Open Thread: Oracle Hotline
Jun. 20th, 2014 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mithen posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
superhero_musesDo you find alcohol or other drugs enhance your creativity/writing ability, or detract from it? Why or why not?
I'll be honest here, I've never written anything when less than sober, mostly because I'm very rarely less than sober. Drug and alcohol use have always been a pretty major squick of mine, to the point where recently I've actually deliberately practiced drinking alcohol in relaxed, non-stressful situations in order to get past my irrational reaction to it. But drinking has always increased my self-consciousness really painfully (isn't it supposed to do the opposite?) and so I can't imagine writing when tipsy, I think I'd just start second-guessing everything. Bit of a TMI there, but I found the question interesting because it's a commonplace that many writers drink while writing. How does it work for you?
As for writing, I'm just reaching the climax of one story and doing a lot of middle-work in others. I want to write something short! But lately the ideas that inspire me are ones I want to dig into and take my time with, and I'm not going to argue with my inspiration...
I'll be honest here, I've never written anything when less than sober, mostly because I'm very rarely less than sober. Drug and alcohol use have always been a pretty major squick of mine, to the point where recently I've actually deliberately practiced drinking alcohol in relaxed, non-stressful situations in order to get past my irrational reaction to it. But drinking has always increased my self-consciousness really painfully (isn't it supposed to do the opposite?) and so I can't imagine writing when tipsy, I think I'd just start second-guessing everything. Bit of a TMI there, but I found the question interesting because it's a commonplace that many writers drink while writing. How does it work for you?
As for writing, I'm just reaching the climax of one story and doing a lot of middle-work in others. I want to write something short! But lately the ideas that inspire me are ones I want to dig into and take my time with, and I'm not going to argue with my inspiration...
no subject
Date: 2014-06-22 10:01 am (UTC)Tea has a lot of symbolic power for me. It's Adult and Serious and A Bit Cultured, so I do like to have a cup when I'm writing. :)
And on the subject, one of the (many) reasons I left psychiatric medication behind is that I found that I personally couldn't write properly while on it. The big lapse period in my life where I wrote Almost Nothing overlapped almost exactly with the period when I was on such meds.
That's the kind of tradeoff that's just agonizing. I've wondered if I would be on meds for social anxiety if I lived in the States (a near-inability to shop anywhere the staff might speak to you becomes annoying), but the risk of losing inner inspiration is just terrifying.
I hope you had a lovely long writing session! I got some good work done on all three major stories today, so I am in a cheerful mood right now. :) Tomorrow all shall be reset as we enter the work week once more...