My original plan for tonight was to write reviews of some films I’ve seen recently. But then I made the mistake of watching the following video interview with David Milch and those plans were quickly tossed out the window. If you ever want to be inspired to write, this is the man to listen to.

I have been a tremendous fan of David Milch since the first episode of Deadwood. To me (and I still have yet to see The Wire so this opinion may change!) it is the single greatest piece of writing on television…or was. And while it was not as accessible, I felt relatively the same about his next series, John from Cincinnati. His book on the writing of Deadwood is a must read (as is my article on the relationship between Swearengen and Bullock!).

Here he discusses writing…and not writing (important part happens at about 7:20):

And because it can sometimes be much easier to understand Milch’s writing when you can actually read the words, here is a transcription:

…the fact that the Ego is the enemy of the imagination.

Anything that you think about writing, when you are not writing, is a product of the ego and is absolutely wrong. 100%, all the time wrong.

And if you take a step back and think about how much time you spend trying to purify yourself in order to get ready to write, that’s like 95% of the time. And the reason for that is the Ego has a stake in perpetuating the behavior that you’ve already engaged in.

We do not think our way to right action. We act our way to right thinking.

So what I do is I start writing. If I think about my writing before I start to write, what I’m really doing is justifying not writing. So, because what I’m thinking when I’m not writing, I’m not writing. so I’m gonna find a way to keep not writing. So what I say is I don’t have the idea, it’s not fully realized yet, my pencils are sharpened, I don’t have the right notebook, bah bah bah, it’s 11:45 time for lunch…

Or in my case, blog about writing.  

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