I’m putting it out there on this post with some personal information and opinions. It might also be controversial or confronting for some people. But bloggers need to be true to themselves and their ideas, so here goes.
I spent last weekend suffering from a hangover after too many drinks on Friday night. It literally wiped my weekend and I didn’t get any writing done. I like a glass of wine but I’m not very good on it, and I was very angry with myself for going too far. I have a lot to do at the moment, so I need that time.
I don’t drink to excess very often nowadays but in my 20s in London, I definitely had a drinking problem. It was a way I used to cope with my life and the way I felt about myself, but it was short-lived escape. I left the London corporate environment partly to get over drinking. I was sick in body and soul and spent 3 months in the Western Australian desert recovering. The recovery time was creative, the drinking time was not.
Nowadays I certainly like a glass of wine or two, but that is usually my limit. However, I have friends who still blow their weekends away drinking, and alcohol certainly makes time disappear. Last weekend reminded me of the wasted time I would rather spend productively writing my novel or blogging. I continue to enjoy a few glasses with dinner and friends, but for me, drinking alcohol does not serve my writing. I’m not judging you if you do drink a lot more than me, I just wanted to broach the subject.
Here are some perspectives on writing and alcohol, and also some comments from Twitter below. Which camp are you in?
Alcohol helps my writing.
It is true that many great writers have been alcoholics. The list includes Hunter S.Thompson, Tennessee Williams, Dorothy Parker, Charles Bukowski, Jack London and Truman Capote among many others.
Jack Kerouac, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Dylan Thomas died from poor health related to the complications of alcoholism. Ernest Hemingway committed suicide after alcoholism, depression and mental illness. They have all truly suffered for their art.
Given most of them drank their entire lives, I have put them in this camp. Alcohol helped them write, or survive the writer’s life.
“I began to anticipate the completion of my daily thousand words by taking a drink when only five hundred words were written. It was not long until I prefaced the beginning of the thousand words with a drink.” Jack London
Alcohol helps get rid of inhibitions, and perhaps this helps some people write the truth, or frees the imagination to write crazy things.
“As I grew older I became a drunk. Why? Because I like ecstasy of the mind.” Jack Kerouac
Alcohol can also make us funnier, wittier and more attractive – or at least it seems that way after a few drinks. It can give false confidence that helps us get through a situation that might be daunting. Many writers are shy or under-confident so it may help in this situation.
Alcohol hurts me and my writing.
(I mean too much alcohol here, most than 1-2 glasses. I am certainly a fan of a moderate drinking). Image: #mce_temp_url#Flickr CC Victor_Nuno
The above examples of great writers suffered terrible things because of drinking, and several of them died of it. That seems like too much of a trade off to me, even if you think alcohol does help creativity.
Anne Lamott, author of the fantastic “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions of Writing and Life“, is a recovered alcoholic. She writes honestly about her experiences and recovery and is a brilliant example of someone who rejected alcohol for creativity based on her sober self.
Stephen King in “On Writing” also talks about his recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. He almost lost his family during that time but managed to give it up, and continues to write bestsellers.
From this perspective, alcohol steals time and your true self. Your health as well as your relationships can suffer. You may write things that perhaps you shouldn’t share, especially in these days of instant publication through blogs and social networks.
“alcohol becomes a weapon to kill something inside … a worm that would not die.” Baudelaire of Edgar Allan Poe
Alcohol is unrelated to writing
Nobel Prize for Literature winner William Faulkner said he did not drink while writing, and that drinking did not help the creative process. He drank as a pressure release from daily life so it was separate from his writing.
Here are some famous writers who were not alcoholics: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, Mary McCarthy, Upton Sinclair, Emily Dickinson, Henry Thoreau, Zane Gray, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Saul Bellow, William Golding, Robert Frost, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, James Michener, Lillian Hellman, Tom Wolfe and Flannery O’Connor. Of course, there are so many more!
You can have a few drinks without it affecting your writing or your life. It can be a pleasure, if not abused.
Related Articles:
- Writers and Alcohol by Ann Waldron
- When novelists sober up - More Intelligent Life
lovely wine we drank at Christmas
lovely wine we drank at Christmas
Here are some comments from Twitter in response to my question “I’m writing a post on whether drinking alcohol helps your writing or not? Any opinions out there?”
@JodiCleghorn When I took up writing seriously, I gave up drinking. For me the two simply can’t exist.
@eleanorvannatta re alcohol, I get my brain juice flowing with exercise, some of best writing sitting on recumbant bike; alc stifles that.
@abelpharmboy I don’t know if it made my writing better but it seemed to make it easier to get started and quiet the inner critic
@tsrebel alcohol only helps the perfectionist; to silence his inner critic so that he can write
@Pensm I gave up drinking over a year ago as it really curbed my creativity. Although it relaxed me, all creativity vanished 
@drugmonkeyblog first mission, dissociate *I think it helps* from it really helping.
@HeatherMeMaher Write my arse off when I drink:) Typically, it’s unworthy of any sort of rewrite–assuming I’ve remembered to ‘save file.’
@kate_eltham Yes for the first two glasses of wine, after that, law of diminishing returns! 
@pointman74250 Drinking during your writing: Absolutely not. After your writing: Sure, get wasted.
@mrgunn Depends what I’m writing, but yeah, I like a little creative lubrication sometimes.
@BoraZ I never drink and write, not just because of a personal rule, but it just does not work for me.
@Deemms No. In the morning, the light would make all my twists and turns look quite scary – It can be hard enough without!
Image: Flickr CC Whisperwolf
@janetgoldstein Yes! Good wine when I’m in the high-energy immersion groove of book-length work; helps w/what Buddhists call “soft eyes.”
@ChrisChartrand A drink helps me not to worry about what I should be doing instead of writing. Six or seven help me not to write.
@skinnydog23 funny fiction glass or two loosens the juices! Non-fiction a sip for the pen tip nothin more or the truth goes out the door
@chrisbardell booze/writing a double-edged sword, I reckon. Sometimes helps hugely with creativity, sometimes kills all work ethic
@deformedcoffee Drinking never helps me write. It only makes me sleep.
@AllenaT sure does something for looseness. I did research on why alcohol helps you speak other languages better less inhibitions
@scolefiction It helps on occasion. Only wine. Puts me in that state of aloneness you go to in when there r too many ppl at the bar.
@ravenpearlink I guess depends on what u r writing. 4 me, no. If I use alcohol, it disconnects me frm my work.
@sharonrainey only if I don’t want to remember what I wrote!!! definitly no alcohol if i want it to be worthwhile . . .
@BraQueen sometimes it does make me relax before I write but it depends on my head space at the time
@SJWhipp re: alcohol, a little bit can definitely help! I think it helps to write more openly without filters.
Image: Flickr CC Kirti Poddar
@AshleyTenille Not generally, but perhaps it could help with the Writer’s Block? lol help relax the mind and lessen the tension.
@leapetra in truth, sometimes if a scene is rough a glass of wine relaxes me, but no more than that.
@leapetra I don’t know about alcohol, but my husbands acting coach told him once, you learn your lines stoned, you perform stoned.
@RegimentalBooks Some great Australian writers enjoyed a drink or 3 – Ion Idriess springs to mind!
@producerpaul I find the occasional Scotch loosens up the brain a bit, but any more than two in a night is counterproductive.
@AlanBaxter Depends what you’re writing!
@brendakinsel Alcohol has never inspired a good writing session for me. But great music played loudly does! And also, walks in nature.
@metaphorial Re: drinking. Not at all, no. But drinking does improve my opinion of my writing.
@szvan Best advice: “Never let your writing depend on anything you might have to quit.” — James McDonald
@cweselby I think it impairs my writing. Clear thinking = clear writing. Old news room quote: Write drunk; edit sober.
@AsILayWriting I think so. It allows one to be uninhibited and freer with language/thoughts.
@QuiltinRedhead It just puts me to sleep!
Do you need help?
This is a serious subject, and many individuals and families suffer because of alcohol. Regardless of whether it helps your writing, does it help you as a person, or your life and health in general?
If you are concerned about your drinking, please do see a professional. If you don’t know whether you drink too much, take this test.
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Great topic! I’m a recovering alcoholic. Drinking alcohol made not-writing bearable. Honestly, the worse mistake I made was associating drinking with creativity. 14 months after my last drink, I’m still learning how to write sober again.
I don’t think drinking has anything to do with writing, I think it’s just something people believe because we all like a magic pill. Remember in On Writing when King said he didn’t even remember writing a single page of Cujo? That’s hardcore.
I want to be connected to my work, not running on auto pilot. I used to drink wine every day, but I quit with my wife when she got pregnant. Never went back. Now it’s the occasional glass or three. : )
Well, I know that drinking does not help my banjo playing. Of course it could be said it doesn’t hurt it either since my playing honestly couldn’t get any worse. But writing? Drinking alcohol makes me more easily distracted though and that causes less productivity, worse focus and, oh squirrel……..
Ami – thanks for sharing. Disassociating alcohol from creativity is important for moving forward. All the best to you.
Sean – I’m in awe of King too, great he gave up though. I too want to be connected to my work. The main part is the process after all.
Gretchen – I get distracted into another drink, so I know what you mean. Definitely no productivity as I feel sociable. I’m not so sociable without one!
a friend sent me this article because i just tweeted that i am drinking a glass of wine to help me write.
ironic.
I prefer the use of music to allow my brain to run wild. It blocks out all extraneous sounds that distract.
Congrats on an interesting and unusual post! I have personally found that along with exercise-induced euphoric writing, I write best when I tap INTO pain and other emotions. Alcohol dulls pain and uncomfortable emotion, and while I have never actually tried writing drunk (well, maybe a few broken heart you-done-me-wrong stanzas in my college poetry days), I am pretty sure that it would result in a pile of crumpled paper. Yes, I would be writing with pen and tablet because I am pretty sure that alcohol and electronics do not mix well, and I would be too afraid to test that…
However, I do have those Irish and Scottish genes aplenty, so as soon as I land my first big book deal I will be searching for a tall, cold pint of Guinness
.
After you put the intial tweet out and I sent through my response, I went for a swim and really thought about the links between my drinking and my writing.
When I wasn’t writing, I was drinking. I think perhaps the alcohol filled up where the creativity should have been welling from.
In my 20′s I was a mess with my drinking – I could never have just one. Two times stand out vividly for me. I started working a swing shift over the weekend, so often a late night was backed up with an early morning and I couldn’t face the Sunday breakfast with a hangover. So I stopped and I remember I started scribbling down first chapters again.
A little later on, I realised after passing out on a Sunday that I needed to move home and dry out. I would sit at the computer for hours tapping away more words.
I could never have just one drink and for the first time, since taking up writing I can give or take even that one drink. We used to spend our Friday nights chilling out after a busy week, at uni it meant two bottles of red, after our son was born it was somewhat moderated by three years of breastfeeding. But when I started doing Fiction Friday – I spent my Friday nights writing, and even one small glass of wine or a beer had serious ramifications for that.
In the end – what was more important? Writing!
I still splurge every now and again -mostly a pressure release. However knowing that I make a great effort to upsize on the pleasures in life and downsize on the stresses.
Julia Cameron is a recovering alcoholic and you can see much of that mirrored in The Artist’s Way.
Thanks for sharing this and opening the discussion.
Really interesting Joanna,
Something I have been thinking about as I am currently working on a Depression campaign. Now just reading what you say about great Writers have suffered with Alcoholism and as a result committed suicide and that just breaks my heart because from what I can gather with my recent research is-
People who suffer from Mental Illness often self medicate with Alcohol to try and stop the ‘voices’ or ‘stuff’ going on in their head. I see their writing as an outlet to try to get the stuff in their head out and it’s their way to process and deal with it, do you know what I mean? Their talent kind of comes from kind of being removed and their thought process is different to most people and that’s way their writing is so extraordinarily because most minds won’t go where their minds do.
My mind works at A zillion miles per hour on many topics so often the only way for me to stop is to have a drink however I don’t usually write when I do because once I start writing I’m usually “in the zone” anyway, once I’m in there it will usually come together anyway. Not that I would necessarily call myself a writer but as someone who has a story to tell and information to share.
Most enjoyable post
Renee xx
Drinking doesn’t help my writing, but it does help me fall asleep.
Seriously, I know that more than 1 drink (beer or wine) and I’m pushing it as far as being able to concentrate on writing, especially after getting up at my usual 5:30am putting a full day in at the office. So, I save my drinking for nights when I need to wind down from work and writing.
Drinking certainly doesn’t help me write, cannot get anything done if I’ve had a drink or have a hangover. BUT drinking with writer friends, on occasion, really helps me cope with the publishing side of writing.
My friends and I even have a blog called Drunk Writer Talk to celebrate the great conversations we have about writing and publishing and the support we’ve offered each other, over a few drinks.
Eleanor – definitely writing the pain instead of dulling it is a good idea.
Jodi – thanks for sharing such personal information. I appreciate your honesty after sharing my own issues too. I didn’t know about Julia Cameron but I love her books!
Renee – alcohol and depression are certainly working together in a downward spiral. Drinking to forget and medicate, and then being miserable and drinking more. Great that you are helping people with this.
Scott – I fall asleep too. It’s an initial sociable high, followed by snooze….
Maureen – I’ll have a look at the site – sociable moderate drinking is certainly something I am all for!
Thanks all. I’m so glad this was a popular post that raised some great comments!
I will continue to share my own journey honestly.
Drinking might unlock creativity but it locks up productivity, at least thats what I find.
I get more creativity and inspiration out of exercise and other positive activities and a longer lasting buzz when I can look back and see the ever increasing word count of my writing as a result.
You’ll never look back on a night of drinking and feel proud of it, but you can look back on your finished book and be proud of that for the rest of your life.
“You’ll never look back on a night of drinking and feel proud of it, but you can look back on your finished book and be proud of that for the rest of your life.”
I saw something stuck to a co-worker’s monitor one day. If I remember right, it was: “I live for the nights I can’t remember with the people I’ll never forget.” It seems to illustrate that there are people out there who do look back with pride on those big binge nights at the pubs and clubs.
And I wonder: What the hell’s wrong with them?!
Thought provoking post Joanna…
I used to drink a fair bit (enough to get me drunk) about 6 years ago. Then it just so happened that I took a break from life as I knew it and traveled for almost a year. Some how after that sabbatical I was never the same and I hardly drink anymore.
One of the reasons is that it doesn’t take much to get me buzzing now but the other is that I don’t enjoy it as much now. I like the one off drink now and that feels so much better.
Personally I think a drink is good as it infuses a good feeling but beyond that its just leads to wasted time.
Cheers
Freya
http://www.BookBuzzr.com
World’s No. 1, Free Online Book-Marketing Technology for Authors
After a lifetime of drinking, I have cut back tremendously over the past four years. Now, I find not drinking is my natural state and when I do drink, it’s not as enjoyable as it used to be. Let’s not forget it is an ancient drug. Still, one glass of wine is nice.
Paul – I am totally with you on that. I look back especially at 3 years in London and wonder what I was doing. I achieved very little except work and drink. It was a party but I have nothing to show for it now. That’s fine for early 20s perhaps, but not once you want to achieve something!
Freya and Greg – I’m with you too – maybe we can have a “meet up for 1 glass of wine” party!
My experience seems to be a lot like others. I’ve written some of my best stuff after a couple of glasses of wine.
But the third glass gets me every time. That’s when I end up deleting the next morning.
I don’t drink much, but I did once have a breaktrhough writing my graduate school essay after a glass of kahlua. It got me into MIT, and lots of people commented on how creative it was. As in all things, it’s probably moderation. Sometimes an altered state of mind gives you that other perspective you need. But you could probably get it in other ways too — writing a different time of day, going to a new setting, etc.
I’m coming to you via Ruth Ann Russell’s blog. I’ve also added you to my blog roll. I’m the once-in-a-blue-moon type of drinker. I didn’t drink alcohol for a long time. I don’t really like the taste of it. It’s only been within the past few years that I’ve liked the taste of sangria (particularly the ones at Olive Garden. LOL). Even then, it makes me sleepy so I guess that’s enough to not make me want to drink it. Also, I’m not a fast writer, so I’m thinking that alcohol would just kill my Creative Mojo. I’m looking forward to reading your blog on a regular basis.
Mike – I’m so with you – that magic 2 glasses! come and join our low alcohol writers group!
Livia – I am not sure Kahlua counts as alcohol! Aren’t you meant to drink it with milk? definitely moderation is the key
Celise – thanks for adding me to your blogroll! I appreciate it (and I like sangria too!). I hope I can be of help – just let me know any questions.
I think it all has to do with what relaxes you. Some people smoke a cig before they write as it comes them down, some drink a glass of wine or Kahlua ; ) its really a personal preference.
I have a friend who mediates every time before she sits down to write. Whatever floats your boat I guess. I think my glass of wine in the evenings helps me relax so I can write. Its the third glass where my words stop making sense. lol.
It wasn’t in me. It went out and in.
I wanted to hold it. It held, with wine.
(I no longer know what it was.)
Then Wine held this and held that for me
till I came to depend on him totally.
Like an ass.
Now I’m playing his game and he deals me out
with a sneer on his lips, and maybe tonight
he will lose me to Death, that boor.
When he wins me, filthiest card in the deck,
he’ll take me and scratch the scabs on his neck,
then toss me into the mire.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Does anyone get a “high” from writing? Just curious, because I have most certainly experienced a relaxation of sorts from finishing a great article/post/book chapter about something that I simply but urgently NEEDED to write about. Can you be addicted to writing? Or are you just compelled because you despise the blankness of a Word doc or piece of paper? Or you haven’t posted anything new in a few days? I complete something (my metaphorical drink), and I feel satisfied…until I get the itch to write something again. I don’t think anyone but writers addicted to writing could really understand that
. And my husband is not a writer, LOL (hint hint for another post topic Joanna…) but at least one of my daughters is…
@James – funny how that 3rd glass just keeps coming up as the killer!
@Scott – thanks for sharing the poem – oh, so true
@Eleanor – Lots of writers seem to get a high from writing when they are in Flow state and it comes easily – I guess it’s not so fun when stuck! I definitely get that pent up feeling when I haven’t written for a while – I have to write something down. That’s why blogging is so great – you get to scratch the itch regularly!
lol, couldn’t resist this post… back when I was drinking I never got any writing done even tho’ I wanted to. Had to be sober about a year before I submitted my first manuscripts… still sober and still writing.
But you know what, I know it’s different strokes for different folks.
Some of you might be interested in my book, Powerfully Recovered – Amazon has it. Book has a website http://www.powerfullyrecovered.com – site is ages old; am planning to turn it into a blog soon.
I have to say that beer hurts my writing. Why? Because it just makes me want to fall asleep.
my latest blog post addresses this issue. Alcohol hurts the writing process more in the long run.
http://e6n1.blogspot.com/2010/02/write-diet.html
I don’t write stories but I do write music of all kind of genres and have been a heavy drinker for the past 7 years, in them years I’ve been very frustrated being stuck in the loop while writing, not knowing where I’m heading with the song I’m working on, I’ve recently stopped and have been using the craving time with slow nice walks then going back to my music with a great buzz knowing I’m in control and taking my time rather than feeling fuzzy, you cant smell the fresh air and hear the birds tweet being high on alcohol and that’s defiantly something that gives me my inspiration.
Thanks Jimbo, that’s wonderful! I agree that alcohol makes time and noise disappear, but those things give us inspiration.
No problem Joanna, have you ever thought about writing a book on your experience in London, seeing as your an Aussie? Would be cool, I’d defiantly be interested in reading if it did happen one day.
Hi Jimbo, I am actually British
I left London in 2000 to go backpacking and never returned (although I am getting a little nostalgic for architecture!) . I lived 7 years in NZ and now 3 in Oz… I just like being an ex-pat!
Joanna,
Just click your heels three times and repeat “there’s no place like home”…
(Ok, I just couldn’t resist the reference to Oz…) Wherever you go, just don’t leave the internet
.
I’d like to say “absolutely not”, no mixing alcohol and writing for me, thank you. But in truth, it has happened that a glass of wine helped me unlocking the words of a story.
I got worried and thought, What if I can only write if I have alcohol in my bloodstream?
So I’ve decided to never use it as a tool. Kick the muse in the back but don’t give her booze I say, heh. Not that I don’t write with a glass beside me eventually, I just don’t use the alcohol as an instrument. I’m terrified of becoming an alcoholic.
Great post Joanna. Thanks for sharing your experience and for starting this important discussion.
Thanks Mari. I don’t use it as a tool either. More for relaxing after a hard day’s writing!
Great topic – what a fine response you’ve attracted. I’ve tired now – it’s after midnight but can’t resist adding a few words.
I’ve never really drank enough. Couldn’t get properly stuck into the bottle. I suppose I simply never practised enough. But going out of the domestic house, down the road to the pub, in 1996, was probably the best thing I could have done for my writing. I found the pub in Bradford on Avon most conducive to writing – a place where I could see characters and overhear conversations.
I still find it helps me to sit alone in a pub and sip something, with a Moleskine to lean on.
Thanks Paul. This post turned into a real conversation! I kind of miss English pubs. Australia only has “hotels” or “bars”, nothing quite so homey with nooks like back home. Not that I’ve been to any in Bradford on Avon though
I left the UK when I was ten and sure as hell wasn’t an underage drinker, yet I miss British pubs too…
For me, alcohol helps with creativity, but it hurts when I’m doing anything analytical or anything that requires a lot of concentration.
I’ve found that a glass of wine can be helpful during the early stages of writing, but I stick to tea or coffee once I’m past the first draft.
I’m a total tea freak Nancy. I am currently writing with peppermint tea, but I also have a nice Jasmine with pear
Yup, I like this comment right here. Thats the attitude to have at your writing desk.
I love a good glass of red wine, but I hate loosing a day to a hangover, so in my maturity I have learned my limitations and abide by them. I still enjoy a few tips here and there, but life comes first.
I don’t know how it affects my writing because I quit over 25 years ago; but if memory serves alcohol degrades pretty much everything. I don’t think the drinking was integral to the writing of the notables mentioned above; although I am sure it had an affect.
Creatives do suffer, for complex reasons and they often pay a price for that muse that we enjoy without enduring the pain of it’s creation. I think in the case of Hemingway it was simply that he knew what worked and what didn’t, so he was able to throw the trash in the trash.
The creative talent is gift and you either have it or you don’t. It’s what you do with it that makes the difference. All of your life “can” have an affect on the work but you have to manage it, whether it’s alcohol, relationships or whatever that gets uppermost in your mind. That’s my thirty year observation.
I think about quitting quite a bit Harold, but it still seems worth it to have one very nice glass now and then! But you’re right about looking at what’s most important, and focusing on that. Everything else is a sideline.
Joanna, what a great topic to tackle. You’ve got everyone telling their stories!
I was a huge partier in my twenties and early thirties. I probably crossed paths with you in London. Maybe even New Zealand or Australia. And one midnight I was sitting on the sidewalk curb outside our local bar in San Luis Obispo, CA, talking to a friend about my favorite authors and writing and art and genius and the meaning of life, and he said, “Victoria, we’re poet drunks.” And I said, “Mark, we’re not poets.”
It was true. Although I was studying and writing poetry at the time, he wasn’t, and that wasn’t what either one of us was doing on that dirty sidewalk in front of a bar at midnight.
It can be awfully easy to identify yourself as a “poet drunk” as long as you’re drunk. But if you want to be a poet, or any kind of writer, you have to sober up eventually and learn the craft of putting words on a page.
That’s great Victoria. I definitely wasted way too much time being drunk and hung over in London. So much money gone too, and for what benefit? (to me or the world!)
I am not someone who has regrets though, I’m just using double time now to catch up!
Yeah, I remember a friend once saying after he quit drinking he could suddenly afford to own things—other than beer-can pyramids.
I’ve quit drinking completely a couple of times in my life, sometimes for years on end. And at this point I am hypersensitive to hangovers and insomnia, so my drinking is kind of self-regulating. If I don’t sleep (or feel healthy) I can’t work, and if I can’t work I can’t enjoy the thing that makes my days so intensely interesting.
Sowing my wild oats was about the socializing—I had a lot of fun. I did outrageous things.
And I’ll have stories to tell when I’m tucked under my quilt in my rocking chair on the ole front porch someday.
Tennessee Williams once said that he wrote drunk and blue-penciled sober. We can look at the great works created by authors who drank to excess and convince ourselves that alcohol aids invention, but it would be better to consider how much more they would have written if they’d been sober. Writing drunk is like driving drunk: You need all your faculties to do it right. A drink after you’re done for the day is relaxing, but writing drunk leads to the palace of excess.
I guess the Ballmer Peak doesn’t apply to writing: http://xkcd.com/323/
I love XKCD! My husband is a mathematician so we have a lot of t-shirts as well!
I just came to your post and reading above thing it is very impressive me and it is very nice blog. Thanks a lot for sharing this.
Charles Bukowski wrote alot of his work while drunk and I’m a big fan of his writing so tonight I thought I’d have a drink and do some writing. I found it impossible to write after a few drinks. It might have worked for him but to be honest I just felt I wrote nonsense.
Hahaha, Im reading post office at the moment. But I’m sure he paced himself… or maybe its just his German genetics that helped him through… haha…
This is a great topic for discussion. I wrote one comment after I saw the tweet today, but it is much too long and boring as a comment, so I deleted it.
Short(er) version – former undeclared alcoholic, now have a love/hate relationship with booze, but some days I just like to have a drink. I try and keep to a maximum of two drinks at one “sitting” as I find that is now my limit as far as the next day is concerned and, like yourself, I get annoyed at the wasted time due to the ill effects suffered from over imbibing. However, I am still learning to apply myself to the writing and develop the good writing habits, I am nowhere near the “workaholic” that you are.
I think, as we grow older, it affects us more, the missed opportunities to get work done due to “wasting” time, whether it be from suffering a hangover, watching television, gaming on the computer or even reading a book when one should be working.
As to whether or not to drink while writing, my vote would be no. I think it dulls the senses (which is part of why I drank) and so, it would seem to not be conducive to creating anything noteworthy. Plus, I would probably nod off in my chair and hit my face on the keyboard…
Thanks Kevin. I do become more super-sensitive to time wasting effects of recovery the older I get. Plus the worse the hangovers get – although they are very rare, and now seem to occur after 3 glasses of wine! But I still enjoy a drink and life is for enjoying
No no no… you got it all wrong. You cant be GOING OUT and drinking with friends and meeting guys and what not. Thats not what you do when you are working on some writing. Drinking is a classy art, if you keep that in mind you’ll notice how to follow how your spirit as you drink.
You dont go out and get pissed as you Londoners say and expect to write something when you get back; maybe a couple of poems, observations… but your focus wont be there for anything of length.
What I do is I have a glass of whatever beside me, anything besides beer because beer includes Hops which is heavy on the mind. Wine or Cognac is where its at. Maybe a good whiskey… something flavourful to give inspiration – from the complex flavour in itself. I like Absinthe…
And just take it easy all the way through… pace yourself… observe yourself. A glass should last a long time and a refill shouldnt happen before yet another length of time.
Strong drinks are good because THEY – pace – YOU. Coctails are too easy to down. Strong drinks are tougher to get through and the taste lingers so much more (not allowing you to go through the glass too quick).
I love writing and drinking, but I review it when completely sober and fill out the empty parts. Your mind flows very creatively and fast when you are tipsy… but you’d wanna do some editing as you are sober.
The sad fact is that I’d prefer a cup of tea and I played Rugby for 25 years. Currently I drink about 1/2 a bottle of fizzy wine at Christmas/New Year and I usually throw the other half out from the fridge in about March. When I go out (rarely) I drink up to 2 pints of lager shandy. This year I’m probably up to 4 pints of lager shandy since Christmas in total (it’s May).
For me writing is writing; it’s that simple.
Fascinating post, Joanna. Thank you! I definitely belong to the Alcohol Not Related To Writing camp. I have a life rule of never drinking to excess…and yet, I’ve long known of those writing greats who claim/ed that drunkenness was so essential to their writing process.
So, out of curiosity, I tried it.
The poison I picked was espresso-infused vodka. I downed several large shots, waited ’til I could feel the effects, sat down to write, started writing…
…and promptly fell asleep.
No more alcohol + writing for me! There’s no point. If I’ve drunk to excess, I won’t write — simple as that. : )
I think that, in moderation, alcohol can help. I never get down to writing as well as when I have a glass of wine to go with it. It helps me relax, forget about my day to day stress, and really get into what I’m working on. Only one though, mind you. More than that and it becomes detrimental.
There are cases when being under the influence of drugs or alcohol has brought about some amazing pieces of writing but I knew someone who smoked some pot and then tried writing… she showed it to some of us later and nothing she wrote made any sense at all. I think the same probably goes for overdoing it with alcohol.
It helps me write… when I have it in moderation. I’m uptight and often a stress case. I know this. Uptight is not a good quality in a writer. It helps me relax. It doesn’t do much for my blogging because that’s a separate process for me, but if I’m trying to write creatively, a couple glasses of wine really make a difference. I don’t often have a stomach for much more than that, though, so excess is a minimal risk.
Capote actually said that real writing was impossible while drinking or taking drugs and that any real author would know that. You really did your research!
Obviously a book like On The Road could be written by a drunk person, but In Cold Blood could only have been written by a sober author.
I don’t recall ever writing while drinking and I don’t think I would ever mix the two on purpose. I don’t feel that it would benefit my writing. When I’m drinking I don’t feel much of anything. I become numb and that would be boring reading because readers want to experience what the writer is going through. I find that when I’m sober I can be creative and transparent in my writing. I like connecting with others and sharing things that are important to me. I share my struggles, my fears, my experiences and I am fairly confident I do it in a way that doesn’t embarrass me or my reader.
An alcohol/writing related experience. I used to be a part of a critique group that met at a man’s house. He always served Melot at the meetings to a few of the members (I don’t drink). One of the guys was getting his work critiqued that day. He’d had a bad day earlier, so while we were socializing, he had more than usual. By the time we got to critiquing his piece, he was on his way to being drunk. And of course, that was the section of the book that needed a lot of work, and he got hit with a lot of comments on things that needed to be fixed. Combined with the alcohol, and things turned ugly. It wasn’t good for him, and it wasn’t good for us. It made the host think we’d gone overboard on the critiques, even though we’d been fair. The problem was the alcohol.
Good example Linda. I don’t think anyone finds critique easy but with alcohol, it would be shocking!
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