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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 moderate drinking).
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.
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!
@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.
@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.
Alcohol Help says
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.
T says
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.
Mario Budal says
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…
Kevin says
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…
Joanna Penn says
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 🙂
Mario Budal says
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.
Christopher Wills says
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. 🙂
Courtney Cantrell says
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. : )
Christine says
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.
Noel says
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.
amanda says
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!
amanda says
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.
Rebekah says
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.
Linda Adams says
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.
Joanna Penn says
Good example Linda. I don’t think anyone finds critique easy but with alcohol, it would be shocking!
Vanessa says
I really enjoyed reading this article!
I am not an alcoholic by any means but I enjoy a couple of glasses of wine a day, usually after dinner, while I write. A week ago, I decided to go on a detox and my writing to appears to have gone down the gurgler! 🙂 So before heading up to the shop to buy a bottle of red (to attempt to write again) I typed in ‘authors that believed alcohol helped them to write’ into google and your article came up.
I’m undecided. Like you, I’ve gone past the point of no return and have felt robbed of time and creativity. But for months now, my writing has been flowing freely, with my couple of glasses of wine. Perhaps, its just a mind over matter thing.
I must say, my favourite writers Bukowski etc were all alcos. I kind of like the romantic notion that they suffered for their art. But yes, perhaps its just a personal thing, for the individual.
Glad you escaped to Western Australia. I’m based in Melbourne now, but I’m a West Aussie born and bred. Happy writing! 🙂
Ellen says
I know that it’s “correct” to say that drinking is bad and doesn’t help your writing, but I can’t even get anything on the page right now if I don’t have a glass of wine first. I don’t write very much while drinking, and I agree with the “edit while sober” sentiment… but frankly, being inebriated lets me believe that somebody might someday actually read what I write, or that what I am writing might be worthwhile. Without that belief, it won’t even get on the page. I’m not looking for extra creativity or mystical visions – just the ability to put words down on the page in some semblance of order, that I used to be able to do before doubts crept in.
And there’s no one who can help with this, outside of myself. Your average garden-variety therapist doesn’t understand. Your non-writing friends (the only kind I have) don’t understand.
Joanna Penn says
Hi Ellen,
I don’t have a problem with drinking while writing – I do have a problem with deciding that you can’t do it without drinking as this disempowers you and your creativity. If you show up on the page consistently – with or without alcohol – you will write. It’s something we do whether we feel like it or not. I believe you don’t need it. I hope you can find that sense as well.
Ellen says
Oh, of course I’ll write, but it won’t be anything I actually want to say.
Clay says
Alcohol and drugs are powerful and emotional concoctions that bring out our inner emotions. Unfortunately, for most people, they are hard to control. While I would in no way encourage someone to abuse drugs or alcohol, I would be a liar if I said they didn’t help anyone in their writing or singing or art careers. It is these powerful emotional releases that inspire our artistic sides and drugs and alcohol seem to be the switch that opens up the soul and ignites the emotions.
Biographies of some of the great musicians of the 70’s talk about the inspiration that drugs gave to band members and helped them write their greatest albums. Shamans and healers also use drugs to help them connect with the divine and heal those who are sick. And writers have written their best works sitting on a front porch on a hot August night with a bottle of Jack Daniels next to them. It is what it is.
I think what I’m saying is that there are some professions that have risks. Take, for instance, a race car driver. He(she also) drives close to 200 mph. He makes millions of dollars and is on the front page of the sports section. If he’s good-looking he’ll get a part in a big movie. One day he spins out and crashes hard into the wall and dies. This is what happend to Dale Earnhardt. The mountain climber also takes risks and is rewarded with some of the most breath-taking sceneries on earth. The shaman takes risks when they take peyote and ayahuasca and in the process heal hundreds of people. But sometimes the energies can become too strong and the shamans put their body in danger and even their mind.
These are the risks that some people are willing to take for greatness. The media uses catch-phrases to make it seem as if alcohol and drugs are the demons from hell. I don’t blame them because irresponsible people do stupid things with drugs and alcohol. Drugs and alcohol also tend to lead to violence and car wrecks and broken homes. But for those that use them responsibly, they can and do help them in their inspiring works. But there are risks.
I personally have kept my drinking habits down to about 8 drinks a week and no more than 4 in any one time. That seems to be enough to help me dig deep into my writing pyche and pull out tid-bits of information that work well in stories. Every person has to find their limit and stick to it the best they can.
Ellen says
Well put. (Whoever said that writing had to be “healthy,” anyway? Was it a healthy thing for Prometheus to have stolen fire?)
Richard says
I would suggest watching Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend to figure out whether drinking helps with the process of writing. The problem is that drinking gives you teh confidence to know you can write, but then when you are sober, the confidence that alcohol gives you is gone. The only way to get it back is to drink again so that the confidence returns and the cycle starts again. That is the path to chronic alcoholism and disappointment.
From the movie:
“It shrinks my liver, doesn’t it, Nat? It pickles my kidneys, yeah. But what it does to the mind? It tosses the sandbags overboard so the balloon can soar. Suddenly I’m above the ordinary. I’m competent. I’m walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. I’m one of the great ones. I’m Michaelangelo, molding the beard of Moses. I’m Van Gogh painting pure sunlight. I’m Horowitz, playing the Emperor Concerto. I’m John Barrymore before movies got him by the throat. I’m Jesse James and his two brothers, all three of them. I’m W. Shakespeare. And out there it’s not Third Avenue any longer, it’s the Nile. Nat, it’s the Nile and down it moves the barge of Cleopatra.”
And that, in a nutshell, is the problem.
j ryan says
Great article. I am one (unfortunately) struggling writer and have never attempted WWI (writing while intoxicated) but after reading your article I would not exclude it from the realm of possibility. One of the keys to writing is finding your own creative voice without holding back. Drinking can definitely help that at times.
Marty says
Excellent article. Until recently (maybe two months ago), I used to drink every night when I was writing. I’d easily go through a bottle of wine or half a bottle of scotch. I found drinking lubricated my mind and let me see the scenes I wanted to write about. But I found I had to drink more and more to see these visions, so to speak, and that was not good for my health. So I decided to stop. Now I drink lots of tea (don’t like coffee) and turn my music up even louder. I’m finding I am far more productive, although it’s a struggle to start writing each time. Once I get started though, it’s good.
Casey Brown says
Well, well, ironic that I would stumble upon this topic -while- under the influence of alcohol. *snickers*
For the longest time, I have been told that alcohol is this foul, unforgiving beast that has only enough compassion to give you one hour of fun before ripping it from you via oral projection or a mental crash. I’m here to tell you that, when drunk, I’ve enjoyed writing more than any other time.
I Roleplay on an RP server in World of Warcraft (yes, there are those that take the game [lorewise] that seriously.) I have learned to express myself in such vivid ways, as I’m not afraid to use overly flowery words or bouncy adjectives.
-Now, on Moon Guard, the server I call my home, we take pride in immersing ourselves into our characters. We make sure that the words that we spill are ones that depict our characters in the light we wish. Alcohol merely allows for the senses to lose the terror of correction, the plight of syntax, and focus on what is important: the ‘meat’ of what makes a character unique and lively.
If drinking helps you to relish in your righting, then I raise a glass to you. Write on, free-thinker.
Blood and Honor (A salute that we paladins give to our peers.) In such a case, -ABV- and Honor, knight of the Silver Hand. *salute*