Happy Friday, squiders! How has your week been?
Mine’s been all right. My spouse is finally coming home from his business trip (he’s been on another continent for weeks) so I’m hoping some of the lingering exhaustion I’ve been feeling the past week will go away. And I did finally get through Chapter 25 on my edit, which dragged for no reason that I can see, in retrospect. I did have to go through and choreograph a fight scene that I had previously just told on a napkin on a coffee shop (I forgot my notebook), but it wasn’t that hard.
Speaking of coffee shops, today I walked to a new one that just opened to check it out. My spouse recommended doing so yesterday, but I went to my normal coffee shop instead because I just wanted to write, and I knew what to expect at my normal place, and a new place sounded very overwhelming.
I’ve run into this a few times lately. I’ll drive past a coffee shop and think, “I should check that out sometime, see if it’s a good place to write” but then, when I get the opportunity, I’ll just go to my normal place, because Change is Hard.
Like my addiction to coffee, writing directly led to my habit of hanging at coffee shops. It started in California. My local Nano chapter, which I think was called “California – South Bay” but went by SoBaNaNos, met year-round, normally on a Sunday at Orchard Valley Coffee in Campbell. I also started meeting weekly with a writing friend at a place in Mountain View. When we moved back to Colorado, again my writing groups met at coffee shops, and from there, it just became habit to write there.
(I also write other places, but it’s my treat to myself.)
(A small note about Nano–I am very disappointed in how they’ve doubled down on the scandal instead of actually fixing anything, and it honestly looks like the whole thing may go down in flames. For something that has been part of my life for so long, and something that has been very influential with my writing, it hurts to watch it go out in disgrace.)
(I have done other places–a lot of late night diner places like IHOPs, a handful of tea shops, some cafes that are more breakfast places than coffee shops–but coffee shops are definitely my favorite.)
I used to have a variety of coffee shops in the area I frequented for writing. But some went out of business, some were kind of far and the group I was meeting there disbanded, one rebranded and completely changed their menu to something stupid, etc. So now I just have the one (and a cafe that I spent a lot of time at during COVID but haven’t been to lately).
(It’s a great one, though! Fantasy themed, sells games and comics as well, has a lovely drink called a Florentine which has a hint of chocolate in it but is nowhere as intense as a mocha would be. I take all my friends there for coffee time.)
But, lo, I have dragged myself to this new one. It’s actually the fourth location of another shop I’ve been driving by and saying I should check out for years. (It went into the location of another coffee shop that used to be on my rotation, but it changed owners and the new owners went harder on the boutique aspect than the coffee shop aspect. Also their coffee was hugely expensive.) It seems…fine? They’re obviously still moving in (they opened on Monday, so I’m actually moving pretty quickly here) so the walls are bare and they only have a limited menu, but the space is really nice without the boutique stuff everywhere, and it seems like it has plenty of seating. Music is a little loud but that’s why God invented headphones.
Maybe I’ll give it another try. I should. Changing pace is good for you.
What do you think, squiders? Good to mix up your routine? Okay to find some place that really vibes for you and use it exclusively?
