Writing and Substance Abuse
I once thought that part of being a writer was living a hard life: smoking Parliments, drinking tequila, and passing out with a pad and paper in my hand. Or I thought writing was smoking marijuana and igniting not only a joint, but also my slumbering creativity as if it would pour forth somewhere between me maniacally laughing at a monkey on TV and me buying $15 of Taco Bell just before its midnight closing, but to quote a good Web site on creativity: "People on drugs think they are creative. To everyone else, they seem like people on drugs. "
Today marks the one-year anniversary of my first day of sobriety. In all my years of drinking , not once did I finish a story. All I succeeded at doing was musing about how "someday" I would be a great writer. You may be saying "What about Bukowski, Kesey, Huxley, Burroughs, Poe, Hemingway, Fitzgerald? Weren't they great writers?" Yes, they were. But they could have been better.
There are healthy ways to boost creativity if one just remains open and searches for alternatives. Here are some good articles I dug up:
10 Steps for Boosting Creativity
Chemical-Creativity Link May Be Folklore
Just for Today: Creativity No Excuse for Chemical Dependency
posted @ 8/03/2004 08:18:00 PM Permalink
2 comments
2 Comments:
Congratulations! I know what you mean about the mythology of being a writer though. All those movies about Hemingway and Hammett types guzzling the hard stuff, banging away on their old Olympia or Brother manual typewriters, and flinging page after balled-up-page of wasted effort into the trash can or the fireplace. Beach walks in sweaters and rolled-up khakis, with just your faithful collie dog for company, searching the waves for inspiration and musing sardonically on what your less-talented but better-selling literary rival would say at your funeral if you threw yourself in, while an Oscar Levant concerto swells in the background. Or maybe that was just me....
No, I definitely hear you, and thanks for the congrats!
Chuck
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