Altered States

[Steven Sweeney]

Have any of you ever tried to work on something, only to find yourself falling asleep on your keyboard? I've discovered that it's not too useful to give yourself an extra hour to work if you're exhausted anyway.

However, it seems as though it wasn't a complete waste. After going through the rambling, semi-coherent garbage, there are 2 or 3 bits that might take certain ideas in completely different directions.

Has anyone else tried this technique? Is it something well known, or is it something new? (yeah, right...)

[NPC Jack Spncer Jr]

I once got an idea for a story at about 4 in the morning. I wanted the sleep, so I tried to forget it, but the story persisted, building in my mind. Finally, I got up at 5 and it was done by 7. I started running out of gas by the end, but I got it done.

So this sort of thing does happen, but don't bank on it. Just be happy when it does happen.

[Starchild]

Writing under altered states of mind (whether you're tired, drunk, high, whatever) is often helpful for breaking down some barriers that exist when you're completely "together." Ideas flow more freely and you'll explore a concept in new directions.
Of course, there's a reason your sober, consicous mind has those barriers. A lot of things that come from such sessions won't make sense, and some will be completely dogballs. Usually, it's best to go over what you wrote "the morning after," and filter out the good stuff, edit the incoherent so that people will understand it, and delete the total nonsense before anyone knows you wrote it.

[Alka-Seltzer]

Altered states have been called the workhorses of the creative mind. Many peopl feel they are invaluble in generating innovation and lending that touch of the surreal. it can be an intresting point of view to look at your altered state as an oppurtunity to be harnessed, a rare look in to unlogical depths. But dont fall in to the trap of searching for altered states specificly to push your creative juices, this way can lead to unkind juju. I think it was timothy leary who said if you wrote it high then edit it sober, if you write something straight then edit flying. William S. Burroughs said that he smoked dope at least once a day and would never be able to write without it.

For agood example of the damage substance abuse can wreak on your mental faculties and creative tastes look at this gibberish (http://www.geocities.com/dan-is-gay)

[NPC Belac]

(Belac, in case they don't show it)

Stephen King used to have a major drug problem. It nearly killed him. He was lucky and able to quit. He was afraid he wouldn't be able to write without heavy drugs and alcohol. His writing wasn't affected at all.

In his book (titled) "On Writing", he says that he used many excuses to justify drug use, and that one of them was that he needed it as a writer. He also says that any garden variety drunk will also say that regardless of their profession. He says that writers who claim that drugs are anyway related to the profession are completely full of bullshit.

Just had to get that out of my system. Writing when half-asleep, or after meditating, or even while in a religious fervor or occult trance, is respectable. But "drugs to aid writing" is just an eventual excuse used by addicts who happen to be writers.

Anyway, as for altered states...I've been able to write for more than a few minutes in a semi-state like that only once, but I managed to get all of the 40 page rough draft of Elite rules done in one night and I normally am unable to write for very long without losing train of thought. Its great when it happens but doesn't seem to be predictable. I've tried many times to do it again but it just ended up with me sitting there staring at a blank screen or typing crap that I deleted later.

If you can figure out how to do it, though, go for it. Just don't try substances; it's about as lame as simply plagarizing word-for-word from an existing game.

Some drug addicts happen to be good writers, but there's not a necessary link between those. It would be far more useful to naturally get rid of the mental blocks that mess up your thinking; gaining that sort of mental mastery can be useful in life in general, not just RPGs.

-Belac the Spectral Rambler

[Starchild]

Originally posted by NPC Belac
[B](Belac, in case they don't show it)

Just had to get that out of my system. Writing when half-asleep, or after meditating, or even while in a religious fervor or occult trance, is respectable. But "drugs to aid writing" is just an eventual excuse used by addicts who happen to be writers.
[snip]
If you can figure out how to do it, though, go for it. Just don't try substances; it's about as lame as simply plagarizing word-for-word from an existing game.


So, to clarify...staying awake for far too long, meditation, or whatever else to put yourself in a skewed state of being for the purposes of writing is good, but doing the same thing by using a chemical is bad because...
Yeah.
For the record, no one said that drugs can turn a bad writer into a good one. But one thing that usually stands in the way of writers from time to time is instinctive self-editing; saying "no" to ideas before they even get onto the paper. Being in a state of mind where you don't do that means more of what's in your head gets onto the paper. However you get to that point is basically irrelevant. You're more likely to take risks, which a normal state of mind prevents you from doing most of the time.

And besides, whatever a person's tastes in his writing quality, King's work did change when he stopped the drugs.