Navigating Coffee Shops

Ever since I bought a Tablet PC, I've been searching for the perfect environment to work on my comics in public.  I've learned much - and after three or so months of this task, I've finally come to the conclusion that my premise was the very thing holding me back.  Namely, the idea that I'd somehow be more creative and inspired in public.  Most people I talked to during this time would say things like, "oh, I could never get work done in a public setting."  At the time I found this curious, but after spending countless hours navigating the sea of public realms, I finally think I actually mostly agree with their sentiment.  I do find it possible to get work done in a public setting, but I now find it a much more oppressive task than an inspiring one.

Originally, being among people was sort of exciting, and it had that tinge of a social atmosphere that I do find I need in order to feel creative.  What I soon discovered, though, was that the positive effects of this social atmosphere were countered by a low, but steady, self-consciousness.  An almost hidden self-consciousness.  One that wouldn't allow me to stay in any given spot for too long.  I'd do a part of my comic at one place, then feel uncomfortable, move to another, and so on and so forth.  What this meant was a lot of time spent setting up, then packing up, then driving - valuable time that could have been either spent working or taking a real mental and physical break from production.

The interesting thing I learned during this time was about the nature of coffee shops, however.  To set up my discovery, I should note that my first task when I began this method of working was finding appropriate places to get work done.  I tried several types of public settings - be it coffee shops, mall benches and seats, the park, friends' houses, or book stores - and found that the only atmosphere that was actually conducive to work was coffee shops.  The reason being that only coffee shops were places that people actually specifically went to work at.  If I went somewhere entirely social, I simply felt out of place and couldn't concentrate at all.

But coffee shops aren't all created equal, and just because one coffee shop is a work-centered environment doesn't mean they all are.  What I found was that different coffee shops had different micro-societies.  Not different coffee shop companies, either.  Different locations of Starbucks had the same amount of diversity that one Starbucks would have with a smaller name shop or vice-versa.  Some shops were entirely social, others entirely work-oriented, others a mix of both.  But a factor I hadn't even considered was age and social group.  I found myself most comfortable in college-level environments, semi-comfortable in middle aged environments, and least comfortable in high school-level environments.  But definitely the places I was considered least out of the ordinary were the places most comfortable to work at.  The only way to discover what place was what was simply through trial and error.  So if I was exploring a new location for the sake of variety, I never knew whether I'd be more productive there or if I'd leave after twenty minutes of awkwardness.

But as I said above, my ultimate discovery was that this very process was self-defeating.  Trying to spend hours upon hours at different coffee shops was a frustrating process, and the focus and attention, not to mention the feeling of losing yourself in your work, never really surfaced.  I'd much rather spend six hours in my room with a few get-out-of-there-and-walk-around breaks than to spend an hour at one coffee shop, drive to another, and then to another, and then to another.  That anchor of the room is actually a necessary component, and the feeling of, "I'm taking a break now, and I don't have to even think about comics during this break" was sorely missed during this experiment.

In the end, I think coffee shops are perfect for small amounts of reading or writing.  Say twenty to forty-five minutes.  That's just long enough to appreciate the atmosphere, enjoy your coffee, and leave.  Any more than that and you're really just forcing something that isn't enjoyable anymore.  Some things are just better in small doses.  Aspirin for one, but I really was referring more to what I've been talking about for the past five paragraphs.  Thanks for paying attention.

Anyway, here's a picture of a coffee mug from England that features (non-speaking) guinea pigs.