I highly doubt that Edgar Allan Poe was a good writer because of his alcoholism and the damage that it entailed. He was a good writer in spite of being an alcoholic. While some tasks like writing can benefit from a slight lessening of the inhibitions, editing is certainly not one of them.
This is because editing necessitates a good working memory, high concentration , and attention to detail, so alcohol and the activity of editing do not mix well. Have you heard of Coursera, the massive online learning platform? For an honest, unbiased review check out our Coursera review. Similarly, missing a run-on sentence, leaving spelling errors, or misplacing a comma can have embarrassing consequences later on.
Nonetheless, editing, even while sober, can be taxing, and even the best writers can benefit from professional proofreading services. If editing happens to be the task at hand, try drinking some coffee. The caffeine in your coffee can kick in within ten minutes. It may help to sharpen your discerning eye for proper grammar and punctuation, for about two hours. The science of caffeine is well known. Hopefully this article has given you some insights into non-substance-based ways you can approach your own creative process more effectively.
What do you think? What have your experiences been with altered states and creative writing? Anywhere you think I missed the mark? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Share your ideas and experiences in the comments, below. Rob is a writer and educator. He is intensely ADD, obsessive about his passions, and enjoys a good gin and tonic. Check out his website for multiple web fiction projects, author interviews, and various resources for writers.
To leave a comment Login with Facebook or create a free account. Maybe somewhere between incoherence and sobriety, there lies a "sweet spot. These guys spent long hours, countless words, and many bottles practicing their craft.
Crowley often spoke of finding the minimum dose to alter consciousness and then extending it out for as long as possible. He was speaking of hash, of course, but the methodology seems applicable.
Perhaps a session beer, a little over one an hour depending on weight , to keep things lubricated. More than that, one risks getting sloppy, which would be counter to our purposes. As we see above. Wiriting drunk is effective in terms of quantity. I tend to write more while drunk, but doing so also effects the quality of what I'm writing, often for the worst. I'd rather write on something else than alcohol, or alcohol combined with something.
Alcohol gets too emotional and messy passed a certain amount of beers and it doesn't help me think outside the box. It doesn't boost my creativity in the direction I'd like it too. It's too restrained, too familiar. I prefer low doses of LSD. Maybe a brownie. And by low doses I mean LOW doses. Doses that won't leaves you staring at walls and fondling flowers.
Alcohol in combination with any of these at low doses is pretty good though. You get the mindspace from the psychedelics and that eager drive from booze.
Something that shakes my head for a couple of hours and doesn't fuck me up completely the next day. I gave it a go with coke, but the rambling on the page became as obnoxious as my clenching jaws. Same for MDMA. As I mentioned on this same topic in the forums, alcohol in small doses makes me too sleepy to be productive.
Four or five drinks, though, I'm energized but wanna do anything except write though I do like making music with a buzz on. I might get some decent ideas while intoxicated and uninhibited, but that's not the time to execute them. Just make a few notes so I don't forget, and then do the actual writing when sober and likely caffeinated. This comic from XKCD illustrated the idea of a "sweet spot" for program coding, but I thought it would be applicable here.
Speaking as someone with an BS in Comp. I can attest to both the peak and the precipitous drop-off. No matter how tempting the sweet spot sounds, price of conditioning your body and creative process to an external stimulant is a bad idea.
I mean I might get hypocritical sometimes, but I don't think I'll lean on it regularly. With that being said, cigarettes are also seem to do a great trick. I don't smoke at all, aside from being trapped in a room with chain-smokers in pubs, etc.
Stephen King also said something about I think in On Writing how his synapses weren't coated because he's quit smoking. Vinny Mannering, you were right the comic does the trick. Many writers know that some days when you're sober you are also bored and staring at a screen. Now that you have the typing program open, your mind is blank. Less than five minutes ago the ideas were spinning, but now that your ready to put them down you don't know where to start or what words to use.
The future of innovation and technology in government for the greater good. Leaders who are shaping the future of business in creative ways. New workplaces, new food sources, new medicine--even an entirely new economic system. College is a time for experimenting with too much alcohol and writing badly about the bad sex you had. Thanks to a famous quote from Ernest Hemingway, though, there will always be students in every creative writing class combining the two habits until the end of time.
I had no interest in editing anything. I did, however, have a good time reading the sappy notes. Some notes were actually fruitful, and there was one idea that may actually make its way into the book.
The thought of drinking for three days in a row made me feel like I was 19 again. I felt old and battered by Day 3 and dreaded the bottle, my novel, and this entire experiment. But still, I hit the tequila and went for it.
I felt more focused and cranked out a lot of work. Because I ended up working the longest on this night, I could feel my buzz wearing off.
I called it quits when my eyes were closing at my desk. I did take a few notes. I thought Day 3 was the best. I had a good chunk of writing that, after heavy edits, could stay in the novel. I also found that I polished up a few things in existing chapters, that were, for the most part, good decisions on my part. Go me! I was so jazzed that I even worked out after, to prepare myself again for another night of drinking. Ladies and gents, I finally hit my drunk stride.
I kept the room quiet, I stayed hydrated and full, and I planted my ass in the chair and worked. However, my attention span lasted for maybe 30 minutes, tops. I found myself drawn to the TV. I just was all over the place. I even tried writing an entirely new chapter, one that I had not even thought of yet, in an overambitious drunk haze.
0コメント