real writers
Real writers DO write in coffeeshops. And restaurants. I wrote a book in 2005 at the local Baker's Square. I went there every day at 1pm, right after the lunch rush, and wrote until dinner time. If I was still in a writing mood, I ordered dinner and kept writing. I wore headphones and the wait staff learned not to interrupt me every few minutes to ask if I needed anything. Sometimes I had lunch, sometimes not. I always tipped seven or eight dollars, even if all I had was a diet coke. The waitstaff would bring me new diet cokes if they noticed I hadn't been paying attention and all the ice had melted. I sat at a table in the corner, near the bathrooms, and next to the electrical outlet, in an area that was always empty in the afternoon.
The manager of the restaurant enjoyed having me there and often treated me to the sodas. When I was done with the text portion of the book and needed to be using a larger screen than on my powerbook, she offered to let me bring one and store it there! I mentioned them in the acknowledgements, and she wrote about it for their corporate magazine.
I wrote a second book this winter and spring, but wrote it at home since the weather in Chicago was so bad I couldn't drag myself out of the house to write.
I did try Panera, where they seem to welcome people staying with their computers, but there was this other guy who was always talking on his cellphone and I could still hear him with my headphones.
The reason that writing outside of the house works, at least for me, is that when I have the day at home alone, I tend to be distracted by all the other things I could be doing, and I waste the entire day. When I have a schedule to LEAVE, I still waste time but then I leave and concentrate. It helps to have a regular writing spot, that gets your brain working in writing mode.
I learned that I was following a long tradition of very famous writers who write in coffeeshops.
' like solution to this basic and universal need...
