#10 Reason not to Drink for 90 days: because I love writing more than I love drinking

(Dedicated to my friend Jimo, a patron saint of the arts)

There is nothing more gratifying than to have people excited for you to finish your second book in a series.  It means they really liked the first book.  My friend Jimo just read my book and suggested that my next reason not to drink is to get the second Cricket and Grey book written more quickly.  Which is actually one of the bigger reasons I knew I needed to give up alcohol for a while.

Everyone knows that writers shouldn’t drink hard when they’re struggling to get a name for themselves.  You start the heavy drinking AFTER everyone knows your name.  That way, when you crash and burn it will go down in spectacular history rather than just be the shame of your family and friends that is never mentioned.  I mean, if you’re going to be a problem drinker, you may as well be interesting and public about it.

Drinking makes me stay up super late and get up late and then start writing late and the later in the day it is the less likely I am to get any actual good writing done.  I was getting really pissed off at myself because I want to be on a much more disciplined writing schedule.  You have to be if you want to finish writing books and promote them and write more.  Writing well is hard work and deserves to be treated as a first priority.  As much as I love beer, I love writing more than drinking.

There will always be time to drink hard later but there isn’t always enough time to write good books now.