Drinking and writing are two different activities best kept apart, because, generally speaking, it is observed that intoxication affects our focus on other things that we do. That said, I still believe that there are few writers out there who can write perfectly well while their drunk. However, I must say, only few people are gifted with the ability to finish writing while holding a bottle of beer.
Hmmmm, I think I'll try Sky Doll. I liked W.I.T.C.H. and it's got a real translation. Looks sexy. EDIT: Holy shit! Sky Doll is awesome!
I usually argue with the characters when I drink the wrong amount. I tend to marinate ideas instead of writing them down when I drink the right amount. (Most days I have to drown out my thoughts with reruns when I'm sober.) I have written things down while drunk, especially when blocked, but then I move those words to the edge of the page and rewrite it while sober. (Having five iterations of a scene is not wasted effort.)
No, I google searched the OP's avatar. It's fan art of an Italian comic called Sky Doll. Only 3 core issues out but they're fantastic. EDIT: Wait, I mean yes, probably.
The only way that I can imagine a writer writing better when drunk is if he is so paralyzed by perfectionism or other thought-seizing-up issues that he can't really create at all while sober. I'd probably recommend that that writer find himself a therapist rather than taking up a regular habit of drinking and writing.
I must defend a glass or two of wine. In no way, shape, or form am I suggesting alcohol improves my writing. But sometimes, if I'm not moving forward, after a glass or two of wine or a couple beers I sometimes more easily get past an impasse.
I wonder what effect different types of drinks has on one's writing. I'm going to conduct this experiment in the name of science.
But...but...it's in the name of science! I can even get a few friends to take part in the experiment. I think four is a large enough sample size to draw a universal conclusion.
In college, twice I had to write a paper, while quite inebriated. I did not edit or re-read before turning the last-minute paper in. I was blessed with an A but I remember being acutely aware that I was drunk and therefore working exceptionally hard to edit as I went. Not worth it at all! When I got the paper back, I did not remember penning any of it and it was a fascinating view of my writing. Some quite humorous and seemingly well-thought out. But a monstrous effort that I could have done in thirty minutes, probably took two hours, drunk.
I've read it. My understanding is you aren't aloud(um, or allowed) to say you hate it out of fear of appearing savage. Everyone hates it. William Burroughs himself will probably be here in a moment to concur he hates it too. What about that other kid...Henry Miller. At least there is some nice prose in that but I've given up on completing anything he's written (or starting anything new). Anyway, sense, sure, but I was in a contemporary fiction class about it and half the time we were reading the epilogue instead of the actual book. Naked Lunch is Burroughs acting out his point--which is to deconstruct our minds--and attempting to deconstruct our minds as well. Should have been a novella, or maybe just a single sentence: "I believe in drugs, and you should too."
What substances do you use to write? Alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, taurine, cannabis, etc. ? I personally find writing with a clear and unaltered mind to be the most fruitful technique, but I do produce interesting results when writing under the influence.
I tend to write more and faster when drunk. More typos, less attention to properly writing fiction, but there's a lot more for me to re-read in the morning. All good stuff, just need some cleaning.
I smoke, but that doesn't affect my thinking. From experience, I know that 'brilliance' written while under the influence disappears on the [sober] re-read.
I get into certain moods when I've drunk wine. I tend to get really poetic. When I drink hard liquor though, only rage comes out and I don't even write then. I tend to write a lot of interesting ideas right before I go to sleep. I also I keep a note book and pen next to me so if I have a dream so that I can write it down and not forget. Other substances don't make me feel like writing oddly enough. Only wine seems to do that. What I write when under an influence is not good. I write better and more thoughtful things when I'm sober.
I'm retired, so no drug tests for me. I have found some of my most insightful writing comes with a mix of smoke and rum.
No chemical influences other than perhaps caffeine when I write (I like my espresso, but I stop before I start vibrating like the Flash). My imagination doesn't need the aid of delusion or the removal of inhibitions. I write best when I am thinking clearly and my judgement is unimpaired. The literal meaning of stupid is having dulled perception and responses.
It's not something I do frequently, or often at all. Though when I get drunk and am near a computer and with nothing better to do, I have in the past rapid fired posts on forums. The posts were varying levels of insanity. I sound like a schizophrenic in full-swing...which, I actually like. I've rarely written any stories or poems while drunk, and the few times I had, they weren't anything I worked on afterwards. What I find great for writing, is my adhd medication. Overall my opinion is that being under the influence is great experience for writing, but writing while under the influence is not about writing something to keep.
When I was a kid, they medicated my ADHD; it silenced my imagination and stilled basically any part of me that was, well, me. It left me ill and hating the world. I hated that silence, knowing a part of me was missing. It wasn't a voice, merely the latent capacity for the potential to dream. It is a comfortable weight in the back of my head and I will not have it stilled again. Music is the only major influence under which I write. And it is through my writing that I learned to control my ADHD.
