Beer Drinking Characters

Posted on May 1, 2003 in Writing Groups

I’m thinking about requesting a moratorium in my writing group against including characters who drink beer.

Half the men in the group feel impelled to include characters who slop off the top of a can of suds in every story. Sometimes more than one. “I popped the top of a can of beer/brew/Miller, etc.” is a line which I have seen way too often.

I think about it and aside from my neighbor Tim who quaffs a couple every night, I don’t know a lot of beer drinkers. (How Tim manages to keep from developing the proverbial protruding abdomen, I don’t know. Maybe mountain biking is more than just going down hills.) My friends and neighbors either do wine or they don’t drink much at all.

The angst-ridden beer drinking louse is becoming a cliche.

So let’s give the old beer bellies a rest? Except in the story I’m writing. My character drinks a couple of beers. But he doesn’t have a beer belly and he isn’t angst ridden.

Hey, we’re all entitled to one now and then.