Category: Writing

I write better in a coffee shop.

Owl and Otter Espresso Lake Placid, Florida

Mudslide Coffee Punta Gorda, Florida

Serenity Coffee Shop Okeechobee, Florida

Florida Farmhouse Coffee Arcadia, Fl

I do have a dedicated office in my home, desktop computer, laptops, wide screens, nice keyboards, and yes, I can make French Press coffee if I want. The most obvious reason I write better in a coffee shop is that I have fewer distractions. My desktop has Facebook, X, Instagram, my Kindle, games and of course, the whole wide internet. All it takes is a slip of a finger on the keyboard and I am researching Belgium and the Flanders issue, watching Youtube videos or checking email.

I also have four cats. One of them, Dewey, has assigned himself to me. 

One would think the activities in a coffee shop would be more distracting. People coming and going, conversations, the sounds of coffee grinding, chairs being pulled out from a table and espresso being made. However, for me, as well as many other writers, these things actually promote creative juices. For starters, I normally do not interact with the goings on in the shop. I am sitting at a table with my coffee and laptop writing. Eventually, all of the various sounds merged into one audio blur, sort of like white noise. I call it blue noise.

All I have is my laptop and coffee, so nothing to distract me from writing. While I have a few different laptops, some of them quite powerful, for writing I use my inexpensive Chromebook. I can load my files through a USB drive, access my Microsoft One Drive or Google Docs. When out, I always write in Google Docs. I’ve yet to find a coffee shop that doesn’t have free WiFi. But even if I don’t have WiFi or lose it for some reason, I can still write in Google Docs offline, and the minute I am back in range of a WiFi signal it will automatically update my online docs.  My Chromebook doesn’t have a hundred other programs on it to distract me.

I also think there is some sort of social frequency that develops at a coffee shop.  The sounds, the snippits of conversation I hear, the spiritual energy of people coming and going triggers my own creative juices.

Bridge Street Coffee & Tea
LaBelle, Florida

Plus, a good coffee shop has a creative artsy mood. The decor, the music they play, the entire atmosphere is conducive to creative activities.

Also, there is coffee. An essential fuel for developing characters and twisting plot lines.

– Dart

I am experiencing something that is new to me. I have written dozens of short stories, blog posts, humor, even poetry. Finally making substantial progress on a crime novel, with over 40,000 words on paper. At about the 30,000 word point, something changed. Instead of me sitting down and thinking about the next scene in the book, the characters started coming alive!

I was writing a scene with my detective and his client having lunch at Bayside Marketplace in Miami. I was doing a good job adding the elements I thought was necessary, making sure the scene was relative to the plot, moving the story forward, making sure it was actually entertaining.  However, in the middle of lunch, the female client consumed three Mojitos. These are fruity rum drinks.  I did not plan for her to get drunk, but she did! Turns out it really made he scene better. And then, as our detective walked her to her car, opening the passenger door as he was going to drive, someone shot the window out!!!! What the hell? I had no assassination attempt planned for this scene! But my detective pushed his client out of the way, fell to his belly in the grass and pulled out his SIG P210 and placed four rounds in the attacker’s chest!

Holy crap! I have a drunk client passed out in the car and a dead attacker, and now City of Miami police swarming all over the place! How the hell did that happen?

Not only that, but this scene changed the entire dynamic of the novel and moved the plot into a totally different trajectory!

From that point forward, I stopped writing the scenes and just let the characters take over. And they are doing a damn good job. I can’t wait every day to sit down and let them use my fingers to type out the next scenes.

For the first time, I have no freaking clue where the story is going or what the next scene will be.

My characters are writing the book now.

I am having a blast!

Writing experts tout the importance of writing a synopsis for your novel. A synopsis consists of taking your entire 60K to 100K or more novel and boiling it down to 500 to 2,000 words. A short summary of what happens in your book. I have just finished my fourth draft of my crime novel, Deadly Profit. 67,000 words, so not a very large book, but still, how do I condense that to a few pages?

Right now, my synopsis is at 1400 words. I must reduce it further. To interest an agent in representing you and your book, a synopsis is necessary. Most writers don’t even think of a synopsis until they finish their book. Kind of makes sense. However, I discovered something after writing my synopsis. I have so many things going on in my novel that only when I tried to condense the plot down to a few pages did it really show me I need to make changes.  Some rewriting is necessary. I could never see that when I was writing the book, but taking everything and putting it into a few pages really opened my eyes.

I am now going to suggest that writers consider creating their synopsis either before they start their book, or as they go along.

I only created my synopsis to attract an agent, but it turns out it is an invaluable tool to improve your work.

I think I’ve talked before about how much of the fiction world in America today seems totally Nihilist. I read short fiction every day,and every day I shake my head at the negative stories. Stories about abuse, death, betrayer, despair, you name it. It’s one thing to just stop reading them, but I also write short fiction and try to get them published. I have eleven short stories accepted so far, but a good forty or more that sit on my hard rive waiting. They have been rejected at least a few times, and I don’t know where to submit them. My stories are humorous maybe a little positive even. So, they really don’t have a place in today’s literature.

Keep in mind that many of the fiction magazines are managed by MFA students. Young people, under 40. And if you google it, you will see that most Americans under 40 today are sad, depressed and confused. Nihilism has grabbed their souls and won’t let go.

Anyway, I created this 101 word story about being rejected by a publication. I posted it online at a private writer’s page, and surprisingly, almost everyone loved it! Yet, who will publish it? I doubt anyone.

Here it is.

My latest short story rejection:

 

“Thank you for submitting your well-written story, ‘Hope Soars’. Unfortunately, while your writing is amazing, your story hints at a positive outcome in life, and this is not a good fit with us at Nihilist Stories for Millennials. In fact, two of our editors were so offended by the trace of positivism in your story that they hyperventilated while reading it and passed out, knocking our Cold Brew coffee maker over onto our beloved comfort philodendron.

 

Since we are now down two editors, we ask that you refrain from sending further offensive submissions to our publication.

I must have the first five chapters of a hundred books on my hard drive. I accomplished something this week that I have never done before. Finished writing a book! I am having a cover designed and soon will be uploading it to Amazon. I plan on an ebook and a paperback version. I am a Florida native, born and raised in Florida. But I moved to Boise, Idaho in late 2017. The culture shock, plus the various other kinds of shock, stunned me. Boise is a fantastic and most special place. But the difference between South Florida and Boise were just astounding.

So I wrote 90 pages on those differences. Short humorous essays.

An excerpt:

The people in the Boise area differ from the people in Florida, especially South Florida, where I hail from. To begin with, they rarely shoot at you, which is a tremendous improvement. In South Florida, shooting at fellow drivers on the highway is legal, although hitting someone is frowned upon because it backs up traffic. This falls under the famous “Stand Your Freaking Ground” law in Florida, which says that every Floridian has the right to stand their ground, be it in a dangerous physical altercation or just someone butting in front of you in the coffee line at Starbucks.

Another one:

What to do after moving to Boise.

1. It is Boy-see, not Boy-zee! Do not leave your house until you have mastered this!
2. Swap out your license plate for an Idaho one. Immediately. This applies triple for Californians.
3. Remove all of your old bumper stickers. Apply a Dutch Brothers Coffee and Boise State Broncos bumper stickers.
4. Trash your fancy dress clothes. No one in Boise wears dress shirts and ties, not even the undertakers. Dresses are as rare as coconuts.
5. Buy a dozen pair of jeans and cotton long sleeve shirts. Men should also buy a hat, preferably one with a tractor on it.
6. Grow a beard. For women, this is optional, but every man must grow a beard.

I had a tremendous amount of help from a published author who runs the local writers group. I am now sorting through my hundred other pieces of novels and books and seeing what should be my next project. Having actually finished a book, and soon publishing it gives my confidence a huge boast!