Where to write

I think we all know the stereotype of the writer sitting at his laptop in the local coffee shop, sipping on his caffeinated beverage as he types away a storm for long hours of the day, finishing his great masterpiece that will probably receive all kinds of criticisms but sell millions in the end regardless because it was secretly amazing, or some load of junk like that. I know plenty of people who have tried to follow this model, taking out their preferred method of writing to Starbucks, or some non-brand deal place, and trying to write. Hell, I've done it too. For some people, it may even work - you're surrounded by people talking about all kinds of things, and you can grab snippets of their conversations for inspiration, and you have a constant stream of caffeine to keep you awake and focused. But it's not for everyone.

Like me. I tried it for... I don't know, maybe half an hour to an hour? Small period, I know, but if I sit down and make myself write, I can get a lot of words down in that amount of time. But sitting in that coffee shop, I simply couldn't focus. Maybe it's just because I'm not a coffee guy, or because I don't like people all that much, but there was just too much going on. Too much noise, too many smells, too many unfamiliar things. I couldn't concentrate. I got maybe a hundred words down in that span of time, and I hated every word I put down.

I think the biggest part to choosing where you want to write is being comfortable wherever you are. Personally, I'm not comfortable many places outside of my own home, so that's where I write best. I don't have to worry about what's going on around me, because I know how everything is supposed to be, and I'll know if something happens without having to focus on it. I can tune out everything around me, and engulf myself in the world that I'm creating.

It's interesting to think about why this is, though. When you're comfortable where you are, most people choose to do less, I think. They don't feel pressured by what's around them to get work done, and so they choose to push that work off, instead doing things that help them relax - like nothing. In a work environment, they feel a need to get things done, because that's what everyone around them is doing, and they don't want to fall behind the crowd.

But, at least for me, writing isn't like that. Writing, though I consider it to be my work, and I try to work hard at it, is also the thing that I use to relax. When I am writing, I feel like I have purpose, like I am doing something that is worthwhile. But writing is not something that looks productive. From the outside, the act of writing is monotonous, and it doesn't produce much outside of words on a piece of paper, or a computer screen. No one can see the work that you put into it, because what you are making may never even make it to the surface. Writing is an act of putting down, reworking, erasing, and doing over again. You can't just pump something out. You have to make it shine. But all the while, though what you are doing changes constantly, it never looks any different.

I think for me that's the thing that keeps me from working in public. I try not to let perceptions of me affect me, but it's difficult to do that all of the time. When I am alone, I can feel that my writing is productive. But in public, that becomes a much more difficult task. But that doesn't apply to everyone. For some people, the exact opposite is true.

So I suppose that coffee drinking author stereotype isn't going to go away anytime soon.