Write This

The Write This column invites writers to share with each other the where and why of their favorite writing locations. In Our Time Has Come and Selling Out to Starbucks, sit back as Chris Sweeney and Stephanie Shenk share their very different scribbling venues.

Our Time Has Come

by Chris Sweeney

Ten years ago I inherited a desk from my grandma. During my childhood this desk was located in the "back room," dusty and piled with junk, where the spiders lived. Handmade from mahogany, the desk had a decorative border, curved drawers, and a protective glass top. Carved in the mahogany chair was a rose blossom. I loved this desk, and at the age of 10 said as much to my grandma. Twenty years later it belonged to me.

The desk sat as the focal point in my living room for years. The drawers filled with candles and cards, gloves and hats, and became crammed with papers. I had placed the desk near the garden window and would often sit there with a cup of coffee, keeping an affectionate eye on the Spanish lavender, lilacs, tulips, and then daisies. I had always intended the desk for writing, but for years I was only a writer in my mind.

As my 40th birthday closed in, I could physically feel the speeding up of time. It's Christmas again; it's spring already; summer will be here tomorrow and gone the next day. In a panic disguised as courage, I bought a computer and placed it on top of the desk. I filled the drawers with items necessary for writing. Underneath the glass top I slid a photo of Mount Everest with a stick figure of me on top of the mountain. Now I set my alarm for six a.m. to write for one hour before getting ready for work. I can still see the Spanish lavender dancing in the flower garden as I sit smiling and creating each morning. I knew, even as a child, that I would use this desk someday to fulfill my soul's desire to be a writer.

Selling Out to Starbucks

by Stephanie Shenk

I used to go in for the independent, cute, atmospheric coffee shops. Now, I seem like a Starbucks infatuee. Seattle is full of them—so why not me? But I'm not! I never went in to Starbucks almost at all until the work/Internet thing happened. Now I go into independent, cute, atmospheric coffee shops and get confused. The seats are wrong, the cups aren't green and white, the coffee tastes different...

In 2003, I started "working from home." I thought it would be really great to use wifi to work from coffee shops around the city. So I tried the free, cute places: Victrola, Bauhaus, Café Vita.

But these free Internet places didn't provide enough security for me to access my company's network, an essential part of my tech editing job. I could only get through using pay wifi, and when it came to that, the choice of T-Mobile Hotspots at Starbucks was a no-brainer. Not only I did I already have a T-Mobile cell phone, which discounted the monthly payments, but Starbucks is everywhere, providing me connectivity to my work across city and country. Very cool.

So now I do all my writing and editing at Starbucks, be it for my job or otherwise. And I have experienced things I had wanted to avoid. Although sometimes they play classical or some nice blues or jazz, Starbucks' usual repetitive easy listening gets old, fast. Also the selection of healthy food is pretty limited and expensive, but then I find that that's true of most coffee shops.

On the other hand, there are certainly things I've discovered that I like about Starbucks. I like the coffee, which is of course a good start. The atmosphere is open and pleasant for working. And it seems like a good cross-section of each neighborhood can be found at the local Starbucks.

My favorite Starbucks in Seattle is the one at Denny and Olive Way on Capitol Hill. It's large for a Starbucks, with tons of windows offering a view of Capitol Hill street life and a bit of downtown skyscrapers. There are plenty of differently sized tables and a bunch of comfy chairs. On sunny days I like to sit at the large table in the back, with my back to the windows, soaking up the sun.

It's also quite easy to have my friends, workmates, and fellow writers meet me at the Olive Way Starbucks. It's close to I-5, has its own parking lot, and there's a bus stop right outside.

Of course sometimes I escape back to the cute, independent coffee shops, especially when the editing-for-pay is not involved. And they are cool and eclectic, with better music. But their products and atmospheres are all so irregular and unpredictable! Plus, Starbucks offers such a uniform backdrop for a social study of all parts of town—well, that's hard for a writer to pass up.