So, I hadn’t realized that writing in Starbucks was a thing until my buddy ohnosarge brought it up in a tweet one day. She directed me to Family Guy who mocks those coffee shop writers as needing to be seen working on their craft.
Imagine my eyebrows climbing to my hairline. That led to a search online, and sure enough, I discovered there was this whole negative attitude about it! They call the act pretentious, annoying, and all around inconsiderate.
For over a year now, I’ve met with a group every Friday morning to do some writing. We chose Starbucks because of opening time and location. The group consists of about 5 people. Believe it or not, quite a few people think meeting at 5:30 AM to write is absurd. But I’m a freak who likes to wake up early. And I don’t even drink coffee.
Now call me pretentious, but I’m perfectly secure in my writerly ways. Not to mention there isn’t much traffic at that hour so if I wanted to write for attention, I’d have to do it a couple hours later.
Still, I want to hear your opinions about coffee shop writers. What are your thoughts?
I don’t think I’d ever be able to write in that sort of environment. I like being alone where I can speak the dialogue before I type it (plus I hate the smell of coffee).
But the café writer trend doesn’t seem to be all that big over here. Sure you see the odd person with their laptops at cafes that offer free Wi-Fi, but they’re clearly surfing the web or doing work related stuff.
And 5:30AM is a crazy, CRAZY time to be up. But then, I’m a nocturnal beast. 11PM to 1-2AM is my zone.
Hate the smell of coffee? Interesting. My nose isn’t good enough to actually smell the coffee, but I’m not a fan of the taste myself. I much prefer Red Bull. 🙂
Hehe, I usually start writing around 5:30. That means I’ve already been awake for an hour…
I read a post by a lady who went for several hours every Saturday to write, but that was the only way she could devote time to her craft with several little kids at home. (She hired a sitter for this purpose.) I didn’t realize there was a negative attitude regarding the practice. Although, I did wonder how many coffees one would be expected to buy to occupy a table for that long. 😛
I don’t know I’d have the bladder to be able to handle that much coffee!