When do modern writers do their best work? When they are driven by sadness? Drunk?
Writers have always fretted and worried about inspiration. The Greeks, Shakespeare and Keats yearned for nubile muses to imbue the air with a dreamlike mist of inspiration. There is also a belief that a cup of Inebriation pairs well with Inspiration. The Norse, the Greeks, Romans, the Chinese and the masters of Western literature honor a man’s melancholic or hard-bitten disposition, especially when it gives way to drink and despair because the hope is that this will fuel their best work.
My experience is that the “Drunken Poet” is an old myth. I’ve sat through many presentations by writers and they all have figured out a system to write when they’re rested, a time of day and a methodology that suits their lifestyle.