Inspiration in a Bottle?
Submitted by mwilliams on Fri, 2007-08-17 17:01.Can alcohol and other intoxicants help you write? Well, it worked for Hemingway and Coleridge. This blogger is seriously down on the idea, but then he seems to be religiously stuck on the concept of getting kiss-the-carpet drunk. Maybe he should have a shot and loosen up. What’re your feelings on it?
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While getting shit-faced doesn’t do it for me, I think that a drink or two (or perhaps a draw) can help break through the barriers that bind us to this earth and give us a window to the infinite. Perhaps it helps to alleviate self-consciousness, which can be a distinct barrier that binds where the creative process is concerned. I’m not talking dependency here. It ultimately depends on the character of the writer.
no, it doesnt help at all.
These things may give us the impression that we can, in the same way it leads us to believe an Ex needs to hear from us at 3:am
if you need to use stuff to be creative you were not creative to begin with. If your using stuff you dont have controll over the process, a bunch of pointless words does not make great writing.
These guys that did, had dependency problems, which is another thing.
And yet they wrote great literature. So I guess you're saying that without their dependency they would have been better writers.
I'm not sure a couple of glasses of wine would make me call my ex at any time (a directive from God couldn't make me do that).
While it's obvious that a lot of great prose and fiction was written under or after the influence of alcohol, cannabis or heroin, the question is whether it's necessary to get intoxicated to get that kind of inspiration. I've met writers who have been set on experiencing everything in life, a kind of fatalistic "try everything once" attitude and who claimed it made them better writers. While their writing was good, it wasn't exceptional enough to justify that kind of life-and-death gamble heavy drug use is. Others just smoke pot and say it helps them focus and see things clearer (while it actually makes them dumber in the long run!).
A more interesting thing to explore would be to see how meditation, mental discipline and more risk-free ways of finding inspiration can be effectively put to use in the work as a writer. I think spending time at a Buddhist center is a better creative investment than any drug experience.
Seems that to the writers in question it was necessary, at least, but I don't think the majority of writers, famous or not, go that route.
I find that meditation, not medication, is where it's at for me. A walk in the woods is pretty good inspiration, and you don't feel like crap the next day.
no, the food is terrible.
For me solitude works the best,
followed by the beach, or the scrub, a full moon, a thunderstorm, a rainy day, even a heartache.
I did do a little more than my share of experimentation in my teens and early 20's, now I have a memory life a sieve, and the attention span of a wombat.