“Write Drunk. Edit Sober.” from Live to Write – Write to Live

Here is some good advice, but be sure to read the entire article.  “Suddenly Jamie” is not advocating boozing as a means of opening the doors of perception (as the Beat Generation and others tried long ago),  but attaining a certain mindset, a certain perspective, without altering the senses chemically.

Personally, I have tried writing while drinking, and for me it doesn’t work.  I can’t focus on ideas for very long.   My coordination is off making  typing impossible.   My handwriting (my first drafts and initial ideas are usually by hand) becomes increasingly sloppy.  And I soon fall asleep.   I do get ideas, but I can manage little more than to jot them down on a cocktail napkin.

For me, writing requires clarity of mind and I do my best work while sitting in a coffee shop in a hard chair at a table while drinking black coffee or soda or iced black tea and writing in a notebook. Sometimes, I write well, as today, on my laptop at home with the TV off, but sometimes I become distracted or my mind wanders.   Sometimes, not as often as I should though, I take some time to simply contemplate where I want to take a story and go smoke a pipe of good tobacco under the tree in my front yard or at the picnic table in the back, depending on where the shade is best.   Those places and non-alcoholic beverages I find help my mindset, but coffee shops (like at the Barnes and Noble in Midland, TX, or at the now defunct Hastings in Farmington, NM) tend to be my favorites.  Anyway, I digress.  I will let you get on with the article.

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Blogging can be scary. Some days, it feels like you’ve been pushed on stage and asked to do stand-up. The guy who was on before you totally killed it. The crowd was laughing in the aisles and peopl…

Source: Write Drunk. Edit Sober.

Author: Phil Slattery

Publisher, Rural Fiction Magazine; publisher, The Chamber Magazine; founder, the Farmington Writers Circle. I have written short stories and poetry for many years. In my careers as a Naval officer and in the federal government, I have written thousands of documents of many types. I am currently working on a second edition for my poetry collection and a few novels. View all posts by Phil Slattery