beer and writing

[willmackinley]

Dear Mr. King,
Thank you for the entertainment. In your memoir/ writing guide, you discussed your drinking and writing habits, and the connection between the two. I understand. The thing is, I don't think I can continue writing if I quit drinking, and I don't want to quit writing. Do you have any advice or suggestions that might help? I apologize if this seems like a dark and serious note - it's not meant to. Frankly, I enjoy drinking while I write, and I never thought it was a problem until I read On Writing. Your recollections about your drinking were reminiscent of someone I know pretty well, and if you were an alcoholic, well, then... Anyway, I guess I'm not AA ready, but I am just a little concerned, and I thought you might be able to help. Thank you for your time.
Respectfully,
Will MacKinley

[aptpupil]

I don't personally believe that any artistic or intellectual endeavour can possibly benefit from the presence of alcohol in your system, dulling your brain's processes.

Assuming that your drinking is under control, I would definitely separate the two, and only write during periods of abstinence. :cool2:

[Mr. Palmer]

I drink while I write, too. Not to mention smoke like a runaway freight train.

I usually have either 4 beers, or 3 glasses of Jim Beam mixed with ginger ale. I don't get drunk, per se, but support some serious gin blossoms.

Does it help me to write?

I find that it does. But it's not a crutch I have. I can take my laptop to the local Waffle House and write while drinking coffee, too. It's all just a thing.

But if you try to take away my non-filter Pall Mall? Well then, sir, we have a problem. Hee hee.

[Joiey]

Hmmm. I really don't want to open a hornet's nest here but I might be. Let me just say that I've had a lot of problems in my past. Alcohol and nicotine addiction were but side effects of deeper problems, like PTSD and Bipolar Disorder.
In the past two years I have undergone some pretty dramatic changes and when I began to make changes in my life I had no idea where I would end up.
Almost 2.5 years ago I was in the process of dying. I was obese and my diabetes was out of control, my circulation was bad, my cholesterol and blood pressure were sky high, I never exercised, and took a lot of drugs (primarily the prescription variety) for my psychiatric problems. I used tobacco and alcohol to self-medicate. I was pretty sick all the time, mentally and otherwise.
My doctor finally told me that in her opinion I had less than 5 years left. She predicted that within that time I would very likely have a major cardiac event that would kill me.
Those were hard words to hear. Not to mention scary.
It took a couple weeks for it all to really sink in but I came out of it with the realization that I really didn't want to die (I was only 52) and that for all my half-serious attempts at suicide, I still didn't really want to die. I just didn't want to continue "living" as I was because at best I'd only been existing. And there is a huge difference. I was sick all the time. Depressed, manic, delusional at times. So I set out to see how I could change things just a little.
The doc wanted me to lose only 10% of my total body weight for starters and to begin to exercise (yuck) by walking 30 min a day, five days a week. I didn't want to commit to 5 days of exercise but I told her I'd do 3 days a week. And I did.
On March 27, 2007 about 11:00 in the morning I put out my last cigarette for what I hoped would be the last time (because of recurrent and spreading breast cancer I'd already been trying to quit smoking for more than 4 years). I began to read and learn all I could about diabetes and began to make only one change to my diet a week. And continued with my 3 days of walking.
Fast forward 18 months and now I've lost not only 10% of my body weight, but a grand total of 93 lbs. My waist shrunk from 46 inches around to 26. Clothing size from 22 to size 3/4. I was now running 6 miles a day 7 days a week.
And something else happened, too. Something amazing and magical. My mental health had improved to the point where my psychiatrist began taking me [I]off[I] my medications.
Now, my weight is stable and I've not regained any of my past weight. My mental health has been stable for almost 2 years. I'm working (holding outside employment) for the first time in my life, and I'm finally, for the first time in my life able to attend college full time and work toward a bachelor's degree I believed I would never be capable of earning. I'm still in college and have a 3.89 GPA and I'm majoring in English.
Somewhere along the lines I strongly suspected that the daily, hard aerobic exercise and eating correctly had something very important to do with the restoration of not only my physical health but my mental health as well. So I began reading on the subject of brain chemistry and nutrition and then on how exercise fit in the mix.
Turns out I was dead-on correct in my original thoughts regarding the restoration of my health.
My mind is so active now and yet I'm not manic. I sleep 8 hours each night without any medication. I am never at a loss for ideas for either my nonfiction writing OR my fiction writing. I, quite frankly, am a whole new woman. I feel better than I ever have and bet I could outrun in a distance race any 25 year old out there (who hasn't trained as long or as hard as I have).
I still keep up with the hard 6 miles runs but I take one day off a week now. And I continue to eat the way I know I have to in order to remain healthy.
My writing never suffered for it. It vastly improved.
I hope this post will help someone else out there. Personally, I could not sit and drink while writing. And really, my very best ideas happen while I'm rocking out on the treadmill to Lynard Skynard or some of my other very favorite rock and roll bands. I keep a little digital recorder handy while I run so my ideas don't get lost in the miles.
Thanks for reading. I wish you all the best of success in your writing.
J

[Mephisto]

I've only once made a serious attempt at writing while drunk, and it was an absolute nightmare. I don't know how people can do it. I like drinking sometimes, and I almost always enjoy writing, but putting those two activities together seems (to me) bizarre. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. For me, nothing impedes the writing process worse than alcohol consumption.

[Rhett]

The root of this question, for me, is not the dynamic of beer and writing but the relationship between the writer and acts of self destruction.

Depression has always made it easier for me to write. Depression, for me, is generally the result of an unfulfilled longing. That longing, that ache, feels like inspiration to me. And I write it out. I express myself and love the way I do it. Everything vented on paper and I feel better. Much better.

Writing saved me from my depression! yea! Now I love writing more than anything!

I'm now happy. It's harder to write when I'm happy. I long for depression and secretly treasure things that bring sadness - which I've come to mistake as inspiration - to me.

I've always had a bit of that kind of relationship with writing. It's not beer for me, but the seduction of misery, that I struggle to separate from writing.

I traveled a few writers circles - with homeless poets and self satisfied professors. I see this pattern play out alot. Sometimes it's beer. Sometimes pot. Sometimes worse stuff. A lot of times it's just fatal flaws in the temperment - roaring rages, terrible irresponsibility, ect.

When everyone is doing it, it just seems thats the way it's done.

However, since this letter is addressed to Mister King I'll throw this observation out there - not drinking changed his writing for the better. Far better. When he drank, his talent controlled him. When he stopped, he began to control his talent.

Read Cujo and then read Bag of Bones. The difference is striking.

[jasonburglar]

In reply to Rhett's post, writers (artists in general) and self-destruction do seem to have a connection.

When you said that depression is the result of an unfulfilled longing; I couldn't agree more. I have had depression for years, and it wasn't until recently that I discovered writing (or creating anything) was a great way to alleviate dark feelings. They don't teach you that stuff in school.

Things bottle up inside, and letting them out does wonders.

But before I realized that, I used alcohol to try and let the demons out. Turns out, demons love alcohol. They thrive on it. Sure, it makes things better temporarily, but once the liver works its magic, the demons are back and bigger than ever.

What I'm saying is, creation is better than destruction, and I wish someone would have told me that a long time ago.

[Abbie]

IT's trure beer whatever enahnces oure creative abilities at times but then as SK pointed out in "On Writing" ENHANCES is the keyword. He obviously still had the talent after rehab. :) -Abbie

[Abbie]

I don't personally believe that any artistic or intellectual endeavour can possibly benefit from the presence of alcohol in your system, dulling your brain's processes.

Assuming that your drinking is under control, I would definitely separate the two, and only write during periods of abstinence. :cool2:

What a person using booze to enhance their inspiration needs is to realize the talen IS THERE.. it is NOT going to go away. This is the fear held by those knwoing they should quit the bad habit. Find healthier ways to help with the enhancement. SK tells how he does this in "On writing"..

--Abbie:cool2:

[ginapenn]

I can't drink at all, especially while writing. Alcoholic mom ruined booze for me...

[kayeraven]

Way to go!, and what an inspirational story to me personally. I'm 57, have quit cigarettes four times - - once for almost four years - - but always pick them back up again (started smoking again two weeks ago after six months quit, AAUGH). I've struggled with depression all my life and obesity since my son was born 20 years ago. Perhaps it isn't too late to teach an old dog new tricks. LOVED your story, and bouquets to you!!! Maybe I should get off my donkey and start walking too, huh?

Kaye

[misterwoe]

I am a struggling novelist, and I like to drink (or smoke) when I can. But mixing the two is unprofessional in my opinion. It's no different than drinking on the job.

Writing a novel is a lot of work. And it's a lot of words. It requires talent, discipline and luck to succeed in this business, and I don't see how these three things could--through all of the chaos--come together if I were to combine my taste for alcohol with my effort to publish that first novel.

If writing is just a hobby for you, and not the sun burning in your stomach, then it doesn't make a difference. But if this is your passion why try to subdue it with alcohol?

Stop teetering on a fence of uncertainty and do what you know is right.

[DwayneHoover]

Do what you have to to be honest. That is the hardest part. Sometimes we have to pry bar our brains open to get past the filters we build up. So do what you must. I do. It works for me, what works for me.

[Paul Haney]

Sometimes I like to write sober, and then have a few before I come back to revise. Catching a buzz puts me in a different mindset from the one I was in while composing and allows me to see the work through new eyes. There is a danger, however, that one can get too buzzed up and prevent themselves from being able to work. You've got to experiment. But I agree with those who said here that drinking and drugging can't deliver your talent. The talent's there--the drinking and drugging are part of you, not your work. And improving your life can never hurt your writing.

[steelhorseclub]

In recent years I have cut down my drinking, "only during special occasions". Since I don't drink that often, I really enjoy a cold one after finishing a writing project. I agree with Mephisto that drinking while writing would just feel weird.

[Gerald]

I think alcohol helps people overcome certain inhibitions. Like say someone is really critical of what they write, the alcohol may help them to be less so.
I don't know if it stimulates greater creativity though. Creativity seems something that comes and goes: sometimes you're full of great ideas and at other times you feel like an empty vessel. It's basically a mystery what it is really, I think no-one really knows.

[Pucker]

I think alcohol helps people overcome certain inhibitions. Like say someone is really critical of what they write, the alcohol may help them to be less so.
I don't know if it stimulates greater creativity though. Creativity seems something that comes and goes: sometimes you're full of great ideas and at other times you feel like an empty vessel. It's basically a mystery what it is really, I think no-one really knows.

I would certainly agree with this. In my wild, misspent youth I did virtually everything drunk, and while I could certainly be prolific at the keyboard while imbibing, I often found that much of what I produced in that state would not stand up to sober scrutiny. The flipside, of course, is that your mind may travel in odd, unexplored directions while using . . . sometimes useful directions that a sober mind would likely eschew, and that can be useful in expanding your perspective. More often than not, what I would find is that pieces I perceived as brilliant the night before would turn out to be jabberwocky in the cold light of day. Simply put, it's not a practice I would reccomend. Booze has a funny way of convincing people to believe things that aren't true.

[am78]

Believe it or not, there are some people who do their best work while on drugs or alchohol. I read somewhere Kurt Cobain seemed more creative during these periods, and I firmly believe the drugs made Jim Morrison more insightful in his poetry/music.

I don't believe drugs/alchohol will give you instant talent, but I do think they can inhance talent in some people.

When I was in my late teens/early twenties I actually bought into the ideal of the artist who drinks and becomes more creative through drink/drugs. It wasn't the only reason I wanted to drink (mostly winecoolers. I couldn't stand the taste of beer). I had other problems.

I didn't do much writing while drinking. I just sat around, winecooler in hand, crying about anything.


I think there are some people who sacrifice themselves for their art through drugs/alchohol (Jim Morrison is an example). Personally, I'm not willing to be one.