Writers drink!

Long ago I was part of a writer’s forum where one rather chap would keep saying, over and over, “writers, WRITE!” By this he meant that a writer should writer every single day. I suspect he felt frustrated by those who would come to the forum and post regularly about how, someday, they would get started. He was, in his own somewhat dogmatic way, ‘stop talking, start doing.”

And yes, writers do write – be that putting pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, voice to microphone or even mind to plotline. We do other things too, however. We have rituals and routines and habits that frame our writing time. For some, the critical ritual is location. For others, it is the music they play.

But there is one ritual over which writers simply cannot agree – what drink is the secret elixir of creative writing! In other words – the ‘tea or coffee’ debate.

For so many, it is a ‘no brainer’ – you have to have a steaming cup of coffee to give you the brain power and energy to write. It keeps you going in to the small hours, and allows you to build tension in to your prose.

For others, it has to be a good cup of tea or, better still, a pot. There is almost a religion about it. The right tea, the right post, the right cup to put it in. It soothes and inspires and guides the writer though the journey. In either case, it is dreadfully important to have the right beverage to hand.

I have to confess that I am something of a ‘fence sitter’ on this, mainly because my rituals around drinking are more to do with the time of day than what I am doing. I am, however, curious and would love to know more.

So, tell me, fellow writers. What’s your poison? And Why?