"No critiquing, exercises, lectures, ego, competition, or feeling guilty" is the motto of a writing collective that sprung up around the San Francisco Bay Area. Basically, writers gather in a café to sit in silence to write, whether for an hour or all day. It's just the jumpstart one needs to keep butt in chair, fingers on keyboard.
The program's mission statement says, "Shut Up & Write! is a venue for writers to work in the company of other writers on a regular basis. Writing, whether approached as a profession or as an avocation, is an isolating activity. We provide this forum, writing resources, and meeting times as a method of developing a community of creative people. We welcome people who are serious about 'writing down the bones' and are looking for the companionship of other writers."
K. Tempest Bradford told me about Shut Up & Write in November, while I was hosting Nanowrimo Write-ins. It sounded too good to be true, but I tried out a meeting in December, not expecting much. I certainly didn't expect a weekly meet-up of more than 20 writers not to devolve into gossip, chat, and competition. Boy, was I surprised.
I've been attending the weekly Wednesday morning Shut Up & Write sessions for a couple of months now. I still don't really know anyone beyond saying hi, but that's okay. They seem friendly. They work hard. And just having them around is inspiring me to finish a whole lot of projects that I haven't been able to get myself around to – like this post you're reading right now.
For such a large group of people who work with words, there is an amazingly small amount of chitchat. At the beginning of each meeting, we go around the table to introduce ourselves by first name and give a brief description of what we plan to work on. Then everyone puts their heads down to get the job done.
From blog posts to masters' theses, poetry, fiction of every length, fairytales, a book-length memoir, one-act plays, and more: a wide variety of work is in progress each week. The attendees range in age from college to retirement, but the group skews white, whether because it meets on a weekday morning or because it meets in the increasingly white Mission in the back of a café that plays no music, I'm not sure. Also, at the Borderlands Café at least, the group skews heavily female.
Arranged through Meetup.com, there are groups meeting all around San Francisco from Ocean Beach to SOMA, and around the East Bay in Oakland, Berkeley, and Alameda. New groups -- or meetups in new cafes -- seem to be springing up all the time. If you would be interested in setting up a meeting in your area, wherever that might be, I suggest you get in touch.
YOU ARE READING
Writing in Cafes: A How-To Guide for Authors
Non-FictionJumpstart your writing by taking it to the cafe! How do you pick a cafe in which to write, which tools should you use, should you bring a friend along: I'll answer these questions and give you more to think about.
