I've decided my main male character should be a smoker and wondered if any WW smokers could give me some information;

I last smoked 20 years ago when most people seemed to buy either Silk Cut or Benson and Hedges - which brand would you say a 30yr old man would smoke nowadays?

I might make him roll his own - again, which brand of tobacco and how do you buy it (eg in a tin?)
Also, what is the main appeal of rolling your own? - the process or simply the taste/kick?

Also, any favourite times/places to smoke, or is it the classic after food/sex!

Any comments appreciated.

Casey

Hi Casey:

For tipped cigarettes: Marlboro (red if he's cool, hard and/or slightly boho, Lights if he's not) Embassy, Mayfair, Lambert & Butler or B&H.

Rollies: Golden Virginnia, Cutter's Choice or Old Holborne. Most people who smoke rollies (who I know) do it because they're cheaper than tipped ones and are supposed to have chemicals in 'em.

Cliched times for smoking: in the morning, with a coffee, after meals, under times of stress/contemplation*, after sex.

* I read that, years ago, in the days of public (boarding) schools, students (scholars) were encouraged to smoke a pipe while they were pondering the answer to a question.

Hope that's helped.

Smoker Nik.

That's just what i wanted to know, smoker Nik, cheers for that!

I wonder if pipe-smoking would get my creative juices going...

Casey

Great thread! I don't smoke, and tend to forget that my characters might, unless the first time I saw them they had a fag in their hand.

As a non-smoker can I add another classic smoking moment? As an excuse to get out of the office and onto the fire escape for five minutes.

Emma

Good one, Emma, a useful avoidance tactic.
Someone mentioned in a previous thread that, as a non-smoker they often don't think of creating smoker characters, and i'm guilty of this.
I'm just wondering what other characteristics i don't think of, because they are alien to me...maybe one of my MCs should be tee-total...

Casey

maybe one of my MCs should be tee-total...

That would be pretty alien to me, too. In fact my sister commented of a very early effort of mine that every single scene involved food or drink or both. I think I didn't have enough other ways of conjuring up stage business. On the other hand I can barely welcome in the meter-reader without offering coffee, so maybe (as always) it's our own defaults we need to be aware of, and wary of!

Emma

I totally agree! Someone in my group rightly pointed out that i am, quote "bloody obsessed" with writing about food. I need to find a way to reveal my characters personality and past without constantly referring to shared meals, coffees, pub visits etc.It's just so hard to think of a jug of ice- and fruit-filled Sangria as a default...oops, i'm off again

Casey

I'd add Silk Cut to Nik's list, though I think you see less and less of this. Rollies are cheap, but also people smoke them because they are seen as slightly more boho, they are liked by people who enjoy having lots of equipment to play with (tobacco pouch or tin, lighter, filters, papers). There's also the fact that smoking rollies is much easier for creating spliffs.

Rollies can also be associated with people trying to give up, because you end up smoking less and taking longer to create the cigarette.

You may be able to gather from the above that I'm an ex-smoker, though I wasn't exactly a heavy smoker, about five or six a day except down the pub.

Smoking is a fascinating social ritual which can have a major impact on the type of people you meet, how you project yourself to others and the places that you go to - all grist to the mill of a writer.

That's really useful, Ken, thanks.

I particularly like the idea of rollies being associated with trying to give up, which i hadn't thought of. I can imagine my character kidding himself that this is the reason he's smoking them, whereas really he's as hooked as ever...

I never smoked much, but i must admit i love the smell, especially cigar smoke, i get all nostaligic about my dad smoking them when i was little.

Casey

<Added>

or rather 'nostalgic'

My partner smokes rollups, so I asked him. He said there are lots of reasons why he prefers them to ready-made. The taste is more intense, and you can adjust the way it smokes by the way you roll it. There’s a tactile pleasure in the little ritual of choosing the pinch of tobacco, rolling it into the paper, making a roach. You can easily add something illegal if you want. You can put them down and they just go out instead of burning away. They don’t have the chemical taste that ready-made cigarettes have, which means they don’t leave such an unpleasant after-smell.

And – he didn’t say this but it’s something I pick up from the smokers at work – yes, rollups are definitely more boho, more cool, more rebel, than readies.

Dee

Dee,

That's just perfect, thanks, because the character i'm thinking of is more boho and cool than the middle-class conservatives surrounding him.

Casey

though now with all the smoking bans coming into force it's definitely more difficult to roll a cigarette in gale force winds and rain outside

perhaps I should try rolling them before I go outside....

Apparently there's a new phenomenon called 'smirting' - smokers flirting on the pavements outside pubs and non-smokers grabbing a ciggie and joining them if they see someone they like!

Casey

Marlboro Lights are the fag's fag of choice.

If he's a bit down on his luck or a fisherman, roll ups.

If he's debonair and aspiring (or a lesbian) - gotta be a cigar.

JB

Heh, heh, heh. And what about an aspiring, gay fisherman?