For me it’s Sativa gummies. I find that I focus on freewriting better and have been pleasantly surprised by my output. But I don’t like that I became dependent on it and feel like I need it to even write.
As someone who recently quit alcohol and daily marijuana use a lot earlier, I find tobacco to be a worthwhile alternative investment for my psyche. It helps along with walking when fishing for ideas. It also helps as a sort of ritualistic thing to force me to go outside and notice the natural environment.
As far as actually writing goes, I've had a vape pen ready at hand while I type for about 3 years now, whether it be college essays or stories I'm working on. I also vape while I read. I find certain numbers on the clock or on the page or word count a good indicator of when to hit the pen. I don't really get head rushes anymore, but it works for me.
There's something to the ritual of drawing something up to your lips and inhaling over and over again. I also find it a valuable way to cope with the bad vibes of life.
I come from the notion that almost everything we do in life is to either avoid pain and/or pursue some sort of pleasure.
That magical state--where your story flows from your heart to your fingers--is what we all want to continually be in. It's that state where "the Muse" is with you, your hand can't write fast enough, and there's no such thing as writer's block.
I think that, as storytellers, that's the state we try to attain (or maybe "live in" is a better way of putting it). And for some of us, use of external substances is thought of as a way to reach that state--or, make it easier to do so.
But my feeling on this is that, ideally, we should be able to live in that state, without requiring alcohol, plants, or drugs to do so.
Now, I'm not against alcohol, plants, or drugs. From what I hear, if they're used wisely, they can give you a glimpse of something greater, and help put you into a more relaxed, writing-focused state.
But...we shouldn't rely on substances to get us into that state. Instead, we should be able to independently tap into that.
It's interesting--maybe ironic--that a theme of Infinite Jest is addiction. I remember hearing something about a psychic credit card (or something to that effect): that you can only take so many hits from a bong (or drinks, puffs, etc.) before something comes due.
And that due date can come in the form of addiction, eye twitching, or any cost that we have to weigh.
And that's just it: there seems to be a cost that comes with addictive substance (ab)use. Some of us tell ourselves that it's worth it, but is there a fine line where the cost outweighs the benefit?
That's something we each have to ponder.
Alternatives to substance use can be journalling, meditating, exercising, binaural beats, fostering a positive environment, and a number of other things I can list.
I don't use substances to try to reach that Muse-like state. Am I missing out on something?
Just my two cents. I often chain smoke. I started with vaping during COVID when I was trapped in a home with an insane drunk demon mode live-in landlord and gradually switched over to cigarettes.
I would attribute a great deal of my academic success and writing to chronic nicotine abuse, but I can feel the effects of it and it scares me. I no longer feel that I need nicotine to focus or be creative, but 100% believe it helped me to mentally survive COVID and pull through two head injuries from the year before the lockdown that basically turned my brains to mush. All together, I would say that nicotine works as a performance enhancing supplement, but it will never actually give you what you need.
I didn't need nicotine to survive COVID or move on from my head injuries. I needed an excuse to step outside and take in the Silence. To deeply observe an insect on my porch and otherwise not really do anything. To be just a little bored and let my mind wander like it did when I was younger. For this reason, I would not advise nicotine usage for any creative person. I am a fool and an addict.
It's easy to frame this ritual as a meaningful sacrifice for the greater good. I can't tell myself anything like that anymore. I feel that nicotine usage is self-harm and believe that self-harm is antithetical to spirituality. I'd like to yap a lot more about the spiritual side of this, but I have to go take care of other duties and get some more writing done.
Good luck to all of you who may decide to try out nicotine. Please don't let yourself get addicted. The withdrawals can be grueling on a unique soul crushing level if you aren't lucky. I've seen people bash their faces into walls screaming as they withdrew from fentanyl and they managed to stay off it, yet they still struggle with nicotine addiction.
This has given me a lot to consider. I've quit cigarettes 4 years ago and noticed the change along with alcohol; I only wanted to quit cigarettes but to do so I needed to quit alcohol too. These days I do use weed daily and I have been wanting to use it in moderation lately but the habit is built. I'm on adderall as well but I actually struggle to take that. I'll go weeks before I finally force myself to take one and unfortunately I so need it.
Thinking about it now, I was smoking one hookah head a day with imported strong tobacco from Iran A DAY during my Master’s in French Literature. I’ve stopped since but I still can’t unlatch the reward of that one cigarette after a successful writing session. I’ve lessened tobacco and caffeine use and even abstained for a few weeks/months at a time…. But alas, we can justify anything. Caffeine and cigarettes are the lesser addictions of the ones I’ve quit. Great post! Lots to contemplate. Kudos to you for quitting!
I’m willing to experiment with gum at least to see if it does change anything about myself or writing. I smoke cigars but not regularly and not enough I think to get any benefits from it.
Interesting video. This is a topic I'm passionate about, and could go at length about it, but I'll just mention two important points regarding tobacco use:
1) Quality. Cigarettes are evil chemical cocktails that will mess you up with almost zero benefits and are designed to make you addicted. Most of the pleasure you'll get comes from quenching the anxiety it produces. Most tobacco products, including chew and vapes, are full of pesticides, agrochemicals and other profoundly hurtful substances. Quality is key and almost no one consumes pure organic tobacco anymore.
2) Usage. Understanding how the plant works is important. All american cultures prized tobacco as a sacred plant (in the amazon it's considered the Master Plant above all others) and used it in every conceivable way except one: inhaling to the lungs. This was considered either taboo or hurtful. The massive drift to cigarettes as the main way to consume tobacco is correlated to the rise of tobacco health issues.
So as a takeaway, if you want to use tobacco, consume organic quality and do not inhale. It'll be night and day in comparison. Of course, as Ian mentions re Ayurveda, tobacco as all other plants or foods, can balance or unbalance depending who and where you are.
I'd say for me coffee is my favorite. I dabbled in tobacco in my college years, never vaped, never really did any hard drugs. Years ago I experimented with alcohol a la Hemingway but all the drinking made me feel like total shit. I quit that years ago and never really looked back.
But I love sitting in my office drinking a nice fresh cup of coffee. No sugar, just a splash of heavy cream (no half-and-half or whatever) and it brightens my mood and clears the path in my mind for me to do what I want to do, which is, of course, to write.
Sober 30 years, always loved nicotine. I didn't start smoking till I was 37. As far as health it's a terrible killer. Chew, and then rolled my own, then no filters - Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, and then vapes.
Diag as PTSD, Bipolar, and more. No prescription drugs. Nicotine has always calmed me and helped me focus. I stopped nicotine for 3 years. Someone left a "GeekBar" Vape-50mg, (are you effin kidding me) at my house. I looked at it for 3 weeks then took a puff. Bang, right back at it. I'm all about having the freedom of experiencing the consequences of your actions but these things need to be highly regulated for kids. Such bs, "Pink Lemonade," "Tangerine" with corresponding color.
Such Bull Shiite, corporations will kill as much as they can as long as it increases the bottom line. I'm currently almost 3 weeks off nicotine again. It is harder to write, focus, and chill. I'm currently looking into pipes (better tobacco, healthier on some scale?) kind of corny though.
Doing much better health-wise. More yoga, sitting quietly and I do not get so tired as fast. But for the short run, I will start smoking again, better for writing and focus. They say quitting nicotine is harder than heroine. Yeah, cuz after an O.D. you think more than twice about doing it again.
For me it’s Sativa gummies. I find that I focus on freewriting better and have been pleasantly surprised by my output. But I don’t like that I became dependent on it and feel like I need it to even write.
As someone who recently quit alcohol and daily marijuana use a lot earlier, I find tobacco to be a worthwhile alternative investment for my psyche. It helps along with walking when fishing for ideas. It also helps as a sort of ritualistic thing to force me to go outside and notice the natural environment.
As far as actually writing goes, I've had a vape pen ready at hand while I type for about 3 years now, whether it be college essays or stories I'm working on. I also vape while I read. I find certain numbers on the clock or on the page or word count a good indicator of when to hit the pen. I don't really get head rushes anymore, but it works for me.
There's something to the ritual of drawing something up to your lips and inhaling over and over again. I also find it a valuable way to cope with the bad vibes of life.
I come from the notion that almost everything we do in life is to either avoid pain and/or pursue some sort of pleasure.
That magical state--where your story flows from your heart to your fingers--is what we all want to continually be in. It's that state where "the Muse" is with you, your hand can't write fast enough, and there's no such thing as writer's block.
I think that, as storytellers, that's the state we try to attain (or maybe "live in" is a better way of putting it). And for some of us, use of external substances is thought of as a way to reach that state--or, make it easier to do so.
But my feeling on this is that, ideally, we should be able to live in that state, without requiring alcohol, plants, or drugs to do so.
Now, I'm not against alcohol, plants, or drugs. From what I hear, if they're used wisely, they can give you a glimpse of something greater, and help put you into a more relaxed, writing-focused state.
But...we shouldn't rely on substances to get us into that state. Instead, we should be able to independently tap into that.
It's interesting--maybe ironic--that a theme of Infinite Jest is addiction. I remember hearing something about a psychic credit card (or something to that effect): that you can only take so many hits from a bong (or drinks, puffs, etc.) before something comes due.
And that due date can come in the form of addiction, eye twitching, or any cost that we have to weigh.
And that's just it: there seems to be a cost that comes with addictive substance (ab)use. Some of us tell ourselves that it's worth it, but is there a fine line where the cost outweighs the benefit?
That's something we each have to ponder.
Alternatives to substance use can be journalling, meditating, exercising, binaural beats, fostering a positive environment, and a number of other things I can list.
I don't use substances to try to reach that Muse-like state. Am I missing out on something?
For me, at times, much easier to hear Melpomene with some nicotine and caffeine. For sure.
Just my two cents. I often chain smoke. I started with vaping during COVID when I was trapped in a home with an insane drunk demon mode live-in landlord and gradually switched over to cigarettes.
I would attribute a great deal of my academic success and writing to chronic nicotine abuse, but I can feel the effects of it and it scares me. I no longer feel that I need nicotine to focus or be creative, but 100% believe it helped me to mentally survive COVID and pull through two head injuries from the year before the lockdown that basically turned my brains to mush. All together, I would say that nicotine works as a performance enhancing supplement, but it will never actually give you what you need.
I didn't need nicotine to survive COVID or move on from my head injuries. I needed an excuse to step outside and take in the Silence. To deeply observe an insect on my porch and otherwise not really do anything. To be just a little bored and let my mind wander like it did when I was younger. For this reason, I would not advise nicotine usage for any creative person. I am a fool and an addict.
It's easy to frame this ritual as a meaningful sacrifice for the greater good. I can't tell myself anything like that anymore. I feel that nicotine usage is self-harm and believe that self-harm is antithetical to spirituality. I'd like to yap a lot more about the spiritual side of this, but I have to go take care of other duties and get some more writing done.
Good luck to all of you who may decide to try out nicotine. Please don't let yourself get addicted. The withdrawals can be grueling on a unique soul crushing level if you aren't lucky. I've seen people bash their faces into walls screaming as they withdrew from fentanyl and they managed to stay off it, yet they still struggle with nicotine addiction.
I hear ya. Sitting for hours and smoking gave me blood clots that almost killed me., but the writing flowed.
500 Cigarettes
This has given me a lot to consider. I've quit cigarettes 4 years ago and noticed the change along with alcohol; I only wanted to quit cigarettes but to do so I needed to quit alcohol too. These days I do use weed daily and I have been wanting to use it in moderation lately but the habit is built. I'm on adderall as well but I actually struggle to take that. I'll go weeks before I finally force myself to take one and unfortunately I so need it.
Yup, and boy it can feel so good. Peace.
My drugs of choice / necessity: Methylphenidate, caffeine via coffee, nicotine via lozenges.
Thinking about it now, I was smoking one hookah head a day with imported strong tobacco from Iran A DAY during my Master’s in French Literature. I’ve stopped since but I still can’t unlatch the reward of that one cigarette after a successful writing session. I’ve lessened tobacco and caffeine use and even abstained for a few weeks/months at a time…. But alas, we can justify anything. Caffeine and cigarettes are the lesser addictions of the ones I’ve quit. Great post! Lots to contemplate. Kudos to you for quitting!
I’m willing to experiment with gum at least to see if it does change anything about myself or writing. I smoke cigars but not regularly and not enough I think to get any benefits from it.
Interesting video. This is a topic I'm passionate about, and could go at length about it, but I'll just mention two important points regarding tobacco use:
1) Quality. Cigarettes are evil chemical cocktails that will mess you up with almost zero benefits and are designed to make you addicted. Most of the pleasure you'll get comes from quenching the anxiety it produces. Most tobacco products, including chew and vapes, are full of pesticides, agrochemicals and other profoundly hurtful substances. Quality is key and almost no one consumes pure organic tobacco anymore.
2) Usage. Understanding how the plant works is important. All american cultures prized tobacco as a sacred plant (in the amazon it's considered the Master Plant above all others) and used it in every conceivable way except one: inhaling to the lungs. This was considered either taboo or hurtful. The massive drift to cigarettes as the main way to consume tobacco is correlated to the rise of tobacco health issues.
So as a takeaway, if you want to use tobacco, consume organic quality and do not inhale. It'll be night and day in comparison. Of course, as Ian mentions re Ayurveda, tobacco as all other plants or foods, can balance or unbalance depending who and where you are.
I'd say for me coffee is my favorite. I dabbled in tobacco in my college years, never vaped, never really did any hard drugs. Years ago I experimented with alcohol a la Hemingway but all the drinking made me feel like total shit. I quit that years ago and never really looked back.
But I love sitting in my office drinking a nice fresh cup of coffee. No sugar, just a splash of heavy cream (no half-and-half or whatever) and it brightens my mood and clears the path in my mind for me to do what I want to do, which is, of course, to write.
Sober 30 years, always loved nicotine. I didn't start smoking till I was 37. As far as health it's a terrible killer. Chew, and then rolled my own, then no filters - Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, and then vapes.
Diag as PTSD, Bipolar, and more. No prescription drugs. Nicotine has always calmed me and helped me focus. I stopped nicotine for 3 years. Someone left a "GeekBar" Vape-50mg, (are you effin kidding me) at my house. I looked at it for 3 weeks then took a puff. Bang, right back at it. I'm all about having the freedom of experiencing the consequences of your actions but these things need to be highly regulated for kids. Such bs, "Pink Lemonade," "Tangerine" with corresponding color.
Such Bull Shiite, corporations will kill as much as they can as long as it increases the bottom line. I'm currently almost 3 weeks off nicotine again. It is harder to write, focus, and chill. I'm currently looking into pipes (better tobacco, healthier on some scale?) kind of corny though.
Doing much better health-wise. More yoga, sitting quietly and I do not get so tired as fast. But for the short run, I will start smoking again, better for writing and focus. They say quitting nicotine is harder than heroine. Yeah, cuz after an O.D. you think more than twice about doing it again.
TY, loved this topic. Peace brau.