Tolkien on Disco Biscuits

J.R.R was a notoriously slow writer. I'm not, but then there's a vast difference in both quality and quantity of our respective output. My high score is not at the quality end. I write a lot in the hope of two outcomes:

• the more I practice, the better I'll get.
• The more there is of it, the better chance there will be some diamonds in the coal dust.

So, when it's not coming easily, at least in terms of the number of words, I get frustrated. Sometimes I think I'd rather have writer's block, but, having never really had it, I probably wouldn't.

Disco biscuits were 'ludes, Quaaludes, they were very popular in the early to mid-70s in the Disco era. In the 80s the name enjoyed a brief revival as a codeword for MDMA, they say, but I never heard it. In fact, I only ever heard Molly and E used, but I wasn't part of Madchester, Baggy, Acid House or Rave Culture. 'Ludes, I can't imagine Tolkien taking them. Dropping a bit of acid, maybe. Those Ents, hmm?

So from time to time, I wonder which drug writers would have turned to for inspiration. We know, or are told, that Byron, Shelley and pals liked a bit of the poppy juice. Can't see that being any use unless you were compos mentis enough afterwards to write the dreams down. Papa Hemingway liked the booze and that didn't end well, anyone who thinks 'The Old Man and the Sea' is better than 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' just likes reading short books. I'm not prejudiced against short books either, Gatsby is another famous booze-hound's best book by absolutely miles. Mind you, Gatsby would probably be any writer's best book.

The winter fly might have died in Kerouac's medicine cabinet, but I bet there were a lot more interesting things in it. It certainly looks it from some of the writing. But it was the booze that killed him in the end.

I like a drink. I think I drink about a third of what I used to up until I was 50. I'm still not satisfying the GP, who'd like me not to drink at all. I don't drink and write, ever. Never have. I shudder to think what kind of read traffic accident that would produce.

So, there we have it. I've written about 450 words, about nothing at all.

Still not much in the way of quality though.