Beer

[shutterpsb]

I've discovered beer enhances the writing process, but really hinders the editing/revising process. Anyone else find this to be true?

 

[Deprived_in_AZ]

"Write drunk, edit sober."

Ernest Hemingway, I think?

 

[Hypoxia]

"Beer is proof God loves us." --B.Franklin

"In Heaven, there is no beer / That's why we drink it here."

I want a beer / just like the beer / that pickled dear old Dad
That was a beer / and the only beer / that Daddy ever had
A good old-fashioned beer with lots of foam
It took ten cops to carry Daddy home
I want a beer / just like the beer / that fucked up my old man

 

[redzinger]

I have a similar relationship with cider (the alcoholic stuff).

 

[Misshotndeep]

All things in moderation.

 

[lovecraft68]

Same here Jack Daniels is a great muse, but he's a lousy speller and typist.

So I write away and the next morning look at what I wrote the way people look around at their trashed house the morning after a party.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Beer for stumbling onto the ideas, the creative process.

Coffee for the actual writing and editing.


Usually works for me.


Now, not so much.


I'm in a slump.


A word deficit.

Get your ideas at night while drinking beer.

Write/edit in the morning while drinking coffee.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Ethanol - or ethyl alcohol - (in other words, alcohol!) has two main effects on the brain systems: firstly it opens the Glutamate channels which puts people into a slight state of anxiety or excitement or expectation, and then secondly, it raises the levels of Dopamine so that when Dopamine is actually fired, there is more of it. Dopamine, is not, as most popular thought goes, a 'pleasure' neurotransmitter. Rather, it clears nerve pathways and activates them so that they can much more efficiently create connections and also more quickly transfer the real 'pleasure' chemicals when these are subsequently fired.

As everyone also knows though, increasing the base level of Dopamine leads to quick 'tolerance' and very shortly, Dopamine becomes ineffective and the levels drop back down and suddenly the person shifts into more of a depressive state and everything slows down as the nerve pathways become heavily blocked up.

INITIALLY, it would seem to be the case that heightened Glutamate action would increase dynamic processes in the mind, combined with the calmness and relaxed and smooth-flowing feelings provided by the initial action of the increase in D levels. In this condition you would suppose the brain could 'manipulate' a lot of thoughts quite calmly and with some balance and control.

If you want to use beer, wine, spirits - to spark uplifting, positive, creativity - it's entirely possible but you have to get the ideas down quite fast, otherwise you are going to drift downwards into a more depressive range of feelings with much slower rates to thinking.

It's possible that the slightly lower alcohol percentage of beer will give you more initial time in the 'zone,' as it were.

Coffee also has effects on the Glutamate channels but through the action of dehydration! Caffeine and Chinese food 'should' have amazing effects on creative thinking...

My personal opinion is that yes, alcohol can set off creative thinking - and I think, if you can limit the alcohol to a lot LESS than a normal person would drink for enjoyment purposes, and then substitute the alcohol with something else before the ethanol can completely take over, you might be onto something.

 

[DreamCloud]

I will experiment tonight. I have Guinness in the fridge - should be able to chew my way through it and a few pages.

Now I just have to figure out which of the eight stories I have started needs a flash of inebriation.

 

[sr71plt]

Haven't tried the effect of beer on writing/editing. I only drink it when I'm overseas--instead of water.

 

[Carnevil9]

Beer puts me to sleep for some reason. But a nice martini or three gets my creative writing juices flowing. And as others have said, I always need a sober editing session after a tipsy writing session.

 

[Handley_Page]

I have a similar relationship with cider (the alcoholic stuff).

Not Cidre, then ?

Ethanol - or ethyl alcohol - (in other words, alcohol!) has two main effects on the brain systems: firstly it opens the Glutamate channels which puts people into a slight state of anxiety or excitement or expectation, and then secondly, it raises the levels of Dopamine so that when Dopamine is actually fired, there is more of it. Dopamine, is not, as most popular thought goes, a 'pleasure' neurotransmitter. Rather, it clears nerve pathways and activates them so that they can much more efficiently create connections and also more quickly transfer the real 'pleasure' chemicals when these are subsequently fired.


My personal opinion is that yes, alcohol can set off creative thinking - and I think, if you can limit the alcohol to a lot LESS than a normal person would drink for enjoyment purposes, and then substitute the alcohol with something else before the ethanol can completely take over, you might be onto something.

Mono-sodium Glutamate, perhaps ?

 

[redzinger]

Not Cidre, then ?

Heaven forbid, no.

None of that Magners crap either - they only serve it over ice as it's incredibly rank at room temperature.

I'm happy enough with 'Bow though (Strongbow), although my guts aren't. If a pub has Stowford Press, I enjoy that, as I find Aspall's is a little too sweet. One of my regular post-ride haunts has about 6 different traditional types on tap but they're around 8% and vary in character so I stick to the 5% Hazy Hog.

I'm currently drinking an apple wine which my mother made. I suspect it's around 20-25%. Lush but lethal.

Back to the OP, I can now confirm anything apple-based doesn't help in any way.

 

[Handley_Page]

Heaven forbid, no.

None of that Magners crap either - they only serve it over ice as it's incredibly rank at room temperature.

I'm currently drinking an apple wine which my mother made. I suspect it's around 20-25%. Lush but lethal.

Can I have the recipe please?

Have you tried Westons Cider ?

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Ethanol - or ethyl alcohol - (in other words, alcohol!) has two main effects on the brain systems: firstly it opens the Glutamate channels which puts people into a slight state of anxiety or excitement or expectation, and then secondly, it raises the levels of Dopamine so that when Dopamine is actually fired, there is more of it. Dopamine, is not, as most popular thought goes, a 'pleasure' neurotransmitter. Rather, it clears nerve pathways and activates them so that they can much more efficiently create connections and also more quickly transfer the real 'pleasure' chemicals when these are subsequently fired.

As everyone also knows though, increasing the base level of Dopamine leads to quick 'tolerance' and very shortly, Dopamine becomes ineffective and the levels drop back down and suddenly the person shifts into more of a depressive state and everything slows down as the nerve pathways become heavily blocked up.

INITIALLY, it would seem to be the case that heightened Glutamate action would increase dynamic processes in the mind, combined with the calmness and relaxed and smooth-flowing feelings provided by the initial action of the increase in D levels. In this condition you would suppose the brain could 'manipulate' a lot of thoughts quite calmly and with some balance and control.

If you want to use beer, wine, spirits - to spark uplifting, positive, creativity - it's entirely possible but you have to get the ideas down quite fast, otherwise you are going to drift downwards into a more depressive range of feelings with much slower rates to thinking.

It's possible that the slightly lower alcohol percentage of beer will give you more initial time in the 'zone,' as it were.

Coffee also has effects on the Glutamate channels but through the action of dehydration! Caffeine and Chinese food 'should' have amazing effects on creative thinking...

My personal opinion is that yes, alcohol can set off creative thinking - and I think, if you can limit the alcohol to a lot LESS than a normal person would drink for enjoyment purposes, and then substitute the alcohol with something else before the ethanol can completely take over, you might be onto something.

whatever most of this is, doesn't apply to me.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Not Cidre, then ?

Since Stella Artois, who make Cidre, won't allow it to be sold to their own Belgian citizens, there is a suggestion it is only fit for Anglo Saxons.

 

[oggbashan]

Since Stella Artois, who make Cidre, won't allow it to be sold to their own Belgian citizens, there is a suggestion it is only fit for Anglo Saxons.

It isn't fit for Cider drinkers. Nor are most mainstream cider products. I buy from a local producer - bring your own containers...

 

[jomar]

Wine once killed an old laptop whatever writerly message that sends.

 

[MSTarot]

Something to listen to while we're drinking. Courtesy of the SCA pirate and a wonderful band called ALESTORM.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f55CqLc6IR0

 

[patientlee]

Wine once killed an old laptop whatever writerly message that sends.

I've spilled beer on 2 laptops. You'd think I'd learn.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've never spilled on my lap top....because I have a wireless keyboard. Now keyboards....Let's just say I am at a point where I order two so I can have a spare

 

[theeyesavit]

It isn't fit for Cider drinkers. Nor are most mainstream cider products. I buy from a local producer - bring your own containers...

Stella is sold in a few bars in Bruges......but I don'tkow its availability elsewhere in Belgium....Jupiler is a better cooking beer.

Personally give me Brugse Zot Trippel or any Westmalle

 

[Handley_Page]

I've never spilled on my lap top....because I have a wireless keyboard. Now keyboards....Let's just say I am at a point where I order two so I can have a spare

An interesting point. I am reminded of an advert for somebody's keyboard which was "Coffee and Coke proof".
Having just had to buy a new keyboard because I spilled some Ribena on it, I'd be interested top know why the technology seems to have vanished.

Bah- humbug!

 

[redzinger]

Can I have the recipe please?

Have you tried Westons Cider ?

I like Katy but for some reason it's lethal and turns me (and others) rather silly.

I've asked my mother to dig out the recipe. She has lashings of apple trees in her back garden, all organic.
What probably helps is that it's aged about five years.

I buy from a local producer - bring your own containers...

On some of my rides, we pass Denbies Vineyard near Dorking, which also has the Surrey Hills Brewery around the back...

4 pints in a large plastic bottle of the very drinkable Shere Drop for £8. *hic*
Makes for a wobbly ride home.

I haven't found a near-enough cider equivalent yet.

 

[slyc_willie]

Practically everything I've ever written has been done while under the influence of alcohol, usually beer. I find that the words flow easier (pun intended) and my vocabulary is at it's broadest after I've had a couple of bottles of, say, New Belgium Rampant or Maredsous 10. I keep the buzz going with lower-alcohol beer until I'm either tired, or the vocabulary starts to get limited again (because I can't think straight). Usually it's the former.

If I drink hard liquor, the effect on my brain is different (or it feels that way, at any rate). I don't get that "fast and loose" ability to write that I enjoy while drinking beer.

I agree with Zeb, though. Edit while sober.