a voice from the past

Looking through some old writing, I found some really old writing. It's dated Sept. 4, 2000 and I wrote it on my laptop, sitting on the porch of the barn in Lexington. I was writing a lot back then. I was heavily involved in working on The Ballad of Larry the Flyer. Amy and I had just gotten back together for the last time. The file is called "i know about writing":

Things I know about writing.

Writing isn't mystical or magical -- it's putting words down on paper.

The more you do it the easier it gets.

Rewriting is more important than the initial impulse to get what you MEAN down on paper.

The thing you are writing is more important than your ego.

Action and specific characterization are what capture the interest and hold interest through the course of the play.

When you write about something that means something to you, it shows in the quality of the writing.

You can't write about ideas. You can write something that embodies those ideas.

Your worst "enemy" when writing is your own head.

Be specific.

Be more specific.

Writing reflects the state of your mind -- the structure your create on paper is a mirror of the thought structure in your head.

Execution fills an idea with worth -- an idea is not good or bad.

Why you're writing isn't as important as the fact of writing.

I'm not saying it's earth shattering, or life changing stuff. It's just a reminder that I used to think, and cared to think a lot, about something that I've let get away from me. And I think some of what I wrote is worth thinking about now.