"Write drunk, edit sober."
- Ernest Hemingway
As the quote demonstrates, the idea of leveraging psychoactive drugs as a writing aid has some pretty big hitters as advocates.
No surprise then that this is also true of cannabis, used by many great writers as part of their creative process: Norman Mailer, William S. Burroughs, and Walter Benjamin, to name a few. And I think most tokers can grasp why – there’s something about the experience of being high that really seems to lend itself to creative endeavors like this.
I myself write books and newspaper columns, and I’ve experienced several benefits from being a little bit high during the writing process:
In general, I’m in good sprits when high. This means that even a rather mundane writing task will seem more exciting and meaningful and therefore more motivating.
When it comes to overcoming roadblocks and obstacles, I’m not frustrated by them, but rather resilient and curious.
I’m also more creative and inventive, finding solutions and wordings that I wouldn’t otherwise. This also applies to humor, funny turns of phrase, etc.
I’m less critical of my ideas. This means that instead of discarding suboptimal ones right away, I tend to explore and refine them a bit further to reach something more valuable.
I’m more quality-oriented, meaning I’m inclined to rewrite and edit and look for the perfect sentence until I’m truly happy with it.
Over the years, I’ve landed on and refined a writing process that seems to work for me, whether sober or high.
My writing process
I use a six-step process, and I’ve found that cannabis can be useful in five of them:
Ideating topics.
Ideating content for the chosen topic.
Structuring the ideas.
Writing the first draft.
Editing.
Quality control (sober).
1. Ideating topics
For me, this part of the process is usually an ongoing one: ideas come to me whenever, day or night, and I jot them down in one of the lists that I keep in Asana, such as “SCU post ideas,” “Column ideas,” “Sci-fi ideas,” etc. I do this both high and sober, but I’ve noticed that when high, the ideas tend to come more as a flood than a trickle.
What’s curious is that I can’t really force the ideas to come, but they tend to arise when I’m not consciously trying to ideate for a specific purpose. They emerge as unbidden flashes when I’m lost in thought, out for a walk, or otherwise distracted. The only nudge I sometimes give myself is reading something related to the topic area.
When the ideas do come, it’s important to capture all of them – they will come in handy when it’s time for step 2 of the writing process. And if some more details already come to mind, such as certain angles or opinions, or even specific sentences, I make sure to jot them down too.
2. Ideating content for the chosen topic
Whenever I need to write for a certain purpose, like say a newspaper column, I’ll start by reviewing my list of ideas. I’ll feel naturally drawn to some of them, whereas others will feel more like a chore. Being high tends to make me more curious, meaning more topics go in the former category.
I pick a topic that appeals to me and start ideating the points I want to make about: arguments, studies, examples, jokes, turns or phrase – whatever. And I write each individual content piece on a Post-It note.
The challenge is exerting a kind of relaxed control on this ideation process. Perhaps you’ve heard the sword fighting analogy that a sword is like a bird – squeeze too tight and you choke it, too loosely and it flies away? The same is true for ideating while high: if I try to constrain my mind to focus on a given topic, I’ll feel blocked and stressed and just arrive at the most obvious points.
So instead, I try to just connect with the feeling of being intrigued and curious about the topic area, exploring what thoughts and ideas arise naturally if I let my mind run with it. What really seems to work for me is that I imagine I’m explaining my thoughts on the topic to a friend, even speaking them out loud. Again, if I’m struggling to find my groove, reading something related to the topic can be a useful nudge.
3. Structuring the ideas
I put all the Post-Its that I’ve generated onto a blank wall, and start arranging them into a narrative. If possible, I like to start with a story, anecdote, or potentially an intriguing quote of some kind. This is meant to serve as a soft landing.
Next I order the Post-Its into a kind of storyboard, considering what points connect naturally to each other. The idea is to end up with something with no gaps in the narrative, otherwise the reader will be confused.
If I see any gaps, I then think about what kind of bridge I could use to lead the reader across them, or I rearrange to Post-Its to avoid the gap in the first place. If I’m high, I find this usually fairly easy.
4. Writing the first draft
Once the narrative structure is clear, I start writing with the structure as my guide. If I’m sober, I’ll typically bang out the first draft pretty quickly, but the result won’t be anywhere near publication-ready. If I’m a little bit high, I’ll be much more meticulous with the first draft. This means the process will take far longer, but I’ll end up with something pretty good already. If I’m working against a certain character limit, such as with a newspaper column, I allow myself to go a little bit over it at this point.
5. Editing
Whatever I write, I like to go through several rounds of editing. And this is the part of the writing process where, in my opinion, being high brings the most value: I have a heightened sense of when something reads “off” somehow, and I’m usually able to come up with more creative alternatives for how to express my ideas. The downside is that it’s entirely possible to spend an hour on a single paragraph, just searching for that perfect wording.
6. Quality control (sober)
One of the great benefits and drawbacks of being high is that all your insights and experiences tend seem more profound and suffused with meaning. Sometimes this perception may be warranted, but at others not, as browsing r/Highdeas can demonstrate:
(But no judgement – even these mundane insights can be a lot of fun 😎)
This tendency to see meaning and depth in everything is why you really shouldn’t publish anything before doing a sober round of quality control.
Not only might you notice that you misjudged the profundity of something, but typically you may also realize that you didn’t explain things quite as clearly as you intended. Or there may be a fragment of a sentence lying around somewhere as a result of some careless copy-pasting. In any case, sober QC is really the only way to go.
Conclusion
That’s my process, and for me at least, it’s very effective. I used it just the other day to bang out two newspaper columns, and I know based on my editor’s and readership’s feedback that they’re as good or even better than what I would’ve written sober 💪🏻
Please note that the writing use case is one of “less is more,” meaning that overdoing it with a big dose is likely to hurt – not help – your writing. So if you’re interested in using cannabis to enhance your writing, consider putting in the effort to find your minimum effective dose.
That said, I think it’s really important to not allow even small doses of weed to become a crutch for writing. This is why I’ll continue doing most of my writing sober.
Good luck in your writing endeavors!
-G. G.
Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.