"Write drunk, edit sober"

That's a good quote; the poet W.H. Auden said it. He was a big drinker, as many famous writers seem to be. Why is that? The old notion is that alcohol stirs The Muse. The ideas may flow when we drink, but alcohol makes even smart people believe they're more profound than they really are. Edit sober.

I'm thinking of this because the other night John opened a bottle of Zinfandel called "Writer's Block" with a picture of the Bard on the label. Clever marketing-- if that label doesn't make a writer want to drink wine, nothing will.

Winston Churchill said he couldn't have finished his massive memoirs without heavy tippling. Now there's scientific research supporting the "drink-to-inspiration" idea. Apparently, 15% of Caucasians have a "G-variant" gene that makes alcohol feel more like a opiate, with a pleasurable jolt that might inspire creativity, instead of making them depressed or sleepy-- so they pick up the pen. Of course the flip side is people with this gene variant are prone to alcoholism. Churchill lived to be 90, but others were not so lucky. Here's a little list of 15 great alcoholic writers:

http://listverse.com/2008/01/22/top-15-great-alcoholic-writers/

I'm just finishing up John Irving's latest novel, "Last Night in Twisted River." He's known for teasing the reader with a juicy mix of fiction and autobiography, leaving his fans trying to sort out the "real" from the "made-up." Along with some of his usual themes (bears, wresting, New England, deadly accidents) one of the main characters in the book becomes a famous novelist, whose career seems parallel Irving's own. But not exactly.

One of the hardest things to write about is the writing process, but Irving does a good job of it in this book, through this character. Where do the ideas come from, and how does the writer coherently transfer them into words? Thousands (maybe millions!) of words have been written about John Irving's writing, so I won't do a book report here. If you enjoyed any of his other books, you'll like this one.

As for me, I like my wine, but my muse is currently under the influence of Starbucks. There you go...whatever works.