Dan has occasionally proposed buying an espresso machine, on the theory that it's the coffee I go there for. But really, that would defeat much of the purpose. My house is a place I have to clean. Anywhere I look in my house, there is some task that needs to be done that is not writing, and if I don't do those tasks, they probably won't get done. Making coffee there would (A) generate more stuff for me to clean, and (B) fuel cleaning, not writing. I write at Starbucks because it's a clean, well-lighted place where someone else does the scrubbing and light-bulb changing. For most male writers who have wives, I suppose in that sense Starbucks would be indistinguishable from home, but for a woman, that's all the difference in the world.
At home, I have that classic isolation problem writers have, but at Starbucks, there are numerous other live humans in the room. I can interact with some of them if I feel like it, but it's easy to disengage from interacting with any or all of them if I don't feel like it. If I disappear into my manuscript for hours at a time, nobody cares as long as I tip.
Now, if opening a Starbuck in my home entailed having a staff of cheerful baristas (or maybe the plural should be baristae?) to run around my kitchen scrubbing things, that would be another matter entirely.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-09-30 03:01 pm (UTC)At home, I have that classic isolation problem writers have, but at Starbucks, there are numerous other live humans in the room. I can interact with some of them if I feel like it, but it's easy to disengage from interacting with any or all of them if I don't feel like it. If I disappear into my manuscript for hours at a time, nobody cares as long as I tip.
Now, if opening a Starbuck in my home entailed having a staff of cheerful baristas (or maybe the plural should be baristae?) to run around my kitchen scrubbing things, that would be another matter entirely.