Alcohol and Writing

[Dr_Strabismus]

There was a thread way back in something-ty-something about the drugs writers use, if any, and how it affects their writing.

I'm getting on in life now, and can't keep up with all the shit my kids' generation take. I've never taken ecstasy, crystal, smoked skunk, dropped ketamine. I'm not planning to do any of that stuff either, but I did my fair share of experimenting in my past.

It seems to me, that of all the drugs, far and away the most commonly connected with writing is good old (bad old) alcohol. And not just because it's almost universally available. Is there something about alcohol that is actually conducive to writing? Or is it just that people who write are more likely to be people who like to take a drink?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Don't drink much, but write a lot more. I don't think I could write intelligibly if I was drunk.

 

[ofbuttons]

I think the act of writing can be about inhibitions. If you're inhibited, it can be hard for some people to break past the internal editor, to give themselves permission to write like shit just to get the draft down. If you're uninhibited, the sort of thing alcohol helps with, it can be nice to cruise past whatever neuroses are holding you back.

But alcohol also affects hand-eye coordination, makes you sleepy and depressive, and other problems. I think a drink can be a nice kickstart at the right time, but for me, it's an extremely fine line between being productively tipsy and completely unable to focus. I don't bother with it.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Drinking used to help my writing process, but it had to be precisely the right amount. Too little didn't help, too much derailed the process entirely.

Nowadays, no amount helps. Curse my aging liver!

Think I'll try laudanum next... it worked wonders for Coleridge

 

[BiscuitHammer]

People quote Hemingway as saying 'Write drunk, edit sober', although that very likely is apocryphal. Sounds more like a Faulkner thing.

In any event, writing while hammered is indeed fun, but it makes for editing HELL afterwards, since you very often have no idea what your context was, and drunk self wasn't kind enough to leave any explanation.

I tried writing a chapter of Mike & Karen while drinking Lagavulin and Pernod Fils, and wow... there was sex, and it was weird, but the chapter had become a lengthy tirade on the flaws of anarcho-communism and the science behind the evolution of giraffe necks.

I blame Mike in both instances.

In the end, I excised just about everything I'd written while inebriated from the chapter and put it all in the 'Ideas' folder for future use. Then I finished the chapter while drinking Imperial silver needle tea.

Clearly I should try writing merely buzzed instead of all-the way-blitzed if I'm attempting erotica. And I no doubt had fun, I just don't remember it.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

A couple drinks can help that free-wheeling association of words that raises plodding prose to something interesting to read. It also helps with things like cryptic crosswords. Sleep deprivation has much the same effect.

I have had a lot of fun writing drunk characters, while sober myself.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

For writers, alcohol makes a good lubricant, but a terrible fuel.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Alcohol might bring your characters to life. I wrote that into a humorous story "Getting Too Close - 750 Words".

 

[SimonDoom]

As the Porter in MacBeth said about alcohol, "It provokes the desire but takes away the performance." He was talking about sex, but he could have been talking about writing, too. I enjoy my cocktails, and I'll second what BiscuitHammer said: it makes editing hell. I already have a bad habit of substituting homonyms ("waste" for "waist", eg) and it gets worse if I've had a few.

I'm not sure what the psychological explanation is (not being a psychologist), but I sense there's a time-honored connection between creative types and artificial stimulants. Writers are more likely to be loners who spend time by themselves writing. Maybe they're more likely to be depressives? I don't know. I recall Stephen King saying something about this in an interview or essay: writers have to watch out for the temptations of the bottle.

 

[MrPixel]

... I sense there's a time-honored connection between creative types and artificial stimulants. ...

Jazz musicians and pot, perhaps?

The handful of times I have relaxed into a drink while writing did indeed make for interesting editing the following morning.

 

[KeithD]

I drink wine three times a week (I balance my drinking vices by not drinking wine and coffee on the same day). It's usually late at night and I'm composing (or reviewing, which takes just as much effort and time). I haven't noticed the wine affecting the writing in any way.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I don't believe drugs or alcohol improve writing. Not in my case or any writer I've known personally. In fact, my dad told me it's a crutch used when creativity is missing and does little other than dull the feeling of the pit you've fallen into.

Earnest Hemingway said, "The only time it isn't good for you is when you write or when you fight." But then again, he was a massive drunk when he wasn't writing or fighting.

 

[Whanmore]

I'm almost always high so writing high is just living life...but I like to get a bit tipsy as the story goes along. I find its depressive qualities put me in a proper headspace to write te stories I like to write. I cant be shit faced trying to execute subject-verb agreement but a bit tipsy is fun for me.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Alcohol might bring your characters to life. I wrote that into a humorous story "Getting Too Close - 750 Words".

My story 'The Dare' which came in second place for a Nude Day contest, started out with a bunch of girls over imbibing. Readers seemed to enjoy how silly the main character was behaving since she was drunk. Which meant the beautiful, naked babbling blonde had no problem coming onto the hunky cop who had come to her rescue.

Not being much of a drinker, I find that even a single glass of wine makes me more drowsy than productive. I need a clear head to write, or whatever I write doesn't make any sense, once I've taken a second look at it.

 

[Lifestyle66]

My story 'The Dare' which came in second place for a Nude Day contest, started out with a bunch of girls over imbibing. Readers seemed to enjoy how silly the main character was behaving since she was drunk. Which meant the beautiful, naked babbling blonde had no problem coming onto the hunky cop who had come to her rescue.

Not being much of a drinker, I find that even a single glass of wine makes me more drowsy than productive. I need a clear head to write, or whatever I write doesn't make any sense, once I've taken a second look at it.

My "Getting Too Close" story is about an author (my profile name) getting into a drunken argument with his main male character over the author lusting for his main female character.

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

Drinking affects my writing, mainly in my choice of typeface. I tend to use Courier New when I've had a really strong alcohol, because absinthe makes the font grow harder.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

"The creative act has to be the most disciplined action in the world. The mind has to be so surgically balanced, that anything that distorts it makes for false art…" - Truman Capote. Yep, that Truman Capote, tragically.

 

[Seadog777]

In September of 2022, I celebrated my 13th year of sobriety.

Looking back on it all, I personally cannot understand how anybody can get much of anything done when drinking.

I'm not judging anyone; lord knows that I'm not in a position to do so with my past.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Well, one would think, the drinking requires too much attention to divert yourself from the goal of "Shit Faced" to slow down to write some.

In September of 2022, I celebrated my 13th year of sobriety.

Looking back on it all, I personally cannot understand how anybody can get much of anything done when drinking.

I'm not judging anyone; lord knows that I'm not in a position to do so with my past.

 

[Seadog777]

Well, one would think, the drinking requires too much attention to divert yourself from the goal of "Shit Faced" to slow down to write some.

LOL, that's true.

 

[Duleigh]

My last drunk was in October 1996 when I retired from Active Duty
People ask me "Why don't you drink anymore?" And I reply, "I don't have to, I'm a civilian now."

 

[Blind_Justice]

Haven't done much of anything in the past fifteen years, didn't drink a sip of alcohol for the past twenty-five. My lady love's mother has a bad drinking habit which has caused a lot of heartache for her. I thought "she doesn't need TWO people with bad impulse control fucking up her life" and quit my evening beers and weekend partying with the lads. It helped that we moved halfway across the country and there are no lads to party with any more.

Considering the shit I've slogged through, I would have loved to kill my last brain cells with some high octane spirits to get it over with.

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

I'm a little high on weed right now, and I haveta tell you, this is one of my best posts EVER.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm a little high on weed right now, and I haveta tell you, this is one of my best posts EVER.

Which perfectly demonstrates the delusion of dope .

 

[Bramblethorn]

I drink very little and don't combine it with writing, so no personal experience to share, but Stephen King used to have a serious alcohol and cocaine habit. He's said that he used to believe that he needed them to write, and that this was a huge mistake.