 is that we all do our work together for 20 minutes, and then we do the dialogue of the show, and that's you asking me questions about your work and your creative process. What we don't have time for is we don't have time to have you guys read specific works or anything and have me comment on them, but we do have time to talk about process in a way to keep everybody in the loop and energized, especially going into this holiday weekend. And so if you guys have questions, I'm just gonna tell you how to get in touch. Yeah. Thanks, SLP. So if you have questions and you're inside of the Zoom, all you need to do is click on the raise your hand button at the bottom of your, wow, I messed up, my speech, the participant tab. It's inside of the participant tab, likely at the bottom of your screen on a laptop or at the top of your on an iPad or a tablet. And if you're watching on HowlRound.tv, you can tweet at us at, watch me work SLP with the hashtag HowlRound, H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D, or you can tweet at the Public Theater Twitter, which is at Public Theater NY, or you can write to the Public Theater's Instagram. All right, all right. So here we are. The small containers of Tupperware will be good for the Sorbet. Yes, important decisions like that be made every day. Okay, here we go. 20 minutes, everybody ready? All right, all right. Okay, okay, here we are. Here we are. It's Thursday and it's a holiday weekend. So you got questions, you know, because we're not gonna be here on Monday because it's a holiday. That's right. We've got a question. It's from Emery. Hey, Emery. How are you? Hey, Emery. So the last time I chatted with you on here, we talked about a little bit about the bad first draft, which I love and I love the idea of it. And I want to love it so badly, but unfortunately I just don't love it yet. And I feel like I'm like, especially today, like I just, like I just sew in my head and so like just thinking, thinking, thinking so much about what I'm putting on the page. And ultimately like I want to like just throw myself into it and like do it. I'm running out of play right now. And I know that the bad first draft might turn into a better second draft and so on and so on, but it's so hard for me to like think past that and like get out of my head. So I wanted to, I don't really know what my, I guess my question is just how do you like get past yourself sometimes when you're, when you're stuck with yourself? That's a great question, Emery. And it's like, I'm always, like every day I'm asking myself that question. You know, most of the time it's like running, screaming down the, down the road. You know what I mean? To get past myself, like sometimes you just got to like take off at a like, I'm gonna run really fast. I mean, write really fast, that helps. Sometimes you have to like trick yourself, you know, like hypnotize yourself, meaning, meaning, you know, say a lot of mantras, like it's okay. I'm just gonna write for five minutes. I'm just gonna write a scene. I'm just gonna write a page. I'm just gonna write a half a page inch along, you know as if you're trying to escape from a dungeon. Creep along, you know, you don't wanna draw attention to yourself, you know. Underneath all this, maybe you can tell is to keep a light heart, you know what I mean? I mean, it's not, and it's not at all to dismiss the importance of what you're writing, but you keep like a light heart about a playful heart. It will come in handy, you know. So you can laugh at yourself. Look at me in my way again. Shit, get out the way girl. You know, you can have fun with it. I also get out of your, you know, you said you're in your head a lot. I would say get in your body more. You know, not to say you're not in your body, but get in your body more. Maybe I don't have my little step stool handy. It's over there. But anyway, put a step, you know, put a little box on your desk. Maybe try doing the standing desk, you know, if you don't do that already. Get out, you know, maybe act out your characters. You know, again, the timer is invaluable. If you're gonna write like 10 minutes at a pop. You know, I was, oh, this is my little thing I was playing with today. It's a harmonica, right? It's a harmonica. It's a chromatic. It's on. It's a chromatic. It's a chromatic, right? And I play the harmonica. I don't play a chromatic harmonica as well as I want to. So I was like doing like, you know, you know, like 30 seconds of harmonica playing, you know, or one minute or whatever it was. I would play a phrase that I was trying, I'm trying to learn. And then I'd put it down and I'd write for, you know, whatever five minutes. It's practical for me because I'm resting my mouth because it takes a lot of, you know. But if you wanna write for five minutes and put it down, come back to it. You know, maybe you have, I don't know what your time is during the day, but if you have like, like maybe two hours of writing time, do you have that? Yeah, that's usually about my window. Yeah, two hours. That's great. So you can actually say, I'll write for 10 minutes and then I'll take a dance break, turn it on my favorite song. I'm like, I don't know if you'd like to dance. I do. Dance around, you know. It doesn't have to be your favorite same song every time, you know, then I'll write for five minutes and I'll like, I don't know, sweep the floor. That's always good. Clean the toilet. I always end up cleaning when I'm writing. But you do it at a time break. So you're not like procrastinating per se. You're not gonna get lost in the cleaning of your home. You're gonna do it for a certain amount of time. Beep beep, five minutes, timer goes off and oh, you've just cleaned your bathroom bowl. Yay for you. And then you go back and you write for 10 more minutes. It's like cross-training, you know? Yeah. It's tricking your mind to think, nothing's going on, man. Don't worry about it. I'm not writing, I'm just typing. But yeah, but see, but also you're laughing. Good, that's good. That's good, laughing is good. Keep it, keep it fun, you know? And keep coming back here, cause we're full of fun. Yes, this is the best. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Marie. Oh, I clicked the button again by accident, I'm so sorry. I actually don't have any questions at the moment unless I'm looking at, yep, we don't. Oh, we got one. Sandy. Sandy. Are you there? Hi. I was wondering if you have like, do you ever run into the issue of feeling discouraged? So this is probably my first time writing my own play and I feel like I keep running into this issue where I start feeling self-conscious about my own writing and wondering, oh, he's just getting kind of corny. Like, is this getting, you know, am I working too hard with a sort of expectation that this is going to be received positively or negatively? So when you write, do you write for the sake of creating this work or, you know, how do you, do you let that idea of like reception affect your writing at all? This is great. So Sandy, you said, great question, Sandy, first of all. You said this is the first time you're writing a play for your writing your own, what do you mean? Writing, unpack that for me just a little bit more. So I am writing a solo performance play. So it's literally going to be about myself and it's for my undergraduate like theater major kind of deal. And so I'm putting on this one woman show and I've seen a couple of these done really, really well by my peers. And so I sort of feel like there is a standard that I'm living up to. And I'm also sort of afraid of being cliche and oversharing almost or because like this play is so personal to me and, you know, I will be performing it myself. I just keep having this idea of like, oh gosh, like what if somebody comes to see it and they think it's really bad or they come to see it and think, oh, she's, you know, she's full of herself. Like this is so narcissistic. Well, I, you know, theater artists. So I guess they're kind of right. Well, I think, well, the first thing, I think you're allowed to be full of yourself. I mean, that just means that you're alive, right? It's okay to be full of yourself. I would just add, as long as you are also aware and very, very aware of the presence of other people and other beings and other things, you know? And that's called having strong character, right? I mean, think of like, I don't know, I don't know if you admire him, but say President Barack Obama, you know? I would say he's full of himself, sure. I mean, yo, he's a black man, I'm gonna be president. You know, he's full of himself, but he's also very aware of the presence of others and other creatures and other things, other trees and things like that, you know what I mean? So it's okay, no one wants to be full of yourself. To think about what people are gonna think about your work when you do it is, sounds like that's sort of the big boulder in the way, making it difficult for you to go forward. It's a valid thing to think about at the right time, right? Like maybe after you've done opening night and you're getting reviews or when you're in previews and you're putting it in front of an audience, right? But I know for sure that to concern yourself with that now is not the right thing to do because it's getting in the way of you doing your work, right? So what we have to do is we have to give you again, just like we did a second ago, give you some tools to trick yourself or to occupy the gatekeeper, the bouncer, the censor, whatever you wanna call them, the police, you know? So they're looking the other way as you creep by or walk proudly by, right? So mantras are really good, like affirmations, like this is good, it might not be great right now but when I write it down I can make it better. Just any positive, affirming thing you can think to say to yourself, okay? So that's an old trick saying affirmations. Also again, using the timer like we just talked about, if you work in small increments, then the censor might not catch on that anything's happening, right? Like if you were in jail and you were escaping and you were digging with a spoon, you know? I'm just making a hole with a spoon, right? So they don't even think anything's going on and yet you're making slow and steady progress, right? Having supportive people around. So keep showing up to places like Watch Me Work and I'm sure there are hundreds and hundreds of other places that are supportive and encouraging to your work, right? Also writing quickly sometimes is very helpful for me. Okay, if I'm all feeling agitated, I write, let me just type for 10 minutes, just anything, just go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. So you run past the censor or the guard keeper or the gatekeeper or the police. Just out sprint them. Nothing works as good as showing up every day, right? So you're just gonna, you're just gonna say, like the censor's like, oh, I bet you're scared, Sandy. And you're like, yes or what, I'm here. Oh, Sandy, you know, you don't know what those people are gonna think of your show. I, you're right, I don't know what they're gonna think of my show, I'm here. Do you see what I'm saying? Just keep showing up. And the censors will, meh, either they'll keep talking to you or not or whatever. You can incorporate what they say into your play. That's also a good technique. Keep showing up and keep doing your work. Keep writing, regardless of your feelings of anxiety. Sounds crazy, but you think, gotta get over my anxiety before I'm able to work. But actually one does help move the other one along. Does that, does that at all make sense? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Sandy. And keep coming back here and keep checking in. We're here. We're here to cheer you on. Ooh. Okay. Thank you. What else do we have to do? Nothing better. Thanks, Sandy. All right, up next we've got Laura. Laura, are you there? Yeah. Yeah, thanks. Hi. Hi there. So I'm working on this memoir and sometimes the writing goes great, goes really well. And then there are certain sections where when I first started it, I started it a while ago, it was just kind of pedantic. And I've tried to work it and rework it. And I still think that certain sections are pedantic. Sometimes you get into a mode when you're writing and you know it's good, you know you're on the right track. And then those sections are easier to edit and improve. But the certain sections, you just go, you go, ugh. Do you find in your process that if you've had problems with a section of something that sometimes it's easier just to chuck the whole thing and start all over? Or do you just keep editing until you get it? Yeah. You mean chuck the whole thing, like chuck the whole memoir? No, no, no, no, no. Just the problem spots where no matter what you seem to do you didn't have a good day when you started it. And no matter how much you seem to edit it, it just doesn't seem to click or be real enough or speak enough. Have you printed out, have you gotten to the end of the manuscript? I have, I've still got to fill in holes. And I have printed it out but I haven't printed it out recently. Because it could, I mean, I'm assuming that you have paper and a printer. I mean, I don't, which is why I don't have a printer here. But it's nice to print it out, right? To go through it and circle those parts that aren't working for you. And let it sit for a while. Keep working on the parts that you can work on the things that you can work on. For right now, we're going to be gentle and loving and just circle, just identify the parts that you can't really figure out right now, right? And you're gonna call in divine intervention. Okay. So you're gonna, when you look at those passages you're gonna say, I know I can figure this out, right? And I'm gonna get some help. Fantastic. Right? You're just gonna like pray on it, you know what I mean? Whatever your religious thing or orientation is if you don't have it, you're just gonna meditate on it. You're gonna send good energy in the direction, in the positive direction. And it's not like you're just gonna send good energy and then you're gonna sit back and eat bonbons and watch the dynasty reboot or whatever, you know what I'm saying? It came to mind, oh, scary. But you're gonna actively, you're gonna think you're gonna send good energy and show up every day at your desk, working diligently and lovingly on your manuscript. And the parts that you don't have, okay. But if you see that part, it's circled, maybe in a color highlighter or marker that you like. I mean, if you like red, great. But if you like a color that suggests like, it's cool. I would suggest instead of a mistake color, I would suggest like, I don't, I like pink. I was gonna say hot pink. Yeah, perfect, right? Yeah, hooray. You circle it in pink and just say, and then maybe you have an idea. Maybe you fix this, you know? Maybe you work on this. Maybe this section needs extra love, whatever, right? And then you kind of go on and you work, because what happens is you give the work a chance to work on itself, which it does, right? If we give it some opportunity, okay? See if that works, if not, come back and we'll think of something else. Fantastic, thanks so much. You're welcome so much. Thanks, Laura. All right, up next you've got Larry. First of all, thank you for your help the other day. You gave me some momentum, so I appreciate that some freedom. I had to quit my question as I was writing today was, I'm remembering that one of the frequent feedback that I get when I share my work to get some feedback is that all the characters sound like me. And I'm like, well, yeah, funny story. So I guess I'm interested to hear on, there's that other part of me again. I sort of, I write things that I want to direct, that's because I have a director's head, so I'm writing basically to give myself something to direct. So I'm always thinking about how I can't wait to get this with actors and to work with actors. I'm a social creature, so the isolation of writing is really hard. So I sort of always feel like they'll do that, but I also don't want to overlook things I could be doing that help differentiate. So I guess I'm just wondering particularly because you have your own code and your own spelling and your own grammar, like you have a code, like a code that I can recognize as yours. And how do you have that individuality, that individual voice, but also give characters their individuality? I'm just wondering how you responded. That's a great question, Larry. And I'm assuming that you do not want your characters to all sound like you. Correct. Okay, okay, okay. And yeah, and that is a good point. You're also a director and you direct a lot and you're writing so that you can't wait to direct this, which is really exciting. It's a great feeling. And you're right, actors are gonna bring themselves to the parts. But I really admire you for going, yeah, but I might be able to do a little something before I turn it loose on some actors. One thing that I like doing is doing the geometry. And geometry, one of the, I guess the truths I guess is two points make a line. Two points make a line. And what I do is I apply it to dramatic writing, two points make a line of dialogue. You take where the character is, where she is and where she wants to go. And those two points will inform what she says and how she says it, okay? And to get more specific on the how she says it or he says it or how they say it, think of their body, you know? Some people are all in their head. You know, I don't know if you do funny voices, Larry, but I sure do. Some people are all like moving around, you know what I'm saying? Some people are moving all the time when they talk. It's a whole different rhythm. And you wanna capture that rhythm and that the speech patterns in your writing makes it fun. And it makes your characters sound different because they are different people. Does that make any kind of sense? I love that. And you're actually speaking my language because it sort of feels like I'm in a way I'm casting and staging the actors and sort of envisioning the thing I'm, the thing I'm already thinking they'll do later, I could actually be envisioning and incorporating. So that's great, that really. Oh, goody. Very helpful. Oh, goody. And then of course, Larry, what I'm not saying, which I guess I'll just come clean on, then you can be more in control, you see. You can weave in things to the lines. You can put actions and beats into the lines of dialogues. You can be even more in control. Directions in control, what? And writers? I mean, really, we only put words in people's mouths, but you know. I appreciate that. That's really helpful. Thanks. Thanks, Larry. All right, up next, we've got Bob. Are you there? Hello. Shoot, I pressed the wrong button. Can you go? I'm here. Hello. Hi. I have a question about something you say a lot that I've sort of used in that manner. Always check in as well as my character want more than anything. And I was wondering two questions about that. One, I'm writing about a family right now, a mother, father, 15-year-old, 10-year-old. And the questions are for, I'm wondering if you think that applies to kids. You know, I'm kind of struggling with that because kids aren't quite as directed and obsessive and I'm wondering how you think that might work of being a child. And the other thing is the dad sort of, his big want is to keep the family together because, you know, stuff's going on. And I'm just wondering, on some level, if that's a good want, like it's almost not really an active want. I feel like it's not transformative or it's keeping something together. Do you feel like an effective, strong, dramatic want for someone? And I guess he doesn't have to get what he wants either. Those are my two questions. I think those are great questions, Bob. And let's do the second one first. The dad character wants to keep the family together. Again, like we were talking with, but I think it was with Kim yesterday. What is that going to look like? You know what I mean? What will that look like for the dad? So keeping the family together for that dad character, does that mean that they're all going to stay in the house, all going to live in the house together? Does that mean that they're going to be able to go on those vacations that his wife always dreams about? Do you see what I mean? I mean, I don't know the specifics, but keeping the family together, I mean, does that mean he's going to tie them all up in the basement? I mean, I, you know, that's not, but it's going to give you hints. The desire of your character should be giving you hints as to their actions, right? So how is he trying to make that happen? You know, does he start to, he realizes that keeping the family together, it would be a lot easier to keep the family together if his wife were, thought he were attractive. So he's now started to use, you know, product in his hair. So, you know, I don't know what men do, you know, but, you know, there, huh, now I, or wear a cologne because he thinks, you know, whatever, whatever it is that he thinks is, you know, the kids, keeping the family together might mean the, sending the kids to that good school, which would mean moving out of the neighborhood into another neighborhood that he can't really afford to do that now. You see what I'm saying? There are many things that could make that a very active and beautiful character want and drive this character to all sorts of exciting choices and activities and actions. The thing about kids, I have an eight year old, what I know of children is that they sure do want things and they sure do grab at them and they're not called rug rats for nothing. So, and I imagine it only intensifies, you know, to teenage years I've heard a very, can be very exciting. I think kids, you know, they want friends, they want security, they want, you name it, they want it, I don't know, all kinds of things. They want to drive the car, they want to be left alone, they want to win the game, you know what I'm saying? So, kids are full of delicious desires, you know? So, I think you're in good shape and don't forget the other parent, is it a two-parent family? Mom and dad, so remember, don't leave out mom, moms want things, moms want things, okay? Great question though, thank you. Thank you. All right, so we actually don't have any questions at the moment. I'm gonna practice my posture. Ooh, I should do that more often. Yeah, see, we can all do it right now. Yes, practice posture. Oh, we got a question from Jacob. He did not want to see us practice our posture. Maybe keep practicing your posture, that's good. Thank you. My question is about rewriting other people's work, other people's work, which I know you've done, like I know you did Porgame Best, I don't know if you've done it other times, but I imagine, and like, what was your approach and practice in that, and how did it differ, and like, how did you approach that idea? Uh-huh, uh-huh. So, rewriting other people's work, and I'm guessing, because you cited Porgame Best, Jacob, I'm guessing you're talking about, like, not upgrading, what was it? Like, adapting an existing work, kind of bringing it into the future kind of thing, or into the past. Not necessarily, like, so in this case, I got hired to basically like, script doctor or something. Right, right, okay. So it's not a thing that like, already exists, I don't have to worry about it. Right, right, right. Okay, so script doctor, and you've been given, specific sort of parameters, like they want you to, depends on the project. Work on the dialogue, file track these characters, make sure that whatever the job is, okay. Which is great. I love to remember, always, what a good friend of mine says, he's like a high fancy pants, Hollywood screenwriter type dude. He's like, it's always easy to come in and do a rewrite. First drafts, that's where you really, that's really, really hard. So to come in and do a rewrite, just to sort of have someone have already set, they've already set the table. We're coming in and going, ooh, I think green place would be better than orange, right, and if we move those glasses around, that's really good, right. Not to diminish the task of the re-writer, right. But it's way easier. Well, I would say, let us be respectful to the work that has been done before. Even if we don't know that person, even if down the line we might be in arbitration at the union to get credit, you know, or share credit with that person, you know what I mean, all kinds of things can happen, but we should come into it with a lot of respect. Someone worked really hard on a script. You know, they took it all the way up the hill and then some, and they didn't get it there for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the producers, their notes aren't as great as they could be. Sometimes the writer just runs out of time. Sometimes the writer just couldn't get their head around the notes. You know, there's lots of disconnects. But just have a lot of respect for the writer who came before, and I think that'll even make your job even easier, you know, because you go, okay, so how can I just take this to the next level? You know, along the guidelines of the people who have hired you that they've set out, right? Does that help at all? I mean, I've done a lot of that kind of stuff. Yeah, it's, you know, and when it's an adaptation of like, I did The Rise of Watching God or Porgy and Bess or Native Son or whatever, you really are holding the hand of the original writer, you know, in an appreciative and gracious and grateful way they have laid the path, you know? So same kind of thing, just a little different. Cool, thank you. Thanks, Jacob. All right, next we've got Rebecca. Rebecca, we've got about 10 minutes left and it's all you. Thank you, hi, Susan Laurie. Hey, Rebecca, how you doing? I'm good, I'm good, how are you? Happy to see you, happy to hear you. Yeah, thanks. So I've made good progress on, I'm calling it draft two and a half now. And I've sent it off for just to begin the process of finding an agent and stuff. But I still have these like two big sections that I have questions. So my process is kind of the start out here, like in the universe and then either get very specific or to be very specific and then go broader. And because it's set in 1937 and it's about, and it's set in rural South, I just feel like there's a lot of stuff that people don't necessarily know. And I'm trying to figure out at what point I just become pedantic and boring. And at what point, you know, like, I have a whole section on cotton gins. Wow, great. Yeah, and it's a little, and because I love like research and information, it's just like, I love it, but it's a little hard for me to tell what other people know or need to know and how to balance that. You know, the cotton gin is important for an individual, but I think most people haven't even seen the cotton gin. So, you know, it's things like that. I have a couple of other places that I cut out because I was just going on too long, but this one I just, that in some of the like history, how the history is working is still problematic in the manuscript. Okay, that's a great question. And I mean, I would be right there with you reading about the cotton gin. That'd be really super cool. Good question. You said some people haven't even seen a cotton gin. Is there a possibility that you could include a drawing in your novel book? So, I would love to do that. There's a couple of places where I'd like to have an illustration of some kind. Having, I mean, if this was straight up history, that'd be great. And it's taking on a kind of multi-genre character anyways. At this point, there's gonna be a little poetry in it. So, I'd love to have, especially a cotton gin from the 30s is kind of this big firing mess. So, that would be really nice to include. That's cool. Yeah, pictures on pages where you think you're being pedantic or going on too long. That's always fun, drawings or whatever. That can be fun. I'm guessing, do you know The Grapes of Wrath, the novel? So, you know the part where Steinbeck just spends chapters just talking about basically the weather, the dust? Yeah. That's like, for me, that's the novel. I mean, I love the Joes and all that and what they go through. Okay, I'm with them. But when he talks about the weather, I'm like, so because that's the hand of God in a way for me in the novel. That's he's showing me or he's looking at the hand of God. So, these parts of your novel, I would say just make sure, and it sounds like the cotton gin, for example, is connected to the life of a character. Very much an important part of the character, right? So, each historical or factual bit that you wanna include, just make sure it's like, has so much to do with the character. Not that you have to mention the character in a bit, but you know, we'll come, because we go into the passage with no understanding when we come out of it with an understanding of the thing and then we feel, wow, now I have a feeling about how this thing impacted this character. Make it add up to something. It's really gotta add up to something. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. Someone's chatting about, yeah, Moby Dick, yeah, the whiteness of the whale, same thing. You know, Melville goes on and on about the whiteness of the whale and you know, beautiful passages. Oh my goodness, you know? But yeah, yeah, or oil making or things like that. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Does that make sense? It does, and you know, it's non-fiction, but of course, I'm treating the people I'm writing about as characters, because I mean, one of them I never met, so I'm kind of making them up as I go along. But yeah, that's helpful, because that'll help with some other places where I want to go on longer and just I'm not sure what the standard is. And let me just say, whenever I'm just sort of thinking, maybe I'm going on too long or what's fascinating, I think of the Butcher's monologue, the Liz's monologue, it's just like, yeah, that is the perfect thing. Yeah, yeah. So, you're welcome. Yeah, yeah, and we, you know, people are still saying, why is that there? And I'm like, because it is. Exactly. You know, because the man had to unburden himself. Because the man was in love, the character we're talking about, the man Butcher felt was in love, is in love, and he is sharing, and that's what fuels that speech about his daughter. So again, if you lash, if you like, you know, what was his name, Odysseus, you know, and they were going on that boat past the sirens, you know, I don't know if this analogy is gonna work. And he says to his crew members, lash me to the mast, tie me to the mast, so that I can make it through, right? You wanna tie your information, the cotton gin, lash it to the character's desire, and it will go through, right? Mm-hmm. Right, if it's tied to that, it will resonate in a full and beautiful way. And a drawing of a cotton gin could be kind of cool. All right, I'll be sure that gets in there, goes to you. I don't know. You can draw one yourself, you can just draw one, you know. Right. Anyway, okay. Right. Thanks, Rebecca. Thanks, Rebecca. Thank you. All right, we've got about a minute left and we're gonna go to Erin. Erin, are you there? Yes, I'm here. Hi, Susan, Laurie. Hey, Erin, how are you? Good, how are you? I've told so many people about howl-round and what you're doing, and I have a friend who joined like a few weeks ago she's on the Zoom call too. Yeah. Well, good news is I finished a really, well, I finished a draft of a screenplay and it's really bad. Okay. But it's the first screenplay that I finished writing on my own and I feel like a little overwhelmed at the prospect of rewriting it and I'm primarily a director for like music videos and short form content and things like that, but I do wanna get into narrative features. So I feel like I'm, my ideal situation is having maybe a co-writer to work with but right now I'm trying to like push it along as far as I can and just wondering if you have any suggestions or, I feel like, because I feel like I'm not a writer I guess is like my hang-up. Well, you're not a lot, well, Erin, okay, it was good. I love you and stop telling me you're not a writer. How could you not be a writer? You've written a whole screenplay. I mean, what more proof do you need? So if you've got to get in the habit of saying, yeah, I mean, I'm primarily direct but I'm also a writer. You can couch it any way you want but you're not allowed to say I'm not a writer because that's a lie and we don't lie here. We don't lie. All right, so what I would suggest, I mean, co-writers that's great and but I want you to have the success for yourself. You know, I want you to have the success for yourself. So maybe when it gets picked up by, I don't know where Paramount or whatever and you're like the 26 figure deal or whatever and they'll bring on a writer to do, they'll bring on Jacob and he'll do his magic. You know what I mean? And boom, it's going to be a great screenplay and you guys can share credit or fight over it with the WGA as you will. I want you to have this experience for you. So if you say the screenplay is not so good, bad, okay? Are you familiar with the rhythm of a, it's a Hollywood screenplay, right? I mean, traditional kind of Hollywood style. Okay, okay. Are you familiar with the traditional beats in a screenplay? Page one, something should happen, something specific. Page three, page 10, page 30, you're familiar with that, right? Yes, yes. Okay, great. So you're going to rewrite in chunks. Okay. You're going to rewrite page one, okay? Spend a day on it. I mean, not a whole day but spend your writing time on page one. Then spend your writing time on pages one through three, making sure that the shit that needs to go down on page three is happening. Yeah. Then spend your writing time on pages one through 10. You're right, we're taking it, we're taking it slow. Yeah, totally. Okay, it's like dating. Just take it slow, right? Okay. And then do the same thing. You go from then page 30. So you go from page one to page 30. And again, I would say spend more of your writing time on the pages that you haven't gotten to yet. So from page 10 to page 30, you want to really work on that. Make sure that the end of act one is where it should be, right? And then you're going to go through the middle and then you're going to from whatever 30, 60 and then 65, 65, 75, 75, 90, 90 to 120 over the end, right? You work on it in pieces, making sure the stuff that's supposed to happen in those pieces is happening. Got it. Okay. Cool, thank you, Susan Lori. Thank you. Great question. Yay. Yay, all right, oh. I muted myself, that was a mistake. I meant to mute Erin, I muted myself. It's 602. It's 602. Thank you so much, everybody. I also wanted to do before we go for the week, next week we're going to be here Tuesday and Wednesday only, which is July 7th and 8th, I believe. And then we're going to be taking a break from July 9th until we'll be back on July 20th. First, we've got some internal meetings at the public that Susan and Lori. Susan and Lori. Susan Lori and I, what's happening today? Susan Lori and I have to attend, but we will see you next week and then we'll see you again on July 20th. Okay. Thanks everybody. Happy 4th. Enjoy yourselves. Be free. Thank you, Susan Lori, you're the best. We love you guys. We do. We love you.