and when I think of, you know, I look at paintings like Basquiat paintings or, or Picasso or whomever, you know, great artists, you know, Georgia O'Keeffe or, or Frida Kahla, you know, all great artists. And you think they're helping me process something, you know, and that's the great gift of our, of our work, whether it's writing or painting or sculpture or song or essays or dance or raising a child or whatever, right? That's, that's the great thing about our work, our life's work, you know? So I would say it's totally possible. You're totally on the right track. And what is the work that you would like to do? What's, what's your, what's your chosen form? My form at the moment is, as with the last piece I've done was a sound collage and photos I have done on the really special circumstances. And, and I did put all this together and this was such a, a, as an impressive experience at the weekend of Occupy Wall Street. And, and that was the last thing. And now I'm kind of working on that other material, but also, I'm kind of working on that other material, but also, I started to write a letter to a person whom I really appreciate. And, and the new piece, I have no idea what, what's coming next. I just thought a kind of a mixtape or something. I really don't know. So this was so stressful to do the last work. Yeah. So at the moment kind of video mixtape stuff. But that's so, that's not so great. That sounds great. I mean, I would just say like, maybe have, I mean, we're talking about affirmations. Today, but have part of your, you want to affirm yourself. You want to say yes to what you're doing, right? So you can say, you can first say yes in many ways. You can say yes by finding a particular time every day to do your work. Right. Do you have a time, a specific time during the day where you do your work? No. Okay. I mean, I hope you don't work like, you know, on your day job, 24 hours a day, I hope you have a little pocket of time. I usually pick my favorite time of the day. So for me, it's morning, but some people enjoy the evening or the night or at lunchtime or whatever. You pick just 20 minutes. Right. And you sit down and you have your timer and you sit down and you spend just 20 minutes just thinking about it or writing in a notebook about what it might be. Just give yourself some time. That time over the months you do this, that time can then grow to maybe an hour. You spend an hour a day. Writing down what might be. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's just like writing down what might be interesting to you. Listening to music that might be interesting to you sitting and just thinking about it. And if you show up for it, it will show up for you. It will start to, you'll start to have a vacation with it. Right? You'll start to feel comfortable about working on it. You know, you'll get, you'll start to get energy from it, but you have to sort of be consistent. Relationship, you know, if you're going out with someone they want to know that you're there for them, you know Your work wants to have the same feeling, you know, yes, Linda is showing up for me. Okay. I'm gonna show up for her We're gonna we're gonna create a union and we're gonna work together to create this You just have to be consistent with it You don't have to have all the answers. You just have to keep showing up. That's the most important thing Presence You're showing up. That's why we do this, you know, we show up we sit here We have the time for those kinds of habits are really really helpful You affirm you say yes to your process On a daily basis And then the form of it will come to you The overwhelming feeling might come but you're gonna be sitting there with yourself and your work and It will not fail you That's what we're here. I feel that's what we're here for We're here to do our thing, you know, we're here to do our thing So our thing wants to wants to be with us, you know In my experience it the thing always comes through if I if I show up for the thing that thing whatever it is It always comes through You know Okay, where you call where you where you do you live? in Berlin Okay, I I have great love for for Germany. My husband is is from Braunschweig And Braunschweig. Oh, I see. Wow You're from Berlin. Okay. Okay. Well, well, you know next year we're gonna go over and visit So we'll look you up. So have some some installation or something so we can go and like Okay Thank you so much Linda. Awesome. We have like 10 minutes left. So we have time for another question or two Thank you Len Hey, Len I'm sitting in sunny, Los Angeles with my best friends Winnie Holtzman who's a great writer and Paul Dooley her husband who we used to write together and work together and You know, I my question and It really was an effort Emotional effort to get on a plane and and be with my friends who I miss so much So that was and it's the same thing about writing It's it used to be an effort, but since I've come Regularly to your class here. It's not an effort Does that make any sense? I have an hour a day You know, I'm right and I realize I don't have a goal for the writing Mm-hmm. I don't have a goal and When you were talking to somebody just now I realized my goal actually is just to tell my family's story not a big Goal, but just you know, so it's it's down on paper. You know these people who have people with my life and I The wonderful and the heartbreaking you all everybody's human story, but I So is that enough of a goal I Love Constant star in this watch me work process girl you have shown up You know in the lobby of the public theater and for so many so many years. What a beautiful question Is that enough of a goal girl? But first of all goals are scary because once we set the goal You know in my experience of questions like I might not make it, you know, I mean once we say the goal out loud Oh, no, I said it out loud. It's A full goal. Yes, it's a beautiful goal and then we can refer and we can Basically what I'm doing right now for you in response to you we then will do for ourselves, right? Yes, it's a beautiful goal. It's a worthy goal. It's a noble goal. It's a great goal Thank you and more it's a beautiful goal You know, here you are you're going to sing the song of your family. Yes. Yes. Yes Fantastic, you know, I You know, I'm so inspired Paul Dooley we you we work together and also Paul is 95 now and he has written He writes every day. He has written This book this, you know, this screenplay this play I mean he's He's such an inspiration because his creative life is still informed by his heart and he's still so creative, you know And so I'm sitting here and you know a creative nest, you know I I'm very lucky, I think and I just anyway, I love you a lot Love you too. So proud of you. Look at you showing up every day and sure I mean, it's it doesn't feel like an effort. It feels like oh Just something you do somehow when we let when we just allow ourselves to go forward, you know Yes, you know, it's I realized what it meant to me To have their story down just that it's down the family, you know It Concretizes their lives, you know, they lived lives and it's very moving to me Yeah, congratulations. Thank you. Well done. Keep going. I will you make me Thank you so much, Lynn. Thank you. We have one time for one more question from Marta Hey Marta Hey, thanks so much. Good to see you and everyone and this is another sort of more spiritual question maybe but it's similar to the affirmations maybe but I'm kind of been I'm kind of very stuck because Shit ton of stuff is happening in my life a lot of endings after After a long time kind of asleep. I'm basically awake to a whole bunch of stuff, but Very long relationship had, you know, has been ending for the last few months amicably, but I'm sort of moving out this week Probably gonna leave the city I live in because it's like London. It's super expensive and That can be really exciting, but it's Uncertain and to top it all up. I mean even like my therapist had to like leave me like everything's like ending Which is I hope this isn't too personal but to contextualize and to top it all up. I recently had like I basically fell in love with someone at a writing residency and It was beautiful. It was the most, you know alive I've felt in years and all that but But I had to say goodbye after a few weeks because like it's a different continent and like I'm going through The grief of that and like the heartbreak of that and there's a beautiful You know, there's beautiful intensity in feeling all these things, but it's a lot And basically I'm like completely not in my practice at all. I'm not even Consuming art or Being I'm not like able to read. There's just like so so so much going on And like part of me is okay with that because sometimes You're living and for me sometimes like when I'm living like when some things either really good or really bad Like I don't really have the headspace to create anything and that's fine, but I do feel like a bit I Don't like the lack of like I'm getting a little bit skeptical like I've been working on a novel for a few years and I feel like It's fine that I'm not working on it now because it reminds me of this whole residency and like it's a bit of a mess right now the novel but It feels like everybody has book deals left and right like I'm a little bit too in the Instagram mindset of it all and it seems like everyone's doing stuff and I'm noticing this in myself where I usually had my daily Appointment like in the morning to make things and I'm excited to branch out into visual art as well, but I'm feeling Like everything's a mountain to climb. You know, I'm like I need to learn all those skills in order to even Do this for five minutes. And anyway, this is kind of where I am. So I don't really know where to begin to like rehab or something and I don't need to be like writing right now, but This doesn't feel like, you know I know I totally hear you Marta and I'm listening to you. I just Suggesting a couple of things they might be helpful A lot's going on it might be helpful to go without something Instagram and all the other ones And maybe even step it out a little bit more and just take a take a what's called a dopamine fast You know only use your phone for you know, but communications with your friends or phone calls with your Parents or what you know, whatever and Don't you know, take it just maybe take it try it a day at a time or try it a half a day at a time if you really feel You know But I would try that and you have a meditation practice Um, yes, I'm not really in it right now Haven't let it for a while, but I used to do it every day. Okay. Well, I would say get back into that Definitely because if you if you have a very vibrant artistic practice very vibrant work practice And these two and you're doing a lot of Instagram which creates anxiety From what you say, you know, it create creates a feeling of I'm connected to everybody. Oh, no Look at everybody's book deal. Ah, that's horrible So I would turn off the Instagram and turn on your time with on your meditate I point there because that's where my meditation cushion is turn on your time with your meditation cushion definitely and Maybe some in 20 minutes a day of journaling. It's not, you know, you're hardcore working on your novel But it is just letting your thoughts just run Um we knows and Yeah, I mean journaling meditation practice and leave the social media alone for a little bit So you can find your feet on your path again, you know Okay, yeah Definitely the meditation though, that's probably the most important thing Okay Okay, and good luck with everything. Thank you Information, you know affirm yourself, you know pat yourself on the back more than you kick yourself you know Tell yourself you're going through your stuff and you're gonna be okay, you know, thanks. Yeah Martin Well, that puts us at six everyone. Thank you so much for another fantastic watch me work We'll be here next week Thank you, everybody. Have a good week. Bye. Thanks. Well