Write drunk, edit sober, advised Ernest Hemingway. Some authors may have heeded that advice literally.
The Xlibris Author Advice presents 10 iconic authors who had one too many or experimented with other addictive substances while penning their novels. Bear in mind, however, that Xlibris doesn’t propose that you walk the same path to improve your writing.
1. Jack Kerouac
Kerouac was rumored to have been under the influence of a type of amphetamine for three weeks while writing On the Road.
2. Stephen King
The 80s was a dark era for one of the most celebrated authors in the contemporary horror genre when he was beset by drugs and alcohol. He penned some of his best works during this time but could hardly remember having done so.
3. Ayn Rand
While finishing one of her celebrated novels, Fountainhead, Ayn Rand was said to have had a long-standing drug spree of amphetamines and prescription drug abuse.
4. Susan Sontag
In an interview she had in the 70s, the notable author, filmmaker, and political activist came clean about her “mild form of speed” use and justified why some writers have turned to alcohol or drugs in times of creative expression.
I think it’s because it’s not natural for people to be alone. I think that there is something basically unnatural about writing in a room by yourself, and that it’s quite natural that writers and also painters need something to get through all those hours and hours and hours of being by yourself, digging inside your own intestines. I think it’s probably a defense against anxiety that so many writers have been involved in drugs. It’s true that they have, and whole generations of writers have been alcoholics.
5. Jean-Paul Sartre
The book Talking with Sartre: Conversations and Debates by John Gerassi reveals that the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre experimented with mescaline, a type of hallucinogenic drug.
Yeah, after I took mescaline I started seeing crabs around me all the time … They followed me in the streets, into class … I would wake up in the morning and say, ‘Good morning, my little ones, how did you sleep?’ I would say, ‘Okay guys, we’re going into class now . . . ‘ and they would be there, around my desk, absolutely still, until the bell rang.
Get to know more authors who wrote under the influence on the sequel of this Xlibris Author Advice.
Learn free writing, editing, and book marketing tips from the Xlibris Writer’s Workshop and from Xlibris featured authors on the Xlibris Blog and the Xlibris Indie Authors Roundup.