Have laptop... need coffee
I'm a little late with the blogging this week. I got this frightening email from my publisher asking me if my manuscript was ready.
Almost, I said, not quite lying through my teeth.
I was doing so well with it until my laptop crashed. True, I do have a desktop computer I can work at. My work in progress resides on a flash drive just so I can go back and forth at will.
I prefer working on my laptop now. It isn't just that it's faster (excepting when Windows crashed and burned, taking all my other programs with it) - it's the portability. Even if I was willing to load my tower and monitor into the car, they wouldn't fit on a bistro table. If I did managed to get everything set up, there wouldn't be room for my coffee.
No coffee. No work.
Not that I can't make coffee at home. I have a drip coffee maker, a French press and an old fashioned, stovetop espresso maker. Sometimes when the need for caffeine outweighs my need to sleep eventually, I make the French pressed then pour a doppio espresso in it.
What am I saying? I can drink two four-shot Americanos and still have a nap in the afternoon.
It isn't the coffee that makes me go out... well not only the coffee. It's the chance to get away from household chores, junk calls and ennui. Writing doesn't have to be a solitary profession if you get thee to a coffeeshop.
So, fittingly enough, the last few chapters of "Deadly Legacy"/"Deadly Succession" (the title is still in question), were finished next to Chapters -- at my local Starbucks.
Speaking of titles, which do you think works better: Deadly Legacy or Deadly Succession?
Vote in the poll on the side bar and/or comment below. (Choices, choices.)
Great blog post, Alison. I can soooo relate. Many of my novels were written either at a Cappuccino Affair or a Starbucks. I always said they made better coffee than I did, but truth be told, I enjoy being out among real live people. I guess we're just breaking that old "loner alcohol lush writer" image. Well, the loner part, anyway. ;-)
ReplyDeleteP.S. Darn publisher's demands, eh?! LOL
Cheryl
Oh, to get that call from a publisher! Sometimes it's good to be reminded that getting the call is not all nirvana. There's still work.
ReplyDeleteAnd writing in a coffee shop? Not sure I could keep on track. Have to try it sometime although I don't drink coffee. Is that a problem, do you think?
Yes, how nice to have that publisher pressure, Alison! Although computers crashing make me gasp. Sounds like the coffee shop works for you. I think I would be distracted.
ReplyDeleteI must say I like both your titles, so I guess it would depend upon what better suits the story.
Elaine - Tea is nice too. Hot chocolate in the winter works. It's all about where you work best though.
ReplyDeleteSharon - Just think of the inspiration walking around you. I get many of my incidental characters from observing people and blending traits. Deadly whatever-it-ends-up-being-called got it's start in long hand when I was sitting at an outdoor cafe. In that case downtown Guelph inspired the geography of The City.
Cheryl - Thank heavens for deadlines. They are great motivators.