So I have had a very good day today, celebrating a hard-won victory, and I'm currently tipsy. So this is a post I'm writing basically as drunk as I allow my self to get. (i.e. happy, less inhibited, definitely should not drive, but can still be you know, aware I'm drunk)
And instead of forcing myself to think about any other topic, I want to talk about writing (or drawing) drunk. Have you ever done it?
I certainly have, I'm doing it right now!
No need to panic, I promise!
Sometimes, having our inhibitions lowered can help with inspiration and creativity. It allows us to stop second-guessing ourselves, doesn't it? When hitting the sweet spot of low inhibition, but not too much of low inhibition, it's like my writing pours out of me even when I don't know where I'm going with something (like now). I just write and write, and my mind makes all the connections on its own while I take a back seat and enjoy the ride. It's an incredible feeling.
But again, it needs to be the sweet spot. If I drink a drop more than what I have, then I just have no energy to write. I want to go sleep it off.
Do I achieve this state of bubbling, flowing creativity only with alcohol? Honestly, I very rarely do so through alcohol.
The secret isn't the booze or the artificial agent that makes you lower your inhibitions. The secret is lowering your inhibitions. I usually get to do that when I “forget myself” as I write. That means that I am not self conscious of what my writing would look like to another person. I don't even think of showing this to anyone, or that anyone exists. The only thing that exists is the story, and I'm writing it, and I wanna see how it develops.
When I'm writing drunk, I'm in the moment, immersed fully in the world I'm writing (or illustrating, but for me writing is when I get in this headspace more frequently) and I'm in the zone so much that I forget about time.
I don't have to be drunk to write drunk. All I have to be is disconnected enough from the little things of my everyday world, so I can travel to the one I'm creating.
Writing drunk is not when you're inebriated, it's when you're so absorbed and enthralled with what you're creating/writing/drawing/illustrating/animating, that you might as well be drunk with it.
So yeah, this is NOT my suggestion for you to chug booze in order to get your muse going. It's less likely to happen that way and more likely to make you alcoholic. But what I am suggesting for you to do is save a bit of special time for you where you can just be you and the thing you're creating, without any other inhibition or worry in the universe itself.
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Writing Drunk
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, June 10, 2023
7 likes!
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PaulEberhardt at 5:02AM, June 13, 2023
Not going to lie, a lot of my ideas have been fueled by a drink or two, and there really is a thin line between an amount that fires your creativity and one that holds you back. It taught me the 24-hour rule: if you're emotionally invested in it - I mean, really invested, like the way you sniggered all the time while drawing that mega-funny gag you came up with at three o'clock in the morning as you staggered home from that toga party - wait 24 hours before posting it! Also I used to draw a lot with an audience around me that kept the beers coming, which I can totally recommend doing, on the whole, but many years later I can tell quite accurately how many I had had just by looking at the drawings. Fortunately, most anyone else can't. And yes, working yourself up into a drawing frenzy is one of the best ways to get stuff done. I call it my berserk mode. I'm sure it'd work for pillaging monasteries, too, if that were my hobby instead, and it's all in the mind, no fancy frills involved.
Andreas_Helixfinger at 12:18PM, June 10, 2023
Drawing for me is more like sex. It's like working up a fine orgasm seeing all this color and form and effect take hold on a page. But writing and REALLY getting into writing is like being high on a psychadelic drug for me--without the drugs or alcohol part^^
Andreas_Helixfinger at 12:10PM, June 10, 2023
@bravo1102 - The pacing thing is a symptom I share in this. Another symptom of mine is talking loudly to myself, reenacting scenes I'm writing down:P Never been on any drugs, unless you count absinthe on occasion, while creating. I did try a psychadelic drug called metocin back in the day, about a couple of years I think before it became classified as narcotics in my country. Fairly sure it didn't have any long term effects on my creativety though:P
bravo1102 at 9:25AM, June 10, 2023
I've tried creating while stoned. Had such a great idea and everything just came together and -- it was nonsensical gibberish. Tried creating slightly inebriated and I lose too much coordination and content write or type and at best can scribble down ideas. But being totally absorbed into the creative experience is something else completely. I do that and any outside substance is some pale imitation of what I experience creating. I get high on creating. Though I do tend to pace a lot because somehow the gears in my head are linked to my legs.
rickrudge at 8:35AM, June 10, 2023
Hi Tantz_Aerine. Like Jason, I will sometimes draw my comix while stoned. I enjoy drawing sober, but when stoned, it changes the look of the drawings than when I’m sober. I don’t know if it slows down the drawing process and causes me to see the drawing differently. It’s interesting. I had an art teacher that claimed that art was equal parts inspiration and part perspiration and that you needed to suffer through your art. I always thought she was full of crap. I enjoy my art, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it. Definitely cannabis gives you a different outlook on things and may or may not help with the inspiration. I’m a firm believer that everyone should go their own way.
Jason Moon at 8:20AM, June 10, 2023
If you smoke everyday it affects you differently
Jason Moon at 8:18AM, June 10, 2023
I like to smoke pot before drawing. Actually....I ALWAYS draw stoned and I make up the story on the spot. It's best in my opinion to draw high and carefree and the magic is created.
dpat57 at 2:59AM, June 10, 2023
I can't drink alcohol, hairs sprout on the back on my hands and I start looking for the nearest chandelier to swing from, does a sugar rush count?
lothar at 2:31AM, June 10, 2023
Yeah!
Andreas_Helixfinger at 12:31AM, June 10, 2023
This is something I'm veeeeery familiar with being an obssesive writer myself. Time and time again over the past decade have I tapped into that writer's drunkness kind of mental state, where I just let my imaginary world devour me whole, leaving me barely conscious of the outside world. In fact I tapped into it just last weekend when I discovered this YT-channel called Bully Whispers where there's videos breaking down how machavellian characters from gangster movies and crime TV-shows like the Sopranos are (It's a very fascinating character study that I recommend people checking out) It hit me with the inspiration to flesh out the criminal elements of the setting all my comics takes place in. The different branches of organized crime in the world of Altarctica, mob structures and so on. It was an all time drunkenss, the kind that I both absolutely love and fear (I don't wanna be outside being in this state, afraid I'll look crazy with my head still stuck in la-la land^^)