Well, firstly, let me say that I’m not a professional writer by any means, however, I do write a little; mostly comedic sketches, the occasional lyric and a few little monologues.
I’ve found that, particularly when composing a collaborative work, a couple of drinks takes the edge off sensibility; sometimes this results in meandering explorations of useless distraction, but quite often it makes the difference between dismissing something as a stupid and unproductive idea, and exploring it further.
On at least a couple of occasions, moderate drinking has relaxed my mind sufficiently that I ended up deriving very useful material from an avenue of thought that I would have thought pointless were I stone cold sober.
In my experience however, drinking to excess has only ever resulted in what seemed at the time to be truly inspired work - later this proved to be utter drivel.
No alcohol, no caffeine, except maybe a couple cups of tea. Absolutely no coffee. (Except for non-fiction technical, how-to. That’s just grunt work. Anything goes.)
The attraction of alcohol (and drugs generally) is that they induce me to think out of the normal course of thought. Sometimes those ideas are very good. However that has to be balanced against: 1) The diminishment of other needed skills (such as how to compose complex paragraphs), and 2) Losing “normal” perspective regarding the connotations of words, and readability.
When reading, coffee causes me to skim like crazy. When writing, it causes a sort of “shift in fascination” to more telegraphed, hyper sentences. Later, it has to be rewritten. It’s easier to write correctly the first time.
There are authors who are affected by alcohol most of the time they write. There seems to be a tendency among them – other opinions welcome – to use unusual and flowery words – creating a more lyrical sense. When I review those drunken words carefully, however I often get a sense of a certain falseness – inappropriate emotionality. E.g., describing a storm drain as “a microcosmic nexus of convergent fluid”.
A glass or two of wine seems to loosen me up emotionally, which helps me write with feeling. Or possibly I just become less self-critical.
Although I don’t recommend it, I’ve gotten some of my best, or at least oddest, ideas in fever dreams, which I guess are as close to opium dreams as I’ve come. I came up with the premise for the novel I’m working on when my appendix ruptured and I had a serious fever for some days.
Booze doesn’t work for me at all. Pot helps sometimes, and sometimes it doesn’t. Coffee is a must, of course. Best results usually come from writing the first draft with pot and coffee (the old Memphis Speedball!) and then revising straight to get the wrinkles out.
I’d have to say I fall in the It Depends category. I get some pretty interesting ideas with pot, but I can’t extrapolate on them worth a damn. Having a couple of drinks does help me get in a more conversational mode of writing. Frankly I like sitting down after a couple of cups of coffee in the late morning. That’s when I’m most productive. BTW, I have had a magazine article published, and just finished a short cookbook. I wish I had a better hand at writing fiction!
Published short-story writer, unpublished novelist.
Alcohol tends to make me unable to stand, let alone write. I can’t hold my liquor at all.
But, I do smoke a lot when I’m writing. There’s just something about pausing, watching the smoke rise, and…voilà! Instant inspiration. I don’t have the foggiest clue as to why, though.
Academic writer here. I’ve noticed I can’t write worth a crap if I have even one glass of wine. Beer, OTOH, seems to help if I’m not writing something really technical and concise. Last spring, my dad had just shown up to visit, and I had a take-home ecology exam to write. So I was swilling black and tans with my dad, BSing, and writing my exam. I think I was barely sober enough to proof it before printing it out for my 8 am class. That’s the first and only time I’ve earned 100% on a college exam…
For the more concise writing, coffee or some other source of caffeine is necessary. I actually find that having the right music playing helps keep me focused and putting words on the page.
FWIW, when a friend of mine was seriously injured, and was on vicodan pretty much 24/7, she said her papers for creative writing were really good, because she was so relaxed, and unconcerned. Her prof actually wrote a note on one of her papers after she got off the painkillers asking her what had happened with her writing. I’m sad to say I haven’t done any creative writing in a long time, so I don’t have any input in that area.
Drinking and writing is a no-no in my book. The loosening of inhibitions that drinking imparts brings out the Hidden Jackass in me. For this reason, I try my damnedest to stay away from the keyboard (and the phone) while I’m drunk.
My best writing is born from the purer highs an lows found in sobriety.
I can’t hold my liquor at all.