Alcohol and Muses

[Bluma Bezbroda]

Allow me to start with a gentle disclaimer: this is a rather humoristic thread The idea came from a book by the same title, which was a Christmas present from my beloved friend. It consists of a series of anecdotes about famous polish artists (mostly writers) who, perhaps unsurprisingly, usually were anything but sober.

Internationally, the trend seems to keep up. No one has to be told what impact did drugs and alcohol have on the writing of William Burroughs. Djuna Barnes was a heavy drinker and she gave us the stunning "Nightwood". Michail Bulgakov was a morphine addict. On the other hand, we have writers like my beloved John Irving who claims to be an abstinent and to have a strict writing regime (8 hours per day, starting at 8 o'clock in the morning), interrupted only for physical exercise. He says anything less would make him unproductive!

Which category do you fit into?

I myself am a nasty nicotinist (phoei, phoei) and I did notice that writing flows faster when I have a glass of armagnac within reach

I will leave you with this quote, often misattributed to Ernest Hemingway (and I don't care, cause it's an awesome quote)

 

[Marc Joan]

Allow me to start with a gentle disclaimer: this is a rather humoristic thread The idea came from a book by the same title, which was a Christmas present from my beloved friend. It consists of a series of anecdotes about famous polish artists (mostly writers) who, perhaps unsurprisingly, usually were anything but sober.

Internationally, the trend seems to keep up. No one has to be told what impact did drugs and alcohol have on the writing of William Burroughs. Djuna Barnes was a heavy drinker and she gave us the stunning "Nightwood". Michail Bulgakov was a morphine addict. On the other hand, we have writers like my beloved John Irving who claims to be an abstinent and to have a strict writing regime (8 hours per day, starting at 8 o'clock in the morning), interrupted only for physical exercise. He says anything less would make him unproductive!

Which category do you fit into?

I myself am a nasty nicotinist (phoei, phoei) and I did notice that writing flows faster when I have a glass of armagnac within reach

I will leave you with this quote, often misattributed to Ernest Hemingway (and I don't care, cause it's an awesome quote)
View attachment 1350

There was a similar thread on Litopia a couple of years ago. It's interesting the amount of writers who have [allegedly] said they write better under some chemical influence or other. I wish I could find inspiration at the bottom of a gin and tonic, but [alas] I have to do it the hard way -- dead sober, after a sufficiency of sleep.

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

dead sober, after a sufficiency of sleep.

Since my only possible opportunities to write are in the late evening/night, I learned to accept that I will be dead tired while at it as a fact of life.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I'm with @Marc Joan --sober and rested.

 

[KG Christopher]

I binge, I meet friends, we party, get into stupid fights, drink, laugh, act like Vikings, wake up with regrets, worrying about what we did last night, wondering at the scars we gained, all on the back of beer and wine. I do find I get some magical insights after about 3 days of total self-loathing, but hey, it is not every weekend I do that, mostly its positive and healthy, but so far since January I have had 4 major sagas.

 

[James Marinero]

I find that a drink helps my creativity - i.e it gives me a smidgeon. I'm trying to keep it to one glass a day now - and damn, I just realised that I haven't had one today. Nevertheless, I did get some writing done.

I read somewhere that Byron was into cocaine, and one more thing @Bluma Bezbroda - I believe that Hemingway blew his brains out

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

I believe that Hemingway blew his brains out

So many of them did. AFTER becoming famous, though...

 

[James Marinero]

So many of them did. AFTER becoming famous, though...

I haven't started yet on non-fatal froms of self-harm.

 

[James Marinero]

- I believe that Hemingway blew his brains out

And I think I have to change my avatar - I look like The Old Man of The Sea!

Going mad too, quoting myself.

 

[KG Christopher]

And I think I have to change my avatar - I look like The Old Man of The Sea!

Going mad too, quoting myself.

I read that book when I was 18, the first book ever to get me into Hemingway, I was in a doctors weighting room, and I saw an old neighbour, she was dying from cancer, she came over to me with the book and handed it to me . 'read it kevin, its what life is all about'. And I never forget to thank her. I knew her for years before she died, but that day when she gave me the book stuck with me as the most meaningful memory. Thanks for reminding me James.

 

[Matnov]

I can only go by my personal experiences but having given up drinking four years ago for a variety of reasons, I have written more in those 4 years than than the entire 44 before them. I was a fully paid up member of the 'dipso writer as the troubled soul' school of thought and even labelled the more intense binges as 'doing a Hemingway'.

It was all bullshit. And I cringe now I think back on the wasted years and the pontifications about hard done by I was.

I am sure some writers can have a cheeky brandy for breakfast and the type away between drinks all day long but I am not one of then. If I could limit my imbibing to the occasional glass of wine or pint of craft beer, then I would indulge again tomorrow but sadly I cannot. I am a greedy bastard when it comes to the booze so I have to abstain or else things fall apart. It is not a case of the centre failing to hold but more a case of the booze causing it to dissolve.

Does this predilection for the demon drink make up part of why I have this writing thing in my brain? Not sure although I wanted to write before I wanted to drink so I am happy to accept that it does not although I do tend to write about characters who drink more than is good for them so it must be nagging away inside of me.

 

[KG Christopher]

I can only go by my personal experiences but having given up drinking four years ago for a variety of reasons, I have written more in those 4 years than than the entire 44 before them. I was a fully paid up member of the 'dipso writer as the troubled soul' school of thought and even labelled the more intense binges as 'doing a Hemingway'.

It was all bullshit. And I cringe now I think back on the wasted years and the pontifications about hard done by I was.

I am sure some writers can have a cheeky brandy for breakfast and the type away between drinks all day long but I am not one of then. If I could limit my imbibing to the occasional glass of wine or pint of craft beer, then I would indulge again tomorrow but sadly I cannot. I am a greedy bastard when it comes to the booze so I have to abstain or else things fall apart. It is not a case of the centre failing to hold but more a case of the booze causing it to dissolve.

Does this predilection for the demon drink make up part of why I have this writing thing in my brain? Not sure although I wanted to write before I wanted to drink so I am happy to accept that it does not although I do tend to write about characters who drink more than is good for them so it must be nagging away inside of me.

I understand what you are saying. For me, I go from spate of total dryness to a big splash out. I cannot drink Whiskey or spirits because it makes me an extremely nasty person. I have had some memorable days / journeys and I am fond of a drink.

I also think a large amount of cannabis and acid hard-wired my brain a long time ago that has given me a cynical perspective on life and has definitely influenced my storytelling.

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

I can add that I tried to write while dead drunk. Nope, nope, nope. Better spend this time pretending that I can dance.

It's sort of what my partner told me about composing after cocaine. He was sure that he's creating the work of his life, but it was explained to him afterwards that he was banging his head on the piano for half an hour.

 

[Matnov]

I also think a large amount of cannabis and acid hard-wired my brain a long time ago that has given me a cynical perspective on life and has definitely influenced my storytelling.

Drugs were never my thing and I cannot honestly say if the booze influenced my story telling. It must have had an impact but probably only as part of a wider, white working class South London culture that has shaped me. All I do know is that the booze was a major distraction for me from the actual 'Just fucking write' mantra which is my own, rather crude, take on one one of the few constants that you hear about from writers who actually manage to put food in the fridge by doing this thing of ours.

I can either write or I can drink alcohol. I cannot do both. That is a choice I make. All I know is that writing makes me happier and is ultimately what it is about from my point of view.

 

[Carol Rose]

I cannot for the life of me imagine trying to write anything, let alone anything that would be published one day, while drunk.

 

[Madeleine Conway]

There have been occasions when I've had a Brrrrrrrilliant idea while under the influence (wine or tequila, no narcotics), and even managed to write it down....and then revisited the next day or weekend and face-palmed. I have resorted to wine when writing sex scenes, until it occurred to me that I probably just needed to stop writing graphic sexy-times scenes if they a) bored b) made me laugh hysterically. I quite like a nice glass of pink or white, but not much more. But I also have parents who could have been far more brilliant if they hadn't self-medicated with whisky so I'm wary of the grape and the grain.

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

May I insert a gentle reminder:

this is a rather humoristic thread View attachment 1350

Addictions of any sort are destructive and life-ruining (they run in my family and I'm anything but immune to their threat). This said, alcohol (and all other kinds of drugs) exists, and I can't say that a nice glass of wine or a little liquor never opened a few chakras for me

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I barely drink. Not that I don't fancy a drink but I feel a little unwell after even two glasses of anything alcoholic, so will happily nurse a vodka tonic. I've never tried writing while drunk; I'd be more likely to want to wire myself, but I barely drink coffee either. I get brain fog sometimes, with pain but it always clears when reading the cards...adrenaline comes up, I guess. It comes up when I am on a writing spree, but I don't seem to go straight between Tarot reading and writing...and the words for each come from the same source. Maybe the difference is when reading tarot for someone else, I don't know what I will say next, I just respond to the cards and the feeling in my body that I get from looking at them. Writing can feel like that at its most intense, and that is the muse making itself known, I guess, or the Daemon, as Byron called it, that drives the greatest writers like chariots through walls, and no wonder so many of them drank like fish. The Muse is a relentless spirit.

 

[James Marinero]

Addictions of any sort are destructive and life-ruining (they run in my family and I'm anything but immune to their threat). This said, alcohol (and all other kinds of drugs) exists, and I can't say that a nice glass of wine or a little liquor never opened a few chakras for me

And how does addiction to writing fit in? (I'mnot and addict to anything).

 

[Patricia D]

"write drunk; edit sober," whoever said it, is amusing, but as much as I enjoy my wine, I write better stone cold sober. Sigh.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Look at Dylan Thomas, too. It's a true observation. Walking disaster, doing great art. Sweet moderation works for a life well lived, but not for great art. Even the outwardly quiet ones like Lowry....lived in a landscape of inner extremes. Addiction takes many forms, some people get addicted to the strength of their own emotions.

 

[Patricia D]

There's not much hope for me. Old, white, straight, married just once, a mother and now a grandmother, a chardonnay drinker who sees the glass as half full - I have a good life but I'm a boring demographic and lack the angst that seems to underpin great writing. So it goes. I love to write, and I'm getting better at it. Happy Wednesday

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Another noted drinker, Brendan Behan was asked to write an advertising slogan for Guinness. After working his way through several crates, he wrote, "Guinness makes you drunk."

Understandably, Guinness weren't happy with this, even if it was accurate, so they commissioned another writer Dorothy L. Sayers to come up with something. She thought of the long-lasting slogan "Guinness is good for you."

Behan gave himself up to drink, dying at the age of 41 after collapsing in a pub.

 

[echo.]

I am something of a proponent of the writing/drinking vibe. Spelling goes to shit, but I write things there that I couldn't usually write whilst sober. Cringe later, but still ok. I remember getting a first in the heady days of university for something I wrote after sampling this new rum. Cigarette breaks are more an excuse to get into the air than anything else. Drinking sounds more romantic than it is; the hangovers always have to spoil it.

That said, I once went to a tarot card lady and she said I'd likely be dead in a few years. Bad businesswoman. Reasonable prophet.

 

[KG Christopher]

I remember at school we had to paint an advertising poster. I chose a bottle of 'Glenfiddich' whiskey because I liked the picture of the stag above the name. I painted it on a sideboard with the logo 'get Glenfiddich mist', with a backdrop of the highlands. But when I came to painting 'Glenfiddich' on the bottle, the wording didn't fit. So I called it 'Glen Mist', and I had to change the logo on the backdrop to 'Get Pissed On Glen Mist' It was really good and everyone liked it apart from the headmaster who gave me six whacks of the cane on my bum.

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

@KG Christopher I would give it a "Ha Ha" if not the child abuse at the end

 

[Marc Joan]

I remember at school we had to paint an advertising poster. I chose a bottle of 'Glenfiddich' whiskey because I liked the picture of the stag above the name. I painted it on a sideboard with the logo 'get Glenfiddich mist', with a backdrop of the highlands. But when I came to painting 'Glenfiddich' on the bottle, the wording didn't fit. So I called it 'Glen Mist', and I had to change the logo on the backdrop to 'Get Pissed On Glen Mist' It was really good and everyone liked it apart from the headmaster who gave me six whacks of the cane on my bum.

Ah, a fellow ' six of the best' recipient. I got a few of those in my time, for various offences. Letting off fireworks in school, for example. Happy days...

 

[KG Christopher]

@KG Christopher I would give it a "Ha Ha" if not the child abuse at the end

I was an un-willing participant in his sado-erotic games. He would try and cane us on our nacked bums, but 'no f****ing way' was the usual response, so he had to make do with canning us through our trousers.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

There's not much hope for me. Old, white, straight, married just once, a mother and now a grandmother, a chardonnay drinker who sees the glass as half full - I have a good life but I'm a boring demographic and lack the angst that seems to underpin great writing. So it goes. I love to write, and I'm getting better at it. Happy Wednesday

Well, you are right, and from the reader's point of view, it should be about the story, not the writer. The writer should be invisible.

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

The writer should be invisible.

I'm waaaay to big for that