This morning, I am sitting here in the Jolt’n Bolt Coffee and Tea House. My laptop is hooked up to the free Wi-Fi and I am online working on my WIP short story. Ah, living the cliché!
I realize that what I’m doing is the premise of a thousand cynical jokes about writers writing in public. The point of writing in public is to be seen writing, right? So that some non-writer will notice us and maybe — please please pleeeease — ask us what we’re writing!?
Well, let me tell you about Jolt’n Bolt early on a Saturday morning. A few people come in, grab a coffee, and head right back out. There weren’t more than a couple people in here at a time until around 0830. The only attention I’ve gotten was from the fine employees behind the counter and one customer’s curious beagle.
This is cool with me, because I don’t write in public to be seen by the public, and I resent (just a lil bit) the amateur psychoanalysis behind the presumption that I am here to engage in writing-as-conversation-starter. And, I bet I’m not the only writer who feels this way, so let me kick this dismissive stereotype in the shins for a moment.