What I learned at Starbucks this week is that I can deliver the goods when absolutely forced. When all internet and possibility of internet is brutally cut off, I have no choice but to work. Oh, I stared at the screen plenty. I shifted my poor butt on the rock-hard cafe chair when it began to ache. I drank coffee. I listened to my iPod. And I wrote 6 pages in 3 hours!
What forced this crisis, you ask? I am one who doesn't like to leave home, toting the computer, to go to a cafe and work. It's a pain. I'm sure I won't actually get much done. I wonder what all the other people with laptops are doing. Does that slightly spacy guy over there think he's the next Faulkner? Are there really this many people who want to write novels, or are they surfing? Why here?
But, I had no choice except to endure the cafe experience. For some reason that is still not apparent, our power went out on Wednesday evening and stayed out for nearly 24 hours. That meant the cable went too, and it stayed out even longer.
So, Thursday morning, I was forced to get dressed (thank God the water was still hot) and head for Starbucks if I wanted coffee and food. I set up my laptop, complete with the new security cable I bought, and tried, oh yes I did, to connect to the T-Mobile HotSpot. I refuse to pay $10 for a day pass. But, lo, for T-Mobile voice customers such as moi, one can get UNLIMITED access for only $19.99 a month. Oh, sign me up!
Except that apparently the offer isn't good in Hawaii. WTF? Or at least it wasn't good for me, because no dice, I couldn't sign up. Which totally forced me to close out all IE windows and stare at my WIP.
Oh the torture! The pain! The agony! And then the first trickle of an idea began, then another, and another, and before I knew it I was certain about what was going on in this scene, this chapter. Lots of staring, deleting, and typing, but I got six good pages out of it.
So now I believe I am going to be forced to consider the Starbucks experience more frequently. I need to see if I can do it again, or if it was merely an anomaly. On the other hand, I got far less done today because guess what–I had to catch up on all those emails I'd missed yesterday, take care of the business newsletter I edit, and do some RWA business. Now the weekend is here and I'll get next to nothing done with a man around the house. Not to mention it's 33 days until he retires and we've got movers coming in about three weeks and we still need to go through stuff. Yikes.
Where do you work best? Home? Starbucks? The local microbrewery (I once watched a woman making airline reservations at the next table over during Happy Hour. I hope she really wanted to go and wasn't making a drunken decision, ha!)? What's your routine like?
The last few weeks, I have made myself write on one project for about 2-4 hours. I have to write M-F. I can write on the weekend, but only if I want to and I have time.
Gosh.. I actually can see it growing… Mind you–this is the first draft. There will be a lot more work to do after I finish this part of it.
That’s one of the problems I’m having since we moved. When we were in Hawaii, I’d go to the beach to write my first drafts and the same thing in Florida. Now that we are living in northern Georgia… I’m haven’t found a new place to go to write.
I used to try Starbucks when I had to wait for my daughter to finish orchestra rehearsal on the other side of town, but ended up just surfing and doing email. 🙂 I need a safe zone of quiet and isolation to write – others in the room make me feel self-conscious. I’m glad it worked for you, though!
I need either quiet, or total chaos. When my husband and I go out on the weekends to sing karaoke, I have to bring pen and paper, because it never fails, I’ll get soem brainstorm in the bar, and have to write…..
But for the most part, I need quiet…
Go figure. 🙂
Good for you, Cyn! That’s the only way to get it done. A day at a time. Congrats. 🙂
Hey, Sue! I’ve never been able to write at the beach. Too many distractions. 🙂 I take my AlphaSmart from time to time, but I just end up staring at the ocean. Where are you in Georgia? We’ll be in Northern Alabama in another 6 weeks or so.
Aloha nui loa. 🙂
Terry, I just did a bad thing. I went to T-Mobile and asked them why I wasn’t able to sign up for the HotSpot. The short of it is that they signed me up and apologized. Yikes, so now I have internet at Starbucks. Part of the reason I did it was because we’ll be turning off our connection here at home soon. But, I think I’ll still manage to work if I go. I’ll turn off my wireless card and write. I’ve tried that at home, but I can’t leave it alone for long. 🙂
I used to need solitude to write. In fact, I remember being amazed at you for writing with rock music playing. I could only write to classical. But, now I can write with an iPod in my ears. I don’t know if it’s me growing older or if I could have done it back then but that it was the book that demanded classical music.
Wow, Candice! You write at karaoke? I don’t think I could do that. 🙂 I’m always aware that the writing I do in public will need finessing when I’m alone with it again. But that’s just me. I can write, but it’s more like my brain is partly distracted so that I’m working but not aware that what I’m doing needs help. I don’t know, I guess it’s silly. 🙂 But it does mean that the internal sensor isn’t quite as picky and I get more done.