(Re)cursive writing

(My shift key is too close to my 'Enter' key and as a result I have three empty posts that I can't seem to delete. Please disregard.)

[edit: Found out how to delete, so the bit above will make no sense now. Please disregard my request for you to disregard]

So...

Ironically I'm writing today about writing, the effects booze has on writing and writers - prolific and respected writers - that seem to manage to have massive careers while, if the press is to be believed, hammered, and also on what influences and experiences are important, and necessary, to develop good writers.

And no, I m not currently under the influence. The multiple empty posts are merely fat pinkie errors. I'm overdosing on very strong, black coffee right now.

Hemingway tops the list in the 'you've got to live it to write it' category. Living in Spain, fishing in Bimini, hanging with Castro, reporting on the Spanish Civil War; pretty much everything he did formed the basis of his writings. I guess the equivalent is method acting. Personally I think he went a bit overboard. If that makes a good writer, then I need to kill myself a bull, pronto.

Maybe I can string a story around the four months I spent as an electrician's apprentice in the zinc mine in Northern Manitoba (actually, an idea just came to me...). Or maybe, the four months with the Naval Engineering Unit of the Canadian Navy. (A Chief Petty Officer offered to get me ball cap with 'Civilian Under Naval Training' on the brim. After a quick thought I politely declined.) Of course there's the current job...wait, there's some of that in what I'm writing now.

Write what you know, they say...which brings us to the guy that inspires me the most as a writer.

Stephen King, (I'm making some broad assumptions here) can not have experienced much of anything that he's written about (at least the fiction bits, anyway). Wouldn't think he was a rabid dog, menstruating, telekinetic teen or a young pyrokinetic (if that indeed is the term), yet he can spew (and I mean that in a good way) a torrent of words.

In his book On Writing he mentioned that he has almost no recollection of writing Cujo, the story of the rabid Saint Bernard.

Amazing, when you think of it.

It would be an interesting exercise to measure relative popularity of his writings against his average blood-alcohol level while writing the first draft.

I recall everything I've read, although I have, on occasion, written while under the influence of scotch. Those writings, I'll admit, tend to stray from the plot, rename characters (in my current efforts, a terrorist apprentice named 'Bashir' became 'Brian'. Very strange), and tend to be generally dyslexic. I can only hope Mr. King's editor was paid very, very well during that stage of his writing life.

--oOo--

Separate note. I read the funniest The Onion headline yet. "Paranoid Optimist Just Knows Someone is Out to Get Him a Present". Brilliant!

--oOo--

...and before I get back to my other writings (researching the SAS, of which I've never been a member, for a story plot line), one more thing. The kids and I are heading to see the new Star Trek movie this afternoon. For some inexplicable reason I keep calling it 'Star Wars'. WTF!

Will post my thoughts on it later.