Writing What We Don't Know
A Counter-Intuitive Anti-Capitalist Primer
We are often told to write what we know, but with my new play WINNERS (come see it 6/25 at The Tank!) I had no idea what I was writing or why. I encourage people to write without knowing what they are writing. This is a very counter-intuitive thing to do in a capitalist culture that insists on only doing things for the value we can get from them.
Capitalism says time is money, and what we do with our time matters. Capitalism implies (or insists - depends on the pressure you feel) we should be using our time to make something that will be valuable, worthy and worthwhile and worth money. That's an enormous amount of pressure on anyone who is exploring creatively in any medium.
I say we must, as creative beings, talk back to Capitalism. We must insist on our right to create for fun, pleasure, for the joy of discovering something new. And if it turns into something, great! But that's not the point. I sit down to write to see what's there. To bear witness.
It's sort of like sitting zazen. We don't try. We do. What Yoda said to Luke... I believe that everything is connected. We are our environment. When we allow ourselves to ground and offer ourselves the permission to spill (or dribble out) what is inside us, what we're living with and from and for, we are making something unique. Not all of it needs to be distributed widely, but some of it will.
Many of us harbor secret fears that we don't deserve to be here, or we don't deserve to take up space with something that isn't perfect. Or we just don't matter. This makes it very hard to release anything inside, even into a private tiny notebook. I have been there. I spent over ten years unable to write. I almost died from this. If you are struggling with this, please reach out.
Many of us are trained to never reach out. We don't know we've been trained; it happens when we're pre-verbal. We have no conscious memory of it. But if you were sent to your room for having emotions, or if you think you might have reached out as a baby and failed to get the appropriate response, you may have learned that reaching out doesn't work. This is not uncommon. I have struggled with this too. We can learn to reach out.
So when I say let what comes come, and allow yourself to not know, to create to find out, I mean it as a practice. Not only to thumb your nose at the capitalist vision of “time=money,” but also to liberate yourself from the notion that you are worth less unless you are making money. You are worthy as you are.
With WINNERS, I wrote 10 different scenes and still had no idea what the play wanted. Putting it away, giving it time, isn't giving up on it. And I didn't feel badly about it. I just didn't know. Two years went by while I wrote other things. I rewrote other things.
Then I discovered I'm autistic (and later adhd). Once I knew I was autistic, I could go back to those scenes and understand them. I knew what WINNERS wanted to be about. I knew how to write the last scene and which other scenes to get rid of. It all made sense.
I do not have to know what I'm doing to trust that I'm doing something of value.
I do not need to know what I'm doing to share it. I shared the earliest scenes from WINNERS (way before I knew what it was). People responded and shared what they thought it was. This was helpful.
Sharing in a safe environment can be helpful - Brave Space holds sharing salons twice a month, and once a week on Thursdays we do some workshopping. Feedback should be nurturing.
Tuesday June 25th at 7pm I'll be presenting a staged reading of my new play WINNERS about late diagnosis autism. WINNERS celebrates queer, nonbinary, trans and autistic authenticity. For PRIDEFEST at the Tank, I hope you'll join me.
Afterwards there will be a party at The Tailor's Public House upstairs in their private space with an all-you-can-eat buffet just like in the play! I would love to see you there! For tickets: WINNERS
This is me reaching out: I could use your help! If you're not in NYC but you know people in NYC who would enjoy this proudly queer nonbinary comedy, please let them know about it. Thank you!
Brave Space happens 5 days a week and has been happening since 2019, even before anyone knew how to use zoom. I will be taking a week off coming up 6/24 - 6/28 in order to enjoy WINNERS and rest afterwards. I hope I'll see you there!
Writing Prompt -
Are you a landscape artist, a portrait painter, a pointillist, a muralist, a quilter, a knitter, an architect, or a sculptor when it comes to writing? You might be a combination of these or something else entirely.
What would it mean to be these things? I think a landscape artist sees the broader picture with a wide lens. A portrait painter might focus on character(s). A pointillist gets specific with details. A muralist commands our attention in a big way. A quilter puts things together in pieces. A knitter appreciates working with a pattern. An architect thinks structurally while a sculptor thinks in three dimensions, each with their own spatial and aesthetic challenges.
Moving beyond writer's mind to artist's mind, you might want to employ all of these techniques in your writing at one point or another. But for the purpose of this prompt, I'm asking you to choose one, perhaps the one that most attracts you, the one you find easiest to do, the one this particular project you’re working on calls for, or the one you wish you were better at. Pick one. (You can come back and make a different choice later if you want. You could layer several choices into one project.)
Choose one as your lens for this prompt. Use all the ways that lens would prompt you to write. LIST these before you begin. For example, if you are writing as a pointillist, you might consider all the different kinds of details you might want to use. If you are writing as a landscape artist, your list might include the impact of place or nature on your story, or you could list some wide shots or crowd scenes you want to capture. Employing whatever that choice means to you, write the next scene in your project or write a new piece, using that lens.
You can use as many or as few of the items on your list as you want to, but a list will provide you with choices as you move forward. Whatever you are writing, foreground from that lens.
If it's a series of portraits, then begin with character and specific moments in the story for that character. Pay attention to composing moments that show that character as a portrait painter might. Let me know how it goes!
Announcements:
This is a community. If you want me to add your announcement, please let me know. You can post a comment with a link, and I’ll add it to the next stack. Please check for what your community members are doing! Support is important!
Go see How to Eat an Orange at LaMama ETC by Catherine Filloux, directed by Elena Araoz. Through June 16th.
Online see Sara Nesson’s Body of Water June 20th, 2024, 10:30 am Pacific Time Click here to register.
Go see Michael Lopetrone appearing in Meet You Downstairs at Hudson Guild. June 27th - 30th. AEA showcase, actors get in free.
Deadline June 14th! Submit a Jewish full length play to Jewish Plays Project
Staged reading Monday, June 17th: Who the F*ck is Ahmed, by Michael Zalta. An absurd and boisterous spin on Ghassan Kanafani's famous novella "Returning to Haifa." 7pm at the Asian American Writers Workshop in Manhattan.
Deadline June 18th! NYFA grant application for $8K: The Ryan Hudak LGBTQ+ Dramatic Writing Award (you must be queer and NY based and willing to fill out the long application)
Deadline June 30th! Submit an application for IRONS IN THE FIRE, a year-round reading series of new plays in development at Fault Line Theatre
Deadline July 3rd! Experiments in Opera is looking for writers! More Here
Deadline July 16th! The Civilians’ R&D Group includes theater artists from various disciplines exploring strategies for making theater from their own creative investigations… apply here: paid opportunity
If you’re in Asheville, NC, my short piece, “Different.” will be performed in the Different Strokes Performing Arts Festival, June 20-23rd.
I'm organizing a party - All You Can Eat! - for after the presentation of WINNERS at The Tank as part of PrideFest on Tuesday, June 25th, 7pm. GET YOUR TICKETS! What is WINNERS? It's my new character-based comedy about a clueless family. Two funerals, two coming-outs, and a lot of forgiveness. It's a celebration of queerness and autistic authenticity! It's about time you got your tickets! CLICK HERE FOR TIX
Brave Space Schedule:
For the week of 6/17 - 6/21/24 Monday 12pm ET Brave Space Tuesday 12pm ET Brave Space Tuesday 7pm ET Advanced Brave Group Coaching Wednesday 11am ET Advanced Brave Group Coaching Wednesday 7pm ET Brave Space for All Humans Thursday 11am ET Brave Space w/workshop! Friday 12pm ET Brave Space For the week of 6/24 - 6/28/24 Brave Space is on hiatus For the week of 7/1 - 7/5/24 Monday 12pm ET Brave Space Tuesday 12pm ET Brave Space Tuesday 7pm ET Advanced Brave Group Coaching Wednesday 11am ET Advanced Brave Group Coaching Wednesday 7pm ET Brave Space for All Humans Thursday 4th of July no Brave Space Friday 5th of July no Brave Space