Writing in Coffee Shops: C/D?

:(

"Time for a quick word about ... stationery. Most poets are fetishistic about paper and pens, and for a while I couldn't write on anything but grey Daler A5 sketchbooks with a Pilot Hi-Tecpoint V5 extra-fine rollerball. Now it's a Psion Series 5, but it amounts to the same thing. It's taken me a pathetically long time to realise that the transcendental joy of poetry isn't getting your book published, reading to an audience of deeply-moved young women, getting your face on the box, winning a prize or anything else - it's the business of composition that blows you away, and the more you can do to savour it, the better. I think it's important to pay attention to those little ritualistic details which serve to put you in a receptive state of mind - even just the purchase of stationery is enough to do that for me, pathetic as it may seem. I often go to cafes to write; in fact the greater the extraneous racket the better I can often concentrate. Even McDonald's suits me just great. Libraries are bloody useless, far too quiet, no view, and no way of getting a cup of coffee."

Nahh, that's a Classic. I wish I could have been there.

ha ha, welcome to my summer.

Plus, you forgot, AIR CONDITIONING!

I seriously write whenever wherever. (< /shakira>)Fr'instance, I've got notebooks strategically placed throughout my crib: next to the bed (the dream-dominated one), in my kitchen, in the music room, even by the shittah!

HIM: Hey, you know what you should write? You should write "I wiped my ass with this postcard and then pissed on it!" ha ha ha!
US: ha ha. (continue writing)
HIM: (seeing new postcard being written) Hey, you know what you should write on that one? "Fuck you"! ha ha haaa!
US: *uh oh*
HIM: I know what you should write - you should write "I stuck this postcard up my ass before sending it"! hur hur hurrrr.
US: *please go away*
HIM: I'll tell ya what you should write ... (etc)

actually, you're right, it was pretty classic in its way.

TS: the thousand-yard stare vs looking around vs face in book

Outdoor shops the best IMO

Get 85 percent of my writing at a Starbucks a block away. Having my attention stimulated by watching other people helps me concentrate. I'm here now!

i enjoy ignoring people. helps me focus. in private, there's no one to see me not noticing people.

I like to go to the cafe near my place that has very high tables and write standing up :)

There was a wonderful cafe where I used to live that had an upstairs area with big windows and tables.. It was the only cafe I've ever found conducive to writing/studying because nobody talked at all, it was like the dedicated stfu lounge. and you could smoke there.

cannot handle doing serious work in either cramped starbucks or bigass social cafes that more resemble arnold's drivein in atmosphere

although, as alfred says there is a buzz to be had from the bustle that keeps one's motor running

lol "stfu lounge" sounds like my kinda place

hey, alfred: i was just strolling around & walked by a starbucks & - because i am obnoxious - heard myself think, why do people go to starbucks, glimpsing the three or four presentable & shit-together-seeming cosmopolitan patrons & wondering why they hadn't gone to one of the few coffee shops on either side of the place, instead, these seeming to me glossier, maybe even more ~credible~ options, or at least ones with less affiliated baggage. & then i remembered reading you mention starbucks a couple of hours ago & thought i could ask you for the inside scoop. why do you go to starbucks? is it because there isn't another place; or because there is something reassuring about a less precious café experience; or because it's easier to zone out generica; &c&c&c. i used to go to supermarket cafés sometimes, now i am buying $3 coffees, i would be really interested to know what your criteria are for a café you want to work in.

In a Miami suburb surrounded on all sides by strip malls and interstate, it's a three-minute bike ride from my place. I got no local joints.

The precious and delicious local option is a 12-minute car ride east.

that's good to know. nice having occasional options.

i've been thinking about patronizing the kinda generic non-starbucks regional chain here because they've got a spot that's the closest thing to me, but it just looks so cramped inside i can never bring myself to weigh the cost-benefit on their prices even. so i trudge further down the block to the more credible, other regional chain. but it's one of those places that is too annoyingly full of too many kinds of lingerers, conversants, people on dates, weird neighborhood types, campus types, just far too busy a profile. the kind of place that makes you feel like you should hurry out just because you don't want to be in there with all of them.

Nothing harder than sitting a foot away from someone and trying to concentrate.

like a lot of others upthread, I can only really concentrate in a public space. headphones and droney music are necessary though.

lol "stfu lounge" sounds like my kinda place

― SEEMS TO ME (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, September 1, 2014 3:09 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://cs315317.vk.me/v315317719/a/3RZDEsAPZEg.jpg

no writing allowed in the GTFO Lounge

pointless story: when I lived in houston while working on my phd I was a regular at this one place--usually weekday mornings or early afternoons--along with a lot of other student types. it was a great place because they had a full menu so you could have lunch without having to stop working. anyway, one day I made the mistake of coming in on a Saturday around lunch time. I ordered an ice tea and started in on a book I was reading as the place started to fill up with brunchers. a few minutes later the owner came over to me, stared hard at my iced tea, and asked "can I get you anything?" there was no table service at this place. I gulped down my tea and left after that.

spoiled w good doing-work-in-coffee-shop options tbh, one in particular where i sort of know the gay-couple owners and my bf is friends with the entire staff, plus it's bright inside, busy, not too comfortable, classical music always playing, everyone else is also staring into a laptop.