Is smoking Marijuana detrimental to creative writing?

[NorthwestRain]

 

[pop_54]

Hi

Aint fucked me yet mate, hehe, and I've been on it occasionally since about 1965'ish.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

I could always tell when my ex was stoned while writing me. One page would be quite nice and loving, then he'd write the next page with rambling run on sentences. Also his handwriting would get quite bad and even he would say "Damn, I wish I hadn't been stoned when I wrote that! I need that info!"

 

[KillerMuffin]

I have no idea.

Though it appears to be detrimental to facility with vB codes at lit.

 

[Madame Manga]

I don't know from personal experience, but an artist friend of mine says she thinks it screws your drawing ability to hell. She and another artist friend used to smoke it together while working, and she said that he would go over the same line again and again, remarking "What a totally cool line." This of course wears holes through the paper.

How would that translate to writing? Probably you'd just re-read one sentence over and over in dazed admiration of your own genius. ;-)

MM

 

[jfinn]

I can't speak for anyone else, but it is for me. In fact I have to be stone cold sober to do just about anything productive. A couple of drinks or a joint and I'm ready for bed-- and I don't mean that in a fun way.

Jayne

 

[Diane Marie]

Speaking of artists, I did this painting one night. I was both stoned and depressed. As far as writing stoned, I don’t think I’ve ever tried.

 

[Pookie]

Drinking and the occasional smoking a joint will slow me down when doing anything. I can't write when my mind is not clear. I end up not focusing on what I need to write. It's been a while since I have smoked marajuana (I don't do any drugs now). But remembering the last few times, there is no way I could have written the types of stories I write now.

Pookie

 

[Couture]

I voted no, but there really wasn't a good choice. Smoking or drinking, I can still write. My personal opinion is that I come up with more creative/funny stuff when I'm buzzed. However, I have to play hell on the edit. I always find a lot of run-on sentences and even repeated sentences I have to delete.

 

[Count Mackula]

Well, when I'm high, I never really feel like writing anything usually, but I do get a lot of good ideas, only problem is I don't usually write 'em down and end up forgetting them. But for creativity, I find it helps greatly.

 

[karmadog]

In college it didn't bother me if I was only mildly high, but most of what I had to write then was scientific stuff. A little tunnel vision came in handy. Unfortunately, I often overindulged, then it was almost impossible for me to type, let alone form a coherent thought.

I don't smoke anymore, so I couldn't say about creative writing.

Curiously, I write my most interesting stuff with a hangover. Or on nondrowsy cold medicine (when I have a cold, only--can't imagine abusing that crap). That stuff puts me on another planet.

 

[DVS]

Ah, the good ol' days.
Pot always made me more creative. Anything I did got more interesting and creative, when high. Even cleaning house. I love it when a plan comes together.

I'm a musician, and pot REALLY makes me more creative in the musical sense.

Of course, there are different types of pot, so not all of it is good for doing something that involves your mind. Some pot makes you sleepy, and some makes you a space cadet.

Until about 5 years ago, I smoked quite often. Actually, I found I was treating panic attacks by smoking pot and didn't even know it.

Now, I have legal drugs for that. They are lots cheaper, but the creative aspect just isn't there. And, I can't do both, because they work on the same part of the brain.

I've never written while high, but I feel creating music is somewhat similar to creating a story. Smoking would always make me a horny toad, and my sexual mind would be very creative. It Just might be a good thing to write while high.

 

[NorthwestRain]

[Though it appears to be detrimental to facility with vB codes at lit. ]
Is that right?
Jeez, I shouldn't have had that last one!!!
Me-71 --- KM-20'000

That painting is great. My taste.

Hey pops, you mean every day??

 

[NorthwestRain]

Awww crap!
I'm going to work out those fucking vb codes one day!

 

[wildsweetone]

Awww crap!
I'm going to work out those fucking vb codes one day!

Wait 'til you try to get your signature line centred,

and then you ask Weird Harold how to do it,

and he explains it in detail,

and you still can't do it.

Maybe I should try it while tripping. hmmm There's a thought.

Research - takes on a whole new meaning

 

[KillerMuffin]

IProbably you'd just re-read one sentence over and over in dazed admiration of your own genius.

You mean people don't do that normally?



Um.

Yeah. I don't do that. Nope, not me. I'm modest and all that. I certainly don't spend hours wallowing around in the perfectly formed testament to my sheer gen--

Um. Nah, that's not me.

 

[poohlive]

You know Oscar Wilde once said he spent all morning working on a poem, and all he did was take out a comma.
In the afternoon, he put it back in.

I know that Oscar Wilde, an all right writer (and a tempramental genius in my mind) was extravagent, even for his time, but I'm not sure if he did drugs or not. In those days having a wild lifestyle meant you talked about women's underwear.
Hee hee, and the women were total sluts if they showed their ankles... naughty naughty.

As far as drugs go, I'm not sure. There are countless creative writers in our past who have come up with wonderful stories while high on something. Edgar Allen Poe was a huge drug user, he died in a drug overdose after three days in a coma. The poor guy. Came up with some weird shit though. High or not, he was a master with horror.
Earnest Hemmingway drank all the time. A shot liver, and several successful books aren't the worst way to go.
Even Stephen King once said he doesn't even remember writing Cujo. He was so drunk and high at that time in his life, that is just came out of him.

Some writers need a crutch. I think it's like Dumbo. In the Disney movie, Dumbo can't fly unless he has his magic feather, except the feather isn't magic, and it doesn't help him fly at all, he just thinks it does. People take drugs cause they think it helps them be more creative, and then they are more creative.

A placebo with mind altering proportions.

Doesn't have to be drugs. It could be sex, it could be a stiff drink or two, maybe just a lousy day, or when your tired, or depressed. I get tons of ideas writing when I'm walking home from class, just walking and talking to myself (I have the best conversations when I'm with myself.... I've love to take credit for that, but it was Oscar Wilde's) and then *pop* out of the blue I get an idea or a cool setting or an interesting plot twist, and then my mind is alive with hundreds of different ideas.

I don't think some people can handle that they have a talent to write, and need some sort of excuse on where it comes from. Drugs, booze, God, pizza, pussy; whatever gets your goose, so to speak.

 

[SlaveMasterUK]

I've smoked regularly for over a year now, but never in my own studio, and I never work on any creative stuff away from my studio. But often when I get in after a Bob Marley Appreciation Society general meeting, I'll still be in the clouds and find that I just have to go write something.

Except nothing happens. Writing becomes so hard, I can disappear completely for hours and not write a single word because I can't focus. But like DVS says, it depends on what I've got - drowsy or 'close' stuff probably wouldn't work, something a little paranoid and trippy is good for the imagination but can get difficult to handle if I get too deep into something. Energetic stuff is cool but then I get bored writing and want to do something else.

Long story short, I don't really write while stoned.

I'd like to think that my music changes when I'm high, but I think I'll reserve full judgement until I move my studio into a smoke-tollerant area and try writing something with a big fat J by my side (in the interest of science, of course)...

My characters often drink or smoke in my stories and I find that it helps to be in the same state of mind when I write their dialog ;-)

ax

 

[DVS]

Until a little over 5 years ago, I smoked very good pot quite literally every day. This went on for over 10 years. Probably more than that.

When it comes to creativity, pot has been a very creative factor in my music. I don't say everyone is the same as I am, because that can't be so. We are all made differently.

But, you could listen to 2 different CDs of mine and tell the difference for yourself. One with creativity inspired by pot, the other without.
Two completely different sounds, two different styles.

I know many musicians who feel the same way as I do. I am not saying pot is the only creative factor for some musicians, but it is one sure way.

It probably is a crutch for some, too. I am sure some feel it is the only way they can be creative.
Alcohol will also help with creativity, but it is not as productive, because it is too much of a depressant. It has a dulling factor to it, with excess. That was why I said some kinds of pot are not for creative thoughts. Some will literally put you to sleep if you don't watch it.

I don't expect some of you to believe this, because of the stigma pot has. Even most people who smoke it say they are getting 'stoned'. Heavy pot heads are called 'stoners'.

The image of someone who smokes is not usually seen as someone creative or constructive at all. But, trust me, they are out there. They just don't want to be seen as smokers because of the stigma attached, and because it is illegal.

Now, does this creativity carry over into writing fiction or erotica? Who knows? I don't. But, like I said before, creativity is connected. If something inspires creativity in one area, it very well may do so in another.

But, control is the key. The creativity achieved by smoking some will not be doubled by smoking twice as much. Less is more.

 

[virgin_rose]

i can't understand how smoking pot can ever help in anything...
at all...

 

[Baron]

I don't smoke it anymore, but when I did, I always found it good for thinking about ideas, coming up with new angles, twists, bizarre concepts, offbeat characters...basically I used it for plotting, uncovering strange tangents and inverted angles unlikely to occur otherwise.

But for actual work it was fairly disruptive, since one's mind tends to wander off into song lyrics (I had to switch to Classical or Jazz without someone singing to stay focused), and certainly couldn't have the TV on. And out of all those wacky, two in the morning scribblings, only a few stood up to cool reasoning and the cold light of a sober morning.

I voted yes, it's definitely a detriment if you're smoking every day, ripping up your lungs, killing your sex drive, and making you bone lazy.

 

[pop_54]

Yo

[Though it appears to be detrimental to facility with vB codes at lit. ]
Is that right?
Jeez, I shouldn't have had that last one!!!
Me-71 --- KM-20'000

That painting is great. My taste.

Hey pops, you mean every day??

No not these days mate, only when I can con some from one of the young'uns, hehe.

Used to do the old fashioned mild stuff in the old days, this highly bloody refined strong crap these days is bad for the brain.

My mates wife grows her own from seed she gets from Africa, she tells the neighbours they're African tomato plants, hehe, good old Kate, she's a 60 yr old Granny by the way.

 

[bennyhunny]

For twenty-some-odd years I believed I wrote better while high. However, preferrably, I edited while sober before I sent it off anywhere.....

The other thing about smoking pot for twenty years is that I have very little to show for forty years of living.

I found it helpful for creativity, but harmful in the big picture.

Benny "Reader, writer, lover of words"

 

[NoJo]

The trouble with dope is that not only does it mess up my short term memory, it also messes up my short term memory.

 

[NoJo]

Re: Hi

Aint fucked me yet mate, hehe, and I've been on it occasionally since about 1965'ish.

So, Pop you're from the "Two Quid Deal" generation... I missed that. I thought it was all purple hearts in them days. I guess that puts me in the mod camp.