Getting Past Writer’s Block- coffee, cake and conversation

My office

I know the rather wonderful J K Rowling made this famous, but writing in a coffee shop is really that helpful. I don’t expect to write the next great children’s book-mostly because I’m not trying to- but whenever I get really stuck, it’s what I turn to. Luckily, we have plenty of choices locally – the one above is one of my favourites- where the owners are quite tolerant of me and my scribblings.

A large cappuccino, and on particularly uninspired days perhaps a pastry or a brownie set the scene. A round biro, my favourite notepad and a copy of a draft, if I’ve even got that far, complete the picture. Ideally the coffee shop should be buzzing, but not too loud. I don’t like to be able to pick out words, because I can’t help being drawn into listening to snippets. Ordinarily snatches like that are defined for my  battered, brown leather notebook, but on a writing day they are just another distraction, like the ones I have escaped at home.

I’m a bit like Dug the dog in “UP’- most things are potential squirrels. I have a perfectly good study, with a rocking chair, desk, computer and a view over the city- all distractions, before you take into consideration noises downstairs, the phone, the  mobile, the iPad, the book cataloguing project- but I’m getting distracted…

For me, lack of ideas is not the problem- it’s deciding exactly what, out of all the things that distract me, to write about and how to do it. Coffee shops say to me, ‘Stop prevaricating. Put the pen to paper and just write, for goodness’ sake’ And so I do.

Thanks to all the baristas, waiters, cleaner uppers, cooks and bottle washers, managers and managed , who make it all possible . I’ll be back tomorrow.

‘The Purple Door’, or ‘The Poem/Story I have yet to write’ #procrastination #reasonsnottowrite #DebTylerBennett

For two weeks now I have been staring at purple doors. Don’t believe me? See my Pinterest board. This is because my wonderful reading group leader, Deb Tyler-Bennett kindly set this as a stimulus two weeks ago, for a poem or story. Her only stipulation was that the door must be purple. That was the problem. I cannot get past that purple door. It has become a looming bruise of a barrier. I cannot open it to see what could possibly be beyond. The thing is that I am one of those sad people who cannot go to a group meeting and say, ‘ Sorry…’  And the meeting is the day after tomorrow .

I’ve looked at sites to do with writer’s block and nothing is working. Therefore I am just going to do the pen to paper thing and see where it takes me. It occurs to me that I am just over-thinking it as usual. If anyone out there would like to have a go, and post their results, that would be amazing. Meanwhile here’s a bit of inspiration for us all…