Examining the town drunk

[Aes]

It sure has been awhile since I've been even slightly active here.

Anyway, lately I've picked up the story that originally brought me here, and everything was going so nicely until I hit a problem with this question: How does a town drunk, with no job or possessions of value, actually get the alcohol they so regularly consume?

This is important to me, because the main character will actually be falling into this role until the other characters meet her, and manage to pull her out of it.

[Jimmy Magnusson]

Alcohol wells?

[chopper]

social security benefits, along with begging, leaning on remaining friends, shoplifting, and hanging around with unsavoury folks in the park. not much fun to delves into.

[Peter Graham]

Chopper's right. They also buy what one might call reasonably priced booze with a high alcohol content - big, three litre bottles of white cider, cheapo cans of 8% lager, cheap sherry, cheap blend whisky and whatever else is on offer or within pinching distance.

They might have savings or inheritances to blow, or perhaps a redundancy payment which they are steadily drinking.

If you are looking at a fantasy/cod-medieval setting, you don't have much by way of a social security system and very few people have disposable income. So unless your character is the rakish son/daughter of the local lord (like an alcoholic version of Prince Harry in Henry IV), he or she would need to work to drink. Probably unskilled manual work or agricultural labouring if the drink is taking hold. If they were a tramp or a pauper, they'd have no income (unless you have an enlightened poor relief system) and would be begging, stealing and generally making a nuisance of themselves to get drink.

How about busking?

Regards,

Peter

[BookStop]

Hidden still (moonshine), of course, begging, bartering - does she have any special skill she'd be willing to exploit for alcohol?

[Aes]

Originally Posted by Peter Graham

If you are looking at a fantasy/cod-medieval setting, you don't have much by way of a social security system and very few people have disposable income. So unless your character is the rakish son/daughter of the local lord (like an alcoholic version of Prince Harry in Henry IV), he or she would need to work to drink. Probably unskilled manual work or agricultural labouring if the drink is taking hold. If they were a tramp or a pauper, they'd have no income (unless you have an enlightened poor relief system) and would be begging, stealing and generally making a nuisance of themselves to get drink.

Interestingly enough, the character in question is (or was) the ruler of the kingdom in which the story takes place. I should probably give a little backstory:

Our hero(ine) loses her father (the king) around the age of 10 and was to ascend the throne as the next ruler, but a corrupt court of advisors pretty much said "no way." She was replaced by one of their own children so they could divide the kingdom up amongst themselves without anyone to challenge them. They offer someone a generous payment to take her away and "get rid of her," but something happens and she ends up being sold off as a slave instead of being outright killed.

So for the next 6-8 years, she spends her time as a servant to rather unpleasant people, and it wears away at her until she gets thrown out for being less and less productive, ending up a hopeless (and homeless) alcoholic.

Until the supporting cast meets up with her, I need to figure out how to support her habit, so to speak. Oh and yes, the setting is pretty close to the typical, medieval fantasy fare.

Hidden still (moonshine), of course, begging, bartering - does she have any special skill she'd be willing to exploit for alcohol?

Any special skills? Hmm, skills of note? As nobility, she can read/write (unlike most commoners) but in towns/cities where nobody else can read, that does little good. The royal family (upon reaching adulthood) receives a boon that makes them highly skilled in martial arts without any formal training. Those are the only two I can think of that would be relevant to commoner life.

Sorry, I had to kinda rush through this, gotta get ready for a final.

[dustinzgirl]

Friends and odd jobs. Most drunks work in some capacity. Just not "real" work.

[Blackrook]

A female drunk might support her habit with prostitution.

[Duchessprozac]

There is always prostitution, unless of course in your world brothels or other organised forms of prostitution exist which may make it harder for an alcoholic and homeless woman to sell her wares.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Aes

As nobility, she can read/write (unlike most commoners) but in towns/cities where nobody else can read, that does little good.

Yes, it would. Historically, people who couldn't read or write would sometimes pay someone to write their letters or to read any they received. (How else were they going to communicate with friends or relatives in distant places? Word-of-mouth was too unreliable, and if they were writing at all it was generally because they had something important to say -- or twenty years worth of news stored up.) Not that most illiterate people sent or received more than a few letters over the course of a lifetime, but in a large city there were generally enough people looking for these services that the handful of people providing them eked out a living.

Your main character could support herself (just) and still support her habit, by staking out a corner for herself in the market square or city churchyard (stone slabs make good writing tables) and catching whatever business there might be in that line.

[Theleb K]

Fortune telling and selling lucky charms is a good earner - particularly for the female dipso. She does not have to take the risks of prostitution, the hours are more sociable and it can go on providing a reliable income regardless of age and physical decline.

[chopper]

Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton

Yes, it would. Historically, people who couldn't read or write would sometimes pay someone to write their letters or to read any they received. (How else were they going to communicate with friends or relatives in distant places? Word-of-mouth was too unreliable, and if they were writing at all it was generally because they had something important to say -- or twenty years worth of news stored up.) Not that most illiterate people sent or received more than a few letters over the course of a lifetime, but in a large city there were generally enough people looking for these services that the handful of people providing them eked out a living.

Your main character could support herself (just) and still support her habit, by staking out a corner for herself in the market square or city churchyard (stone slabs make good writing tables) and catching whatever business there might be in that line.

and another good opportunity for conflict arises there as in Times Past much of the clergy were literate and would be able to scribe letters for the commoners - again, for a price. if your character is undercutting the clergy (and she'd have to in order to attract the customers), she'll be incurring their displeasure too. of course that could be another good reason to keep drinking.....

[Aes]

@Prostitution: I actually thought about it (for my character, not myself of course!) since it really doesn't take any special training, and is pretty much symbolic with having hit rock bottom in life. I just feel like my poor protagonist has taken enough abuse, and I'd actually feel somewhat guilty adding that to the list.

@Reading/Writing: That's actually a pretty decent idea, and I'm disappointed to admit it didn't even occur to me. The mentioned potential conflict would make a neat tool to hook her back into the plot when the time is right. I'll just have to think of some way to implement it without making her into a local sensation right away.

At this point in the story, her disposition could be described as unfriendly, jaded, and blunt--someone to avoid/someone with no real worth is how I want the general population to perceive her.

[dustinzgirl]

If she is nobility, doesn't she have family money?

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by chopper

and another good opportunity for conflict arises there as in Times Past much of the clergy were literate and would be able to scribe letters for the commoners - again, for a price. if your character is undercutting the clergy (and she'd have to in order to attract the customers), she'll be incurring their displeasure too.

I'll just have to think of some way to implement it without making her into a local sensation right away.

If that kind of conflict would work for the story it would be a neat way to work some in, but it's not a given that clergy would be competing for that kind of business. Some clerics might do it for free, others might consider it beneath them, still others might be too busy with what they might consider more important tasks. It just depends on what would make sense in terms of your plot and your world -- you might put her in the way of anything from serious trouble with the established religious authorities, to a private conflict with a greedy local clergyman who is doing that sort of job on the side instead of attending to his regular duties -- which gives you the opportunity to create as much or as little sensation over the situation as you like.