Starting a "writer's loft"

The city of Macon offers free space to artists -- writers, sculpters, painters and the Bohemian crowd. Decent lofts in quiant old buildings. Very SoHo feeling with drawls and humidity.. I'd JUMP at the chance to get space, however, it's 15 miles north of here and simply too inconvenient.

Check with your local library. My library has a "quiet room." Anyone can go in, plug in their laptop and stay as long as the library is open. There are also conference rooms that groups can reserve. If your library offers this, perhaps you could get together with a couple of writing friends and ask for a time when you can use the space.

Jackie

In Denver, we have the Lighthouse Writer's Workshop, and even though I am a member, I have only attended workshops, so far. (I live in the boonies)

If you know enough writers and other artistic types, and can get a decent area cheap enough, it might be worth it. Keep in mind it won't just be rent you have to find the money for, there'll be utilities and possibly a maintenance fee and so forth too. And if your artist friends start to drop out because they're broke, or don't use the space enough to justify their portion of the costs, etc., you may end up having to foot the entire bill.

Personally, I like coffee shops. The noise doesn't bother me; I've trained myself to tune everything out. Then, when I moved this spring and converted the little attic room in my house into a writing studio, I discovered at first that the studio was simply too quiet for me to concentrate.

Sorry to gloat for a moment, but I absolutely cannot imagine a better studio than the one I've got. It's far enough removed from the rest of the house that I feel remote and isolated, and there's a door at the bottom of the stairs if I want to shut the cats out. It's a cross-shaped room with a window at each compass point, and in the room I have: one desk, one chair, one set of shelves (with all my writing books and notebooks and NO FICTION TO DISTRACT ME!), a jar of pens, a stack of spiral notebooks, and a lot of anime posters on the walls. I use the room exclusively for writing, which I do every morning for an hour before I leave for work. It's perfect, except that my computer's downstairs (that's okay; I like writing in longhand). I hope you can find something just as perfect for your writing!

the problem is writers are usually "starving" or they have day jobs. When they're writing they usually look for cheap/free places to plug in that are quiet (but not too quiet -- writing is already a lonely endeavor), either at home at 3 a.m. or a coffee shop or library. Some people, like me, prefer coffee shops because a) there are drinks and food and b) foot traffic but not too noisy -- makes you feel less isolated.

I think if your "writing loft" is open 24/7 there might be a good idea for those who really can't write anywhere else and would like to set their own hours. However, I don't know if there would be enough interest in your area. However, you can also rent that space for writing groups, seminars, etc.

Here's some other possibilities:

Write when others are sleeping (that's what I do, an absolute must during the summer when my kidlets are home).

Depending on the time you wish to write, you could also get to know folks that already rent out office space and see if they'd be willing to sublet that space to you during their off hours. I read about someone that did this and was allowed full access to the computers, but if not, you may find it cheaper to buy a laptop as opposed to renting space outright.

Finally, if any of these above suggestions aren't an option, you may want to use an iPod or other small, portable radio to work as a white noise filter and get thee to a coffee shop. What music you choose to write with is a personal choice, however, I'd go with something that fits in with whatever you're trying to write and isn't too distracting on its own.

When I want peace and solitude, I go to the school library. There are small rooms there that you can use (provided there's no one in there already) which are soundproof (mostly) and very private. You can plug in your laptop there and enjoy endless hours of solitude and writing.

As others have said, the library is a great option - but there's one other that doesn't usually come to mind, and I say this only because a couple of years ago I had occasion to discover it out of the blue. A hospital surgery waiting area. They have quiet sections, electrical outlets, and there's just enough noise and people moving around to keep you from thinking you've fallen off the face of humanity.

Okay, sure, it's odd. And a library is probably less creepy - but they weren't operating on my sister in the library

library

DamaNegra said:

When I want peace and solitude, I go to the school library. There are small rooms there that you can use (provided there's no one in there already) which are soundproof (mostly) and very private. You can plug in your laptop there and enjoy endless hours of solitude and writing.

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Our public library has enough quiet rooms to go around, wireless internet, and you can plug in a laptop if you're worried about battery life. There's also a coffee and sandwich shop inside the library, and two good restaurants within fifty yards, if you want fancier food. If I work there for a few hours, I'll inevitably see at least a couple of people I know, which makes for a good break.

If they only had a place to sleep and a shower stall, I'd live there.

I guess the consensus for the OP is that no one would pay for a cubicle if they have free rooms.

I will point out that the cliche of starving writers/artists ain't always a cliche.

I am fairly successful at this career, but still need a day job to take up the financial slack. My budget is tight. I can't afford to spend gas to drive to some other location, pay even a small rent for the space, hope the restrooms are clean, hunt down snack machines, and hope other renters won't share their music and sex lives through the walls.

Not when I can just clear a table and do the butt in chair thing in my own house. (Portions of which I take off my taxes because it's my writing space.)

It's a wonderful idea, but look at the target group in your area. How many people in the mundane world are truly serious enough about writing/art that they regularly NEED such a space for their work?

I live in a city with a population of 1.6 million. Out of that entire number I've encountered no more than a hundred who were interested (more or less seriously) in writing, and less than a dozen of that number turned up on a regular basis to a "large" writers' workshop (5-10 people every week). It was a long-running workshop/critique and advertised widely at the library & bookstores, and we hardly ever saw new faces. Pro writers? I know four living in this town. They all work from home like me.

My town supports a major university, smaller colleges, and junior colleges, which are often breeding grounds for new writers. They're too busy or don't have the money to spare, so they plug in their iPods, sit in the dorms, campus libraries or their cars and write.

I'm all for giving talent some quiet space to write, but the practical application of providing one for so small a number may not work.

Unless the space you rent--and you'd have to put up that starting money yourself--is already divided up into cubicals/rooms you'll have to get raw materials and tools and do it yourself. If you're not into framing up new rooms with 2X4s, sheetrocking, installing doors and locks, then painting the space, you have to hire a contractor. They're not cheap, either. Building permits, janitor service, electric bill, water bill, garbage pick up--I'd really rather be writing.

You have to shell out to advertise and hope that the writers in your area bother to read the paper, look at library fliers, or posts on the BB at the grocers. (Or go to the right websites.) They have to sign a rental contract and you have to collect that money every month, which ain't fun when they don't have the cash.

Then you wait, like any good landlord, and hope customers show up and aren't too creepy.

Proceed with caution, 'k? If those others closed due to lack of financial support then you might want to learn from their experience.

Now...if you want to open a rav club & charge a cover for local bands to play three nights a week you could make a killing. The mess the next morning is pretty yukky, though.

Gillhoughly said:

I live in a city with a population of 1.6 million. Out of that entire number I've encountered no more than a hundred who were interested (more or less seriously) in writing, and less than a dozen of that number turned up on a regular basis to a "large" writers' workshop (5-10 people every week). It was a long-running workshop/critique and advertised widely at the library & bookstores, and we hardly ever saw new faces. Pro writers? I know four living in this town. They all work from home like me.

. )

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That surprises me. I would have thought a city that large would have many more people who are serious about writing. I live in a city of 17,000, and the numbers here aren't all that different. I've met maybe fifty people who were trying to be writers, and I can count fifteen off the top of my head who had had quite a number of articles and short stories published. I know five who have had books published. The writing group here meets at the library, and has fifteen to seventeen writers each week.

Maybe it's distance or the ease of reaching everyone in the city? I can walk from one city limit sign to the next in under an hour. Thanks to Bill Gates and an anoynmous donor, we have a massive library for a city this size, but we do have only the one, so everyone interested in reading and writing goes to it. This makes getting word out easy. And gas prices or travel time aren't concerns in a city this size. If you don't want to walk or drive, a city bus will take you anywhere in town for a buck. Our buses work like taxis. They pick you up at your door at your specified time, drop you off at the door you're going to, and pick you up when you ask them to.

What I don't know is a writer who needs a place to write enough to pay for one. The library works too well. You don't even need to own a computer. The library has so many public access computers, each with Word, that I've never seen half of them in use. Printing in black and white is free up to a certain number of pages, and last time I checked, was only two cents per page after that. These computers allow you to store writing online, or you can buy a disk from the library for a buck, save it, and take it with you.

The largest city in my state has a population of 781,000, and while it's rich on writers, it's equally rich in free places to write in comfort.

But there are places such as these that seem to be doing pretty well: http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/startingtowrite/tp/urbanspaces.htm

Huh. I didn't know Lighthouse Writer's Workshop had a joint for hangin' and writing. I'll have to check that out. I've been to their website, but that's about it.

When I win the lottery (annnnnny day now), I'm going to open "Geek Heaven." It'll be a store with all cool geek stuff from science fiction/fantasy to computer stuff to comic books. And then this thread has given me the idea of opening up the top floor with little cozy cubicles for writers. Then, of course, I'll own the chocolate shop next door and the pub on the other side for food and drink. I'll be independently filthy rich so I won't care if any of them make money.

COME ON, LOTTERY!!

Wow, I want your libraries. The biggest one we have in the entire two county area is a one room library with walls of books, no where to go but tables, and there are 5 total computers with almost constant use. Printing pages is 15 cents a page and you are only allotted 15 minutes at a time on a computer whether or not there are people waiting.

There are certainly no food places nearby and not allowed in the library anyway.

The population of that city that has that library is 20,000. There is no public transportation, and both counties are rather sprawling. That library is over an hour away. The only library where I live is the school libraries and we aren't allowed, as well, it's for the kids.

The nearest large library is about 4 hours north of here, and well, that's a bit far to visit a library. Thank goodness for thrift stores or I would never get to read. At 50 cents a book I can actually afford monthly allotments of fiction. Whether or not I have the time with three small kids, is another matter, but it's worth the hassle.

We have a great library system here. The problem is city parking -- that's a hassle -- and hours. The library closes at 5 or 6 p.m. Unless you have writing as a "day job," those hours are just not good for anything.

There's a great coffee shop in my neighborhood. It opens from 7 a.m. to midnight, and offers free wi-fi and 1:3 AC outlet to table ratio, and it's usually pretty quiet. I love going there to write. The only issue I have is sometimes the music is a bit loud, especially during "happy hours." I can always plug into my iPod and drift away...

I also like to write at Panera Bread (when kids are not invading that place).

Library

Wow, I'm suddenly feeling very grateful for our library. It was never small, but the Bill Gates grant, plus the anonymous donation, allowed us to more than double the size. Not counting the two large computer rooms, the computer reference room, and the quiet rooms, there are at least thirty-five to forty very comfortable, plush, reading chairs, and quite a few laptop chairs scattered throughout. There's even an auditorium for plays, lectures, and the like.

The library parking lot is also huge. I don't know how many cars it could hold, but it's used as a staging area for parades each Memorial Day and Independence Day, and it holds all the marching bands, the floats, the cars, the tractors, etc. It's something over two acres, so parking is never a problem.

It also has a couple of outside reading areas, and joins onto an art park where you can read in nature, or look at art by local painters.

It's open from eight in the morning until nine in the evening, and is planning on extending the hours.

It's easy to forget just how lucky we are, especially for such a small city.

Our big Seattle public library (brand new, btw) is amazing. But my local little podunk one is pathetic. I used to lounge and write in the Kyuan Yin teahouse in the city, they had free wi-fi and you could stay all day, write and drink tea and schmooze with other Bohemian-types.

I find I can't concentrate well at Starbucks, too much coming and going and talking going on. And people who will walk right up to you, read your screen, and start asking stupid questions!

MidnightMuse said:

I find I can't concentrate well at Starbucks, too much coming and going and talking going on. And people who will walk right up to you, read your screen, and start asking stupid questions!

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No way. How RUDE!

bylinebree said:

But lord, there was so much racket I really could focus that well!
Maybe guys can focus better with alot noise--do you find that true?

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I find I can block a lot out -- for instance I can write at work during lunch and ignore everyone around me -- but in a public place, with strangers milling about and talking, it gets too distracting. Maybe because I enjoy people-watching, and find it easy to stop writing and do that.

But yes, I've had so many people try to read my screen and then want to know what I'm doing (when they realize I'm not surfing porn) I've had to come up with some interesting replies!

I'm sort of a mobile office person myself--put the laptop and its accessories in a bookbag and hoof it off to the nearest coffee shop. I'm pretty lucky living in Boulder; there are plenty of options to choose from, so I can be picky about atmosphere.

I need to leave the house less and less these days to write, since my husband and our current housemate both have full time jobs. But in the afternoons if I want to be alone to write, not listen to people watching YouTube or TV, not be a target for friendly chatter, not take up the entire kitchen table when others want to use it to eat or something, then I need to skedaddle. I've got some routines going:

dinner occasionally at Korea House, who don't seem to mind my taking up the two-top by the electrical outlet for about an hour and a half, pecking alternately at the keyboard and at my kimcheechigae

late evenings at Amante, a coffee shop/sports bar that doesn't close until 10:30 and has a high enough ceiling that the background noise gets muffled among the industrial-looking ducts and things

late night at Conor O'Neill's, whose bar menu and drinks menu are both awesome, and where if I sit by the electrical outlet by the defunct dart board I won't be too bothered by the noise of whatever evening entertainment is going on in the next room

as a last resort, there's the IHOP.


All of the above have wi-fi, or are near enough to someone else's router for me to pick it up. I like my streaming radio, online dictionary and maps, easy reference source, and short procrastination breaks.

I considered renting an office with a friend; I found the idea of having a designated place outside the home to "go to work" appealing. But rent's high and neither of us would use it often enough to justify it. Maybe if the right opportunity came up with the right price and within walking distance of home, I'd consider it.

Writing

Depending on where you live, an apartment may be the answer. Before we lived in a place large enough for a home office, I rented an apartment just to write in.

You can still rent a decent apartment here for $300 per month. We're about to suffer empty nest syndrome, and may move to a smaller place. If we do, I'll likely go back to renting an apartment for use as an office. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than renting business space. I like privacy, and I also like having my own kitchen, plus a place to take a bit of a nap, and a place that's available twenty-four hurs per day.