Does Alcohol Improve Your Writing?

[nom]

Brilliant.

I also have a new understanding of the comments following online newspaper articles.

[burjeon]

This topic is sort of old. But I'm new, and in reading it realized that I've thought about this question quite a bit.

I used to be very curious about how a writer could be a serious drinker and still write. Actors, ditto, by the way.

And I think the answer is . . . they don't necessarily get "drunk as a skunk" and then write. I think they drink continually, while they are writing, and the brain uses the alcohol so that it can keep working.

Haven't I read, somewhere, that our brain uses [ fill in percentage ] some large percentage of the glucose produced by our body in its normal functioning?

I think they're using the alcohol as fuel. And if they don't overdo it all the time, as in binge drinking or drunk-as-a-skunk, it looks like it works.

FWIW, though -- not recommending this. Just suspect that's the reason it's so common.

[nom]

I used to be very curious about how a writer could be a serious drinker and still write. Actors, ditto, by the way.

And I think the answer is . . . they don't necessarily get "drunk as a skunk" and then write. I think they drink continually, while they are writing, and the brain uses the alcohol so that it can keep working.

Haven't I read, somewhere, that our brain uses [ fill in percentage ] some large percentage of the glucose produced by our body in its normal functioning?

I think they're using the alcohol as fuel. And if they don't overdo it all the time, as in binge drinking or drunk-as-a-skunk, it looks like it works.

FWIW, though -- not recommending this. Just suspect that's the reason it's so common.

Nice idea. But sadly, no. It's not that.

While you are probably right that many alcoholic writers drink continuously while they are writing (I've never watched an alcoholic writer in action to verify this), the reason is not they use it as a fuel. Yes, there are sugars in alcohol, and yes our bodies can use some of them (I'm not a nutritionist), but it's an inefficient way of powering the brain. Basically, excessive use of a poison to try make the body work is never a good idea.

The reason why some writers use lots of alcohol is actually very simple: alcoholism. The mechanisms can be explained by two of the key concepts of addiction: tolerance and withdrawal. Add them to the reasons why they started drinking in the first place, and you have a pretty toxic (literally!) combination.

So it's not that alcohol helps writers write, just that it helps alcoholics write. But that's not saying much as it helps those with an alcohol dependence do pretty much everything other than reduce their alcohol consumption.

[marcoiac]

You guys may want to google 'functioning alcoholics' or 'functioning alcoholism'. It's not just writing or acting, all sorts of professions/jobs have it. The current dogma is that functioning alcoholics are constantly at risk of trespassing a threshold and becoming no longer functioning. There is no hard data on this though. Indeed, even the concept of functioning alcoholism is not based on hard data. Alcoholism is by definition a disorder, if someone is functioning, how can she/he be alcoholic?

Cheers!

[nom]

You guys may want to google 'functioning alcoholics' or 'functioning alcoholism'. It's not just writing or acting, all sorts of professions/jobs have it. The current dogma is that functioning alcoholics are constantly at risk of trespassing a threshold and becoming no longer functioning. There is no hard data on this though. Indeed, even the concept of functioning alcoholism is not based on hard data. Alcoholism is by definition a disorder, if someone is functioning, how can she/he be alcoholic?

Cheers!

See tolerance and withdrawal.

[Jaysen]

Quote from my boss: You asked how to improve your writing, right? Have someone else do it.

This was more "work" stuff than fun stuff. Apparently my proofing is not up to snuff for paid writing. I will see if he will allow a clinical trial of the "alcohol method" of writing.

[robertdguthrie]

You guys may want to google 'functioning alcoholics' or 'functioning alcoholism'. It's not just writing or acting, all sorts of professions/jobs have it. The current dogma is that functioning alcoholics are constantly at risk of trespassing a threshold and becoming no longer functioning. There is no hard data on this though. Indeed, even the concept of functioning alcoholism is not based on hard data. Alcoholism is by definition a disorder, if someone is functioning, how can she/he be alcoholic?

Cheers!

See tolerance and withdrawal.

See "On Writing" by Stephen King. He wrote in such an alcoholic stupor that he doesn't remember the writing process of one of this best-selling works.

[Jaysen]

Has anyone seen the draft of said work prior to publisher editing?

One of my questions, one that I have not resolved, is how much of any particular work is the original author, and how much is the editor? My personal experience with editors (mostly corp and scholastic) is that my final output is "not me". It isn't what I wrote. The message is different. The voice is not mine either. Is it possible that Mr King's famous work is famous due to the efforts of a great editorial process (and his name) more than the actual quality of the draft he generated?

Not a judgement, just a thought echoing in the empty space above my neck stump.

[Fluff]

A sound and perspicacious observation? A disconcerting and ominous development!
Worried fluff

[Twolane]

Dear Fflurf,

sdhf iera[ojcl hdiuw w jmfpwoir mfa

[PJS]

Quote from a review of The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking, by Olivia Laing:

"...that gin mill’s trademark anecdote: A nonscribbling civilian drops into the Lion’s Head for a couple of beers. After taking in the scene for a while, he remarks to the guy on the barstool next to him, 'There sure are a lot of writers here with drinking problems.' This elicits the swift reply: 'Wrong. There are a lot of drinkers here with writing problems.'"

http://bookforum.com/inprint/020_05/12757

ps

[Siren]

Judging from our virtual postbag in technical support, alcohol stops some people from writing altogether, at least until they buy a new computer. We get occasional emails from people who have spilled their beer, G&T or whatever over their laptops, with catastrophic effect on the operation of the machine. Of course, we also get emails from people whose laptops have succumbed to tea, water and other innocuous substances, so it's not a statistically useful piece of information.

Mind you, even water isn't really innocuous. As Hurricane Jack, friend of the great Para Handy, said, "“No’ a worse thing you could drink … It rots your boots; what’ll it no’ do on your inside? Water's fine for sailin' on -- there's nothing better -- but it's no' a drink for sailors.” [Neil Munro]

[Hugh]

I think it's in his novel The Debt to Pleasure that the author John Lanchester has his protagonist remark that an Irish coffee is the perfect mix of poison and antidote.

The book is itself an enjoyable, if camp, combination of gastronomy and horror, by the way.

[Jaysen]

Clemens has a short story where Grandma' tells him not to drink clear liquids (I think that was how it was said, I can't find it). So he promised, and ever allowed water to pass his lips from that day forward. Luckily for him whiskey isn't clear.

I'll have to look that up tonight. I know the compilation it is in, just can't remember the published story name...

[Bluesman]

Sure, a couple of drinks make it easier to get into a flow of thought. Weed also affects my mood, and I tend to go deeper into stuff and focus more on small details.

Any substance will affect it in some kind of way, for better or worse. It seems to work positively for me.