Water- A Writer's Best Friend (Moved from Novels)

I'll keep it in mind thanks.

Maryn said:

My whiskey isn't going to like this...

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Likewise. I suppose I could have a few sips of water between swigs of whiskey.

I definitely keep a tall glass of clear liquid near me, but yeah it ain't water.

I hesitate to say this, the topic of the thread being what it is, but whatever floats your boat.

JayMan said:

Likewise. I suppose I could have a few sips of water between swigs of whiskey.

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think of it as a palate-cleanser


coffee or tea here when writing, unless here, where I do sometimes post after a fair bit of wine/beer/other alcoholic delights

(Dalton) said:

I had no idea that so many writers were drinkers. I couldn't imagine "drinking" while writing. That would be terrible.

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I think it is rarely helpful, and I don't, when working on fiction.

you sound a bit agenda-driven though, and for those who do, if it works and/or they are happy, who am I to judge???

(Dalton) said:

This has been a Public Service Announcement from Dalton

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Done. But not until I've had my first 2 or 3 cups of coffee.

(Dalton) said:

I had no idea that so many writers were drinkers.

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LOL WHAT??


FREDERICK EXLEY
"After a month's sobriety my faculties became unbearably acute and I found myself unhealthily clairvoyant, having insights into places I'd as soon not journey to. Unlike some men, I had never drunk for boldness or charm or wit; I had used alcohol for precisely what it was, a depressant to check the mental exhilaration produced by extended sobriety."

HARRY CREWS
"Alcohol whipped me. Alcohol and I had many, many marvelous times together. We laughed, we talked, we danced at the party together; then one day I woke up and the band had gone home and I was lying in the broken glass with a shirt full of puke and I said, 'Hey, man, the ball game's up'."

JACK KEROUAC
"As I grew older I became a drunk. Why? Because I like ecstasy of the mind."

JACK LONDON
"I was carrying a beautiful alcoholic conflagration around with me. The thing fed on its own heat and flamed the fiercer. There was no time, in all my waking time, that I didn't want a drink. I began to anticipate the completion of my daily thousand words by taking a drink when only five hundred words were written. It was not long until I prefaced the beginning of the thousand words with a drink."

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
"First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you."

EDGAR ALLAN POE
"I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom."

WILLIAM FAULKNER
"“There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others. But a man shouldn't fool with booze until he's fifty; then he's a damn fool if he doesn't.”

DOROTHY PARKER
"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy." -Parker

ERNEST HEMINGWAY
"An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools."

HUNTER S THOMPSON
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."

HARLES BUKOWSKI
"Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now."

quicklime said:

I think it is rarely helpful, and I don't, when working on fiction.

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I know exactly what you mean. I limit myself to only a couple if I'm writing. Any more than just enough to take the edge off and the writing suffers.

However, when my characters are intoxicated, I have been known to give them company for the scene to ensure that their dialogue and thoughts and behavior are appropriate for their level of inebriation. Call it field research for the sake of verisimilitude.

A good glass of cool water on the rocks with a freshly squeezed lemon inside will definitely sooth my soul and clear my thoughts.

I could never drink water. Fish fuck in it.

The only problem with continually drinking water for me is the fact that I then have to pee every 5.2 minutes an hour later.

I do write on a netbook which I could take into the bathroom, but EWWW.

(Dalton) said:

I've just recently started doing this and I find that it helps me to think faster, smarter, and makes me feel like my brainflow has been doubled.

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I usually set an enormous pile of cocaine on my desk, next to my laptop. Does the same thing for me. I guess water would be cheaper, though...

I though about 2-3 bottles of water a day. Terrible for my bladder, and doesn't help much with my mind. I find a better way to find reprieve would be to walk onto my balcony and contemplate my navel for a few minutes. If it's warm enough I may even take a nap on my balcony.

(Dalton) said:

In turn this will also get you to get up and go to the bathroom more often, allowing your blood to flow and giving you the small break you never knew you needed.

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You know, five minutes of jogging in place or even doing stretches can give you the same results without the bathroom trip. You just have to be mindful of how much time you're spending in front of the screen (chances are it's too much).

Also, you can die from drinking too much water.

This has been a Public Service Announcement from defcon.

Our bodies are what? Eighty percent water? And most people simply do not drink enough of it. In between my morning and evening coffee, I always have a glass of water nearby to sip from.

There's water in Mountain Dew. *holds up bottle* See? Right there on the label.

lbender said:

I hesitate to say this, the topic of the thread being what it is, but whatever floats your boat.

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defcon6000 said:

Also, you can die from drinking too much water.

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This is why we prefer the phrase, "Whatever floats your corpse."

I actually start with 3-4 cups of coffee in the morning, then progress onto green tea chai. It's like water on steroids.

(Dalton) said:

I want to meet the dumb son of a bitch that dies from drinking too much water and ask him why he thought it would be a good idea to ingest the Atlantic ocean.

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before you get all smug about it, a number of athletes have done just that. Usually athletes, granted, but too much water can and does kill.


FWIW, feel-goodery aside, the "8 glasses a day" thing is being re-examined. Now, I won't lie, I usually have a good eight myself, in part because I'm a fidgety SOB, but I don't buy into the mantra, either--we have kidneys (most of us) and under normal circumstances do fairly well at regulating our own water balance. You may be getting a "boost" as much from getting up a bit, the distraction of an occasional sip, etc. as you are from the water itself.

There was a radio contest where a woman died from drinking too much water (the contest itself). They told her she'd be fine. Moral: don't take medical advice from DJs.

I'm always drinking something. Always. Yes, I take more bathroom breaks than a woman pregnant with triplets