Tomorrow I might be writing in the public space. I haven’t really done that much over the past year. There is real value in it and writing in public is different than writing in the privacy of my office shelter. The outside world gets in. From time to time you ought to let it in. I gather characters from my own experience and the world experience around me, but since Covid that experience has primarily been my students and whatever excursions I’ve been fortunate to attend with my partner. So, maybe there is some good in doing this. Maybe I should get out there and listen to the beat of the world for an hour, taking it all in and creating from that sound, character.
Of course, writing at all would be a healthy step. Writing at home might be easier thanks to the comfort and quiet of the space. The familiarity of the office–the char and the desk and the lighting–all bring me into a calm writing space as well. A comfortable writer can be and should be a productive writer. There’s good in that for sure.
I think perhaps a balance ought be struck in this endeavor. Perhaps I choose to write in pubic once a month. I pick a day and a place. I go to a cafe or a library or somewhere that I may observe the world and I ingest that as a healthy part of my diet. I think this to be a useful thing.