Writing in Restaurants by Susanna Ives

Do you ever spend time with your WIP in a restaurant, or perhaps a coffee shop? Today, Susanna Ives, author of Rakes and Radishes, contemplates that very activity. She not only shares what the experience means to her, but also a photo of a lovely and restful French painting in which a young Victorian lady is reading in a cafe while awaiting the arrival of her meal.

In college, I read David Mamet’s Writings in Restaurants. I don’t remember the essays except something about the death of theater and other such college discussion fodder. But I liked the concept of writing in a restaurant—a communal space where people connect. Now on a dreary Wednesday morning, I sit in a café booth with a bowl of blackened fish and grits on the table and my laptop open. All my professional work has been a solitary endeavor between me and a screen. It’s nice to have the activity and conversation of others in my periphery, keeping me from sinking too far into my mind.

© 2011 – 2013 Susanna Ives
Originally posted at Susanna Ives — Writer of Reckless Abandon
Posted at The Beau Monde by permission of the author.