Write Drunk, Edit Sober: Is it Good Advice?

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“Write drunk, edit sober” is a maxim often attributed to Ernest Hemingway—who is, admittedly, known for his writing and drinking.

It has become canonized into the big book of creative advice that writers (and other creatives) frequently follow. But is alcohol really an effective way to fuel your writing? Or is it an excuse to indulge a vice in the guise of perfecting a craft?

Who Said Write Drunk Edit Sober?

The originator of “write drunk, edit sober” is still up for debate. Although often attributed to Ernest Hemingway, the famous author apparently never said it. In fact, he rarely mixed alcohol with his craft.

“That’s not how he wrote,” his granddaughter once said in an interview. “He never wrote drunk, he never wrote beyond early, early morning.”

Hemingway was often up by six, typing away at his keyboard until the afternoon. As he said in an interview with George Plimpton:

When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write.

A likelier candidate is American novelist Peter De Vries, who wrote a novel entitled Reuben, Reuben, where a character says:

Sometimes I write drunk and revise sober, and sometimes I write sober and revise drunk. But you have to have both elements in creation — the Apollonian and the Dionysian, or spontaneity and restraint, emotion and discipline.

Does Alcohol Enhance Creativity?

I’ve long believed that creativity and madness are separated by a thin line, constantly borrowing from one another. To be clear, I’m not talking about madness as a mental illness, but rather a term we often use to describe those who defy norms.

It’s a delicate balance that most writers seem to revel in, creating habits that either seem odd or brilliant to non-writers.

Some examples that come to mind are Dan Brown hanging himself upside down, Charles Dickens always sleeping facing north, and Isabel Allende always starting her book on the same day. All of these authors developed these habits to foster their creativity in the craft.

Maybe alcohol is one such manifestation of this thin line, and science does support it to an extent. A study by psychologist Jennifer Wiley and team found that intoxicated individuals were able to solve more creative word problems, and more quickly, than sober people.

Another study suggests that intoxication results in reduced idea flexibility, but also brings about more out-of-the-box, original ideas. And still another study concluded that alcohol “can reduce ‘writer’s block,’ at least amongst non-alcoholic subjects.”

But a study from Sweden reports the converse side of these studies. Sixty subjects were randomly separated into one of three groups: alcohol, placebo, and control. Analysis indicates that both the alcohol and placebo groups exhibited reduced creativity generation compared with the control group.

Researchers from the University of Graz discovered that alcohol tends to impair executive control (the ability to focus, plan, remember, and juggle tasks successfully), doesn’t affect divergent thinking abilities (the ability to think outside the box), but also improves creative problem-solving.

Additionally, this study also indicates that “small attenuations of cognitive control may facilitate certain aspects of creative cognition while not affecting others.” This contributes to growing evidence that some part of creative thinking is controlled, but other times it’s spontaneous.

So it seems that alcohol can be beneficial to the creative process, but its benefits are tied to moderation. While moderate consumption can lead to more creative writing, overconsumption is likely to impede both productivity and creativity.

Another interesting aspect that these studies show is that higher cognition isn’t equal to better cognitive performance. So being sober also doesn’t mean that you’ll be at your best when it comes to writing.

Writing Drunk as a Mental State

There are those that argue not to take “write drunk, edit sober” literally, but to instead, apply the “looseness” of intoxication to your writing as if you were actually drunk.

Alcohol is a depressant. It lowers your inhibitions, making you do and say things that you wouldn’t normally do when you’re sober.

This looseness can range from the carefree use of spelling and grammar, to writing in a different format or voice. Ideally, this pushes you into experimenting with your craft, leading you to new or original ideas.

Similarly, “edit sober” means to look at your work with a critical eye. Once you’re done writing “drunk,” it’s time to clean up your writing by fixing up errors and typos.

You have to make sure that you don’t fix it up to the point that you eliminate the creativity, though. Place more emphasis on achieving coherence and good storytelling rather than using perfect grammar and language.

Is Write Drunk, Edit Sober Good Advice?

Well, it’s not terrible advice—at least, when done properly. But there are things you need to consider before following this maxim.

Alcohol can be a dangerous substance when used without control. There’s the obvious health risks to frequent alcohol consumption and glorifying drinking isn’t really giving this advice a good image.

And while it’s not terrible advice, it’s not exactly good. Drinking alcohol doesn’t guarantee an improvement in your creative process. It’s kind of a hit and miss, really.

The biggest problem with this advice though, is how it promotes the idea that creativity relies on a gimmick. But while it’s spontaneous at times, it still requires effort on your part to turn creative ideas into great pieces of work.

Overreliance on alcohol to increase your creativity could lead to the mistaken belief that to be creative, you need to be drunk. This can lead to addiction, and addiction is destructive—the complete opposite of creativity.

There’s a lot of tragedy surrounding writers who famously drank a lot of alcohol, though not necessarily while writing.

Dylan Thomas, the famous poet, was known for his love of drinking, which was one of the reasons for his premature death.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was a badly recovering alcoholic who also went early to his grave thinking his works were irrelevant. And Stephen King also went through a period of alcohol and substance abuse, leaving him unable to remember writing some of his books.

In Conclusion

With all the risks, why does this aphorism still continue to be popular?

Perhaps it’s because thinking about creativity is more appealing than doing the creative work. A running joke writers often use to poke fun at themselves is the idea that imagining a story is far more entertaining than actually writing it out.

Or maybe it’s because the idea of drinking while writing gives off a cool vibe. A lot of legendary writers, including Hemingway himself (who’s popularly known as a man’s man) are known for their drinking, cigarette-puffing, and other similar activities. You associate this “rockstar” image of them with their writing prowess, so you unconsciously try to do the same.

If you’re comfortable with sipping wine or beer while writing, you can probably continue doing so, provided that you keep it at a moderate level, since it becomes more detrimental to your writing the more intoxicated you become. So when you start noticing your mind going foggy, it’s time to go easier on the drinks.

But if you’ve yet to try it out, it might be better to choose a different way to boost your creativity. Try writing morning pages or constraining your writing. For something more straightforward, switch up your writing process or try to do some writing exercises.

Different things work for different writers, but all of them involve putting in the work to create a piece that you’ll be proud to let other people read. And try to not limit yourself to only one—this way, it’ll be easier to spot which method works best for you.

What do you think about the advice to “write drunk, edit sober”?

 

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