Writing while intoxicated

[psychotick]

Hi,

It may be a little off track, but when I was at varsity I had a friend who was a third year medical student. He made a bet with another classmate to see if they could get through an entire year without ever being sober. I don't know how they did it, sheer brain power or something, but they both not only passed all their classes but were competing with each other for the number of distinctions they could get! I think one got five and the other six. Having said that I would never want either of these guys as my doctor. My friend got the nickname "hanger" that year, simply because wherever you went, whatever party he was already there, so drunk that he was falling down and needed to be hung up.

For me I seldom drink anything. But sometimes I wonder when I reread what I wrote if I was completely off my face at the time!

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Jamber]

Often I find that it's more about the ritual than the effect. Yes, inebriation can help loosen the inhibitions while writing, as mentioned before. However, turning your mind away from the cares of the day to focus on nothing but the writing, can be ushered along with ritual.

That sense of ritual will be different for many artists but it does help. It separates the writing time from the other hours...makes it special & creates a certain reverence for that time slot if done habitually. It can reinforce the habit itself which, in my opinion, is absolutely necessary to have any real success in art. That ritual certainly doesn't have to be alcohol. I just enjoy the ritual in combination with intoxication. It can be anything that, performed in the same manner & consistently over time, triggers the mind.

I've never tried to write while drinking, but the way this was put makes me want to try.
If using a laptop, be sure to sit it above the level of the desk. I destroyed both a month old laptop and my thesis with a glass of water, once.

 

[Devora]

I can't I end up staring at the screen and then just go to bed. (I drink at late night.)

 

[brokethepoint]

I like a good dark beer, but not for writing. I would prefer the pipe or cigar for writing, but the wife disagrees so . . .

 

[JSDR]

I have a miserably low alcohol tolerance. I'm literally wasted, as in a waste of human molecules, on half a glass of wine.
Therefor, I don't write while intoxicated. I might Beta while sloooooowly sipping a beer.

I *do* drunk-tweet.

 

[Justin Cary]

I am sure a more ambitions person than myself could create a bell curve of alcohol to output chart and impose that against a alcohol to writing quality chart to find the inebriation sweet-spot

 

[topazfire]

I have abided with the Hemmingway quote more than once. It depends on the time of day, but I usually write with a cup of tea or a (big) glass of wine. I find that ideas do come differently and flow more easily sometimes, especially with big scenes and chapters that I view as daunting when sobre. Tipsy me gets (over) confident and dives right in regardless of the direction stone sober me had planned to go. I have usually had positive results with longer passages. The main thing that I have noticed is that ideas that I had clearly thought through and dismissed while sober, often rear their head when slightly intoxicated and I have to beat them down again in the morning...

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I am highly amused by this entire thread. Though I am Irish, I have never tried writing while intoxicated. Why? I already have so few inhibitions, I figure why bother. However, this thread inspires me toward experimentation... hmm... maybe the wife will let me try it. On the other hand, I notice that the ideas I have for stories when I dream are often profoundly stupid when viewed under the light of morning.

Not all of us can be Hunter S. Thompson. Then again, I don't think he was, either.

On a side note, I used to work camera on a local morning news program. Our director was a notorious drinker who hated showing up hung over, so he came up with an elegant solution. He simply showed up still drunk. Morning news was always very relaxed.

 

[Firekeeper]

Absolutely, the words simply flow better, and for me that is the key. I'm plagued with doubt, and writing sober makes me all to aware of that. When I'm buzzed, not all out drunk (can't stand that feeling) but just had enough to be good and mellow I find I often find new ideas and new turns of phrase.

Obviously edit sober, of course. Hemmingway was a wise man

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Obviously edit sober, of course. Hemmingway was a wise man

Well, until that last bit, anyway.

 

[Firekeeper]

Well, until that last bit, anyway.

Indeed, that is true