I have had an interesting relationship with alcohol in my life. I hadn’t had a drink until I was in my mid 30s and then drank too much until my early 40s and now ebb and flow a bit as I am finding a balance.
Recently we’ve gone sailing, moved onto a sailboat and will be roaming for a few years. Despite the rumors of drunken sailors I’ve actually basically stopped drinking just out of convenience.
The other day though I went to town and had a few drinks with my lunch. A trio of Vodka Lemonades. I couldn’t really tell there was any alcohol in them which of course made them dangerous enough to have three. The end result was a significant reflection on alcohol and creativity.
I’ve apparently become a “light weight” because three drinks with lunch and a glass of wine with dinner was enough to send me to bed early and to make me quite unproductive the following day.
For every Hemingway who’s able to push though there are far more who end up sleeping it off and not getting any work done.
Now this isn’t to say that from time to time I haven’t used the Hemingway quote of “Write Drunk Edit Sober” to break through a block. But typically for the day to day working practice if I have more than a drink or two then I’m not really able to be productive and my whole project slips behind schedule and quality goes down which requires more work to clean it up.
Rest, recovery, relaxation, and all of the like are critical components of a creative life and essential to creative output. Unfortunately far too many of us confuse the relaxation that comes with a drink with the type of deep relaxation and ability to disconnect from our work that fosters the unconscious incubation time needed. Alcohol may give you a break but it stops the underlying processes from working.
Personally I find walks, trips to the beach, and nights off reading to be much more effective at giving me the meaningful break from my work and the ability to come back refreshed and be productive. Dinner out with friends and a couple of glasses of wine also works, but no more than two glasses. A night of “bar hopping” is just counter productive.
How do you find alcohol fitting into your creative life? Have you found a healthy balance? Do you just skip it all together? Or are you still working to figure it all out?