Reason 48: Writing at Coffee Shops
100 Reasons I'm Retiring
TS Eliot, Gertrude Stein, JK Rowling, and F Scott Fitzgerald all did their best writing in coffee shops. I do most of my writing—best or not—at my home computer or scribbled into a notebook between teaching classes. I have a perfectly nice little home office in what was my daughter’s bedroom, but I long to join the hordes of wordsmiths who pack up their laptops and settle into a table at Barnes and Noble or Starbucks.
And I don’t even drink coffee.
Psychologists say that for a role to be internalized, it must be observed in public. So writing in public makes us FEEL like writers.
Writing is also a lonely business. Joining the kids at a coffee shop makes it less lonely and, according to Malcolm Gladwell, more fun.
“Writing seems like a fun activity now. It’s more seamlessly integrated into my life and that’s made it much more pleasurable.”
And if the creative spirit can’t strike you where there is access to cinnamon buns, what can?
Where do you do your best work? Do you find yourself more a public or a private producer?
With my first novel I went away from home with my chaotic household of 'guy stuff', sports and a business office. I booked a 5-6 days getaway in the off season in a rural area to immerse myself in the atmosphere of my book's setting. Different seasons, different locations. It worked at that time. Now things are expensive for accommodations. This time I have written while going to and from my son's location six hours away...on a train, surrounded by many many people. I never thought I could feel creative among a ton of people but it worked, because it was away from my home environment. Now, I am putting together a creative room in one of my son's old bedrooms. It is complete with décor that inspires me to enter into the story that I am being lead to write. I even have sit/stand desk topper to help my worn out back! I have yet to try writing in a coffee shop but it may happen. I sense that it would have to be the shop on the other end of town because I am too familiar with the one I usually drop into for coffee and I would be far too distracted by the familiar.
I’m with Karen (and laughed at her espresso joke)! I love the IDEA of writing in coffee shops but have found it has to be a fairly quiet one, AND I put in my noise reducing AirPods with some quiet music to drown out distractions and conversations around me. Sadly, Starbucks are almost always too loud. I mostly write at home, but if I’m out and about with time to kill between appointments, I do like to take my laptop into a coffee shop and take on the writer persona. ☕️