Lockdown has taught me a lot about my creative process in me writing my blogs, what I’ve discovered is I need something to inspire me and I discovered I had a muse and it’s not going to surprise many of you, it’s Starbucks, I know everyone knows this chain but my inspiration comes from a particular building, not the brand, it happens to be the only one in my hometown. As you read on I’ll explain how attempts at writing in other coffeehouses just won’t do and why those creative juices run dry!
For me, it’s about how comfortable I feel when I walk in and the fact that everyone, including the customers know my name. When I smell the coffee and sit in my spot I’m at home and I’m able to relax and with my first sips of the mellow brew, I begin to write.
(Above is Izzy, the manager of my local Starbucks)
When I’m in my spot, yes in my local Starbucks I’m just like Sheldon, everything just falls in to place and I have no tolerance for change, this is just my way and the regulars know my quirks. Heaven help any newcomers who sit in my spot!
I’m not trying to be difficult or fussy, I wish I could be more accommodating but my creativity just doesn’t work in any other spot. I have tried and wished it could be different. Lockdown forced me to write away from my safe place and explore writing at home, I found I had an unwelcome house guest, writer’s block had moved in and the bastard wouldn’t move out.
At the start of the year, I was fortunate to run a workshop in Edinburgh, where the excitement and enthusiasm of exploring this historic and gem of a city should have surely been enough to kick my writer’s block in to touch. So armed with my MacBook, recent street photos, and naive optimism I headed to up the royal mile to have a coffee and blog the previous day’s events.
This should have been a simple task, but sadly without my comfortable spot and the familiar surroundings of my Starbucks, I dried up and couldn’t express myself in prose. This is when I realized how particular the creative process was for me.
When I’m in my spot I can easily spend a whole day writing. But I’m now faced with a bigger dilemma, I’ve been waiting years for my son to finish school and head off to university, which will happen next year (2021) the plan was to move nearer to London, but, I’m not sure I could move away from Bury St Edmunds and it’s all because of Starbucks. It got me to thinking am I alone in this or what rituals and routines do other creatives need to get them creating. I can’t be alone in this and I’m genuinely curious to find out how lockdown has impacted others and any workarounds that they used to get by, please let me know in the comments below.
Until the next time…
