Alcohol and Writing Don't Mix

[CMatthews]

I just started writing about a year ago when I was sober.

I wrote a whole bunch of stories while I was on the "Wagon".

I created Susan Walker and Carolyn Matthews stories and they
are okay, but now it is the middle of the winter and I can't seem
to get up the energy to write anymore.

Instead of sitting for hours at the computer, I would rather sit by
the television and drink beer.

Now that the weather is improving, and I have noticed I have
gained a few pounds, I am willing to put away alcohol for a while
and write a few more stories.

I am in a dilemma, my short stories take only a day or two to
write, but they don't do as well as long stories.

I have people emailing me, saying they like my short stories,
but they don't have many visits and votes. On they other hand,
it takes me about a week (in my spare time) to create longer
ones. They seem to do very well, and I am pleased.

Anyway, what I am getting at is this:

I am not able to create good stories when I have been drinking
alcohol.

I have been on a binge for the past month because of the
holidays. What a depressing time of the year for a single person.

I am ready to sober up now and get back to my hobby of writing.

Thanks to Literotica, and the people in this forum, I feel like writing
again.

I still have a few more stories that I wrote before, and I am
submitting them every few days.

So, today, I can have a few more beers, but the weather is getting
better and I feel the need to get behind the keyboard again.

Does anybody else have problems with alcohol and the Holidays?

CM

 

[sr71plt]

I cook right along in my writing with a glass (or two) of Shiraz. There's a wide margin between sipping a bit of alcohol and being drunk. Have only been drunk once in my life--and, like cigarettes, once was enough.

 

[xssve]

"I am a drinker with writing problems".

-- Brendan Behan.

 

[xssve]

Seriously, alcohol is a crude drug: it suppresses inhibition in the early stages which can be a good thing; it's often used by painters, etc., in order to "stop thinking" and just "do", i.e., to facilitate a more intuitive, stream of consciousness approach.

Eventually, however, dementia sets in, one becomes so immersed in ones decaying internal subconscious that ones product becomes increasing devoid of commonality with other consciousness's and you become a raving lunatic or a drooling idiot.

Not so bad, if you're a painter, they might even decide you were a genius - not so optimal if you're a writer, where even expressionism is somewhat dependent on legibility.

Try sexual excess, it works for me.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

For me alcohol is merely a beverage; I dont get the effects people drink for, and if I drink too much I fall asleep. Beer goes great with pizza or bratwurst, and thats about as much as I can say for drinking. I dont get your problem and never will.

 

[jomar]

Yes. It was but only a year or two ago, perhaps around the holidays, that alcohol interfered with, was destructive to, my writing. For you see, a full glass of wine spilled onto my laptop and fried the motherboard. My replacement is alcohol free and the wine rests farther away, though is no less enjoyable.

 

[TxRad]

Drinking, writing, Hemingway. The three seem to go together but do they? Drinking is one thing, drunk another. Sometimes it's a fine line and sometimes it's not. To each his own.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm on antibiotics at present and a side-effect is that any alcohol would make me puke/barf/chuck my load...

Normally my alcohol consumption is irrelevant. I can't drink enough to make any significant difference to my behaviour or my writing. My alcohol tolerance has always been high.

Driving? That's different. I don't drink and drive.

Og

 

[CMatthews]

Did Vincent Van Gogh cut his ear off?

To be precise, it was the lobe of his left ear which he
put into an envelope and gave to a brothel wench named
Rachel with these words: "Guard this object carefully."

After he tried to drink a quart of turpentine in his
studio, he was sent to the asylum at Saint-Remy on
May 7, 1889.

The doctors began to treat him with hydrotherapy for
acute mania and epilepsy. A precise diagnosis of Van
Gogh's illness is still unavailable, despite hundreds
of conjectures.

We do know a few facts: Van Gogh suffered from syphilis
contracted from prostitutes off the docks at Antwerp;
there was also a history of mental illness in his
family. Some physicians now believe Van Gogh may have
had a congenital brain lesion that was aggravated by
absinthe.

CM

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Oh! Van Gogh's mental illness isnt an exotic orchid just discovered. Most disorders are easy to recognize when you've treated a few thousand of them. I'd lable him schizo-affective disorder, that is, psychotic and emotionally volatile in the extreme.

https://health.google.com/health/ref/Schizoaffective+disorder

 

[CopperSkink]

Sitting in front the computer and writing is difficult. It's also adding to the world, being apart of it, as opposed to sitting in front the TV and drinking. Just absorbing what the world is throwing at you, staying entertained until you have to go buy more beer.

I had the same thing with Warcraft (including the drinking; delicious, delicious Starbucks liquor). I discovered that drinking wasn't the problem, Warcraft was the problem. Stop watching TV, and your drinking problem will go away.

Now excuse me while I go find some place on the wall to hang my imaginary psychologist degree.

 

[Loring2]

Drinking & writing

Writing and Drinking is one of those ho, hum things. Sometimes I do it, sometimes I don't.
I have more editing to do when I drink --- too much booze is a bit stupid though ...

 

[sr71plt]

I am, actually.

 

[OnlyByMoonlight]

Alcohol has never really done anything for me. However, after my surgery when I was on painkillers (opiates specifically) I found that they increased my creativity. When I was loopy I would get super creative. Now channeling this into writing was a challenge, though I managed.

Overall I think of writing as like a drug for me. So whenever I'm not 'on the wagon' I'm putting it on the back burner.

I feel you, and good luck trying to write. I know its a bitch sometimes.

 

[sr71plt]

Managed to finish off a piece for publication tonight with the help of two glasses of red.

 

[Lisa Summers]

I am not able to create good stories when I have been drinking
alcohol.

I find I have more interest in writing when I avoid wine.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

When we speak of creativity and inhibitions we're talking about our comfort level coloring outside the lines.

Stephen King sez he wrote plenty of best sellers smashed, damn nearly comatose. So it can be done, and done well. And he adds that its like some kid coming to your house you dont know...he looks like you, he says youre his pa, and you cant recall any of how it happened.

 

[xssve]

Sitting in front the computer and writing is difficult. It's also adding to the world, being apart of it, as opposed to sitting in front the TV and drinking. Just absorbing what the world is throwing at you, staying entertained until you have to go buy more beer.

I had the same thing with Warcraft (including the drinking; delicious, delicious Starbucks liquor). I discovered that drinking wasn't the problem, Warcraft was the problem. Stop watching TV, and your drinking problem will go away.

Now excuse me while I go find some place on the wall to hang my imaginary psychologist degree.

Good call.