David Milch: “The Writer’s Voice” (Part 1)

Videos and transcripts from Milch’s legendary 2001 and 2007 WGA series.

In September 2010, I ran a week-long series featuring key excerpts from a memorable series of presentations in December 2001 by David Milch at the WGA Theater in Beverly Hills. Then I stumbled upon this: An entire series available on YouTube called The Idea of the Writer by Milch from a second WGA presentation, this one from December 2007. Since Milch is both an amazing writer and thinker about writing, each day this week I will reprise my posts featuring transcript excerpts from Milch’s 2001 presentation and embed videos from his 2007 series.

Television credits (as creator)

• Beverly Hills Buntz (1987–1988) — co-creator, writer, producer of this Hill Street Blues spin-off
• Capital News (1990) — co-creator, writer, producer
• NYPD Blue (1993–2005) — co-creator, writer, executive producer
• Brooklyn South (1997–1998) — co-creator, executive producer
• Total Security (1997) — co-creator, writer
• Big Apple (2001) — creator, writer, executive producer
• Deadwood (2004–2006) — creator, writer, executive producer
• John from Cincinnati (2007) — co-creator, writer, executive producer
• Last of the Ninth (2009) — creator, writer, executive producer
• Luck (2010) — creator, writer, executive producer
• The Money (2014) — writer, executive producer

Awards and recognition

• 1993 Emmy Award, Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series (Hill Street Blues)
• 1994 Edgar Award, Best Episode in a Television Series Teleplay (NYPD Blue, “4B or Not 4B”)
• 1995 Emmy Award, Best Drama Series (NYPD Blue)
• 1995 Edgar Award, Best Episode in a Television Series Teleplay (NYPD Blue, “Simone Says”) (shared with Steven Bochco and Walon Green)
• 2006 Austin Film Festival, Outstanding Television Writer Award recipient

Not to mention the 259 episodes of “N.Y.P.D. Blue” he’s credited with writing.

I did this post back in July that featured some great video of Milch sharing his thoughts about writing. At the time, I noted this:

What leaped to mind when I read the news about the new HBO series was a series of presentations Milch gave at the WGA Theater several years ago. They were covered and excerpted in the fine WGA journal “Written By” over the course of several months. I remember reading them, both fascinated and inspired by Milch’s ideas.

I contacted “Written By” and they have kindly offered to create electronic versions of the original hard copies, so I can excerpt them on GITS. Look forward to that sometime soon.

Here are some of Milch’s comments from those presentations at the WGA Theater from back in 2001, excerpted from the “Written By” journal. Part 1:

When you are not writing, you’re going to be sad. You are going to feel inadequate. You are going to feel untalented. You are going to feel incompetent. It’s crucially important to understand that the impulse to write is a reaching out to God.

Words are symbols of reality, but they are symbols that partake of the reality they represent. That paradoxical doubleness is the explanation of how writing is a reaching out to our fellow human beings but also a reaching out to a larger spirit.

You should mistrust what you think about writing when you’re not writing. There’s a certain expression: “When I’m in my head, I’m in a bad neighborhood.” Another one is, “My best thinking is what got me into this quagmire.” If we think about writing but don’t proceed to the act of writing, we fall back on sentimental or childish explanations for our inactivity.

— —

The first thing to take away with you is the absolute certainty that nothing you have ever thought about your capacities as an artist is true. This is a fresh beginning. You must find a time each day — preferably the same time — in which you sit down and write not less than 20 minutes and not more than 50 minutes. Don’t set it up on the computer, don’t think about what you’re going to write before you do it. No exceptions. This means you.

Whatever comes out is fine. Put it in an envelope when you’re done, seal the envelope, don’t talk about it to anybody, and don’t show it to anybody, and that doesn’t mean, “I’m just gonna show my friend; I’m just gonna find out what she thinks.” Don’t show it to anybody! These are exercises that you are doing, and you are building certain neuro pathways, and you are shutting down certain other neuro pathways. What I’m describing is a physiological, behavioral sequence that is going to have neurological changes for you. You’re going to habituate yourself in a different fashion, and you can’t fool around with it.

— —

Two voices, one and two. No names. No description. That means no description. Voice one and voice two. Don’t say what the setting is. Write for not less than 20 minutes with those two voices. Just follow; just hear what they say. Not more than 50 minutes. Put it in an envelope, seal the envelope, and shut up. Don’t talk about it. Don’t think about what it means. Don’t think about who they are. The next day — preferably the same time — sit down and do it again. They may be the same voice; they may be different voices; don’t worry about it. Don’t think about it. Just do it.

Trust me, in the course of this, the true categories of your imagination will emerge, and they are absolutely different from what you think they are.

Day 1: David Milch on The Idea of the Writer (2007 WGA series).

Tomorrow Part 2 of “The Idea of the Writer” with David Milch.

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