cinder and smoke

I like to write with a bit of a buzz but not when I'm completely trashed. My writing is just a bunch of crap that makes no sense when I'm wasted. Having a buzz is nice because my mind feels less cramped and I can just keep going and going. I don't like to get drunk anyway.

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"The vivid tulips eat my oxygen."
-Plath

Dookie

I would once again suggest that writing from when you are drunk is not written by you, it is written by a drunk you. I.e. drunkeness opens new parts of the brain while closing parts already open. This only leads to confusion I'd say. Stick to sobriety.

ClancyBoy

The proper amount for me is zero. I have a hard enough time concentrating as it is. I keep having beer with lunch and that just puts me out of commission for an entire day.

Cigarettes on the other hand...

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"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.

Jocelyn

I can't write drunk at all (I get way too sleepy), but I saw this on my Wine Lover's Page a Day calendar today:

"Winston Churchill, who, according to numerous accounts, drank a bottle [of champagne] a day. Champagne, thought Churchill, steeled one's courage, excited the imagination, and kept the mind keen."

Maybe I just need to switch my choice of alcoholic beverages....

Crow

Firstly, I don't recommend writing drunk off your ass.

However, last summer I wrote a eulogy to my great aunt one night while completely blasted from MGD. The result: My eulogy brought my entire family to tears, and many of them complimented me on writing something very heart felt. Of course, I never told them I was utterly trashed when I wrote it.

Drunken writing can work, but it's not necessary. I've written garbage when drunk and sober, and written decent stuff in both states also. It's really how you focus yourself when you write that determines whether you write something worthwhile or not.

Sometimes, I find that drinking can help me focus better on one particular goal, so when I apply it my writing I can get "in the zone" on occasion. But again, I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

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Fegaril

I've tried to write while being drunk several times and with varying degrees of success. The best times to write is right after what drunks tend to call a moment of clarity. In those situations, I'll have more ideas than usual, but lately, these moments have fallen in regularity which I greatly regret.

When I get home from a night out, I sometimes happen to be furious for one reason or another, and I just sit down and write the most spiteful, nasty stories I can come up with. I'd recommend this to all horror writers. It'll make for a great first draft (that would require some heavy editing).

Meanwhile, trying to write while being extremely entoxicated is a disaster. I've tried this a number of times, only ending up with a slice of pizza in my left hand, my right hand on the keyboard and drool hanging from the corner of my mouth. And the stories are complete gibberish, just a mishmash of words that are misspelled and often unrecognizable.

Still, it's a fun experience for the whole family. I can deeply recommend it

Non Serviam

That's me, too. I practically chain-smoke while writing. I also drink unhealthy amounts of coffee.

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jonhartwig

Sir, I write whilst under the influences of the accursed drink all the time, and let me tell you, I've produced some of my best work while substance abusing. Sometimes we just have to lubricate the mind.

Get drunk... but not too drunk. That's my advice. You still want to maintain a certain degree of coherence.

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-J.

Faustling

Same here, regarding both smokes and coffee.

When it comes to drunken writing I've tried it a few times but never very succesfully (probably because I've been way to drunk before I come to think about it).

WriterDude

I tried writing while drunk once. The next afternoon (heh) I found:

* A short story called something like "The Misadventures of the Goblin Dumbass" written on my computer, by me apparently. It was about a bunch of goblins going out on a big adventure to save a goblin princess, screwing things up pretty much at every change they had. One fell down the stairs in the first page and broke his neck, one got eaten by a dragon while trying to read Shakespear to it, two of them turned gay and went off to live in New Jersey (no idea why) and in the end, when they finally found the princess, they didn't want her and put her back.

* I was banned from a forum I didn't know I had joined, and...

* The game Donald Duck Quack Attack was on pause on my computer. I didn't even have it the night before.

Get drunk all you want, but for your own safety, do it in public.

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strangedaze

drunk, ive only written an essay on the evil vagina in King Lear. but hungover i seem to be superman.

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His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.

Pete_C

I love writing drunk, mainly because I am often surprised when I read it the next day - not because it's great, but because I can't remember what I wrote.

The main tips are these.

Keep everything. Sometimes you only see its value months or years later.

Write lots. Most of it will be shit.

Edit well. Your typing will be shot to shit.

Never go back over anything when you are writing and drunk. If you hate something, a few carriage returns gets it off the page and out of mind. You'll find your judgement is also shot when you're drunk, so you might erase a gem.

Most importantly - Don't expect things to happen. With regard to this last point, I was once asked to babysit some very powerful LSD. The lad I shared a flat with was going out and didn't trust himself. To cut a long story short, I obviously took it and wrote all night. The end result was fantastic (I wish I still had a copy). It was the first thing I ever got published. I spent the next 20 years of my life gobbling up pills like they were sweets, and the closest I ever got to that original work was ... well, not very close, although I did invent a fundamentally flawed way of measuring the heights of bridges.

The last example isn't drunk, but the unpredictability is the same with regard to writing.

Pete_C

It happens! I wanted to look something up about the Russian space programme, and before I knew it I was explaining to Star Trek fans that they were nonces.

smilinghelps

ClancyBoy-I've never really thought about writing drunk--not to say I've never done it, but I never consciously thought about it.

Usually if I'm drinking I spend time on the forum playing games, not writing anything serious. If you find you can't have one beer and write, perhaps its not the thing for you.

When I smoked I used to chain smoke while writing, now I just write. Sometimes it pours out of me and sometimes I have to drag the words out of hiding. Wine can help loosen them up for me--but I don't always resort to alcohol to relax myself. If I'm writing about a particular time, I'll listen to some music from that era to get into it, or look at some old pictures for inspiration about clothing or description of cars or whatever is in my story.

Music helps me alot when I'm working.

But if you're really going to drink--I would suggest keeping a towel handy in case you spill anything in your keyboard, a trashcan in case you have too much and work near a bathroom, you'll have to go every 1/2 hour.

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E. B. White

sdavis2k

Honestly I think it all comes down to what type of drunk you are. I know some people who can't talk once they are drunk. I know some people who can't walk when they are drunk. I know some people who hold their drinks well and start debating AI with others when they are normally very quiet when not drunk. Some people get more creative while on substances and can do more, others just mellow out and relax and watch bad tv/movies.