JOBS SECURED, WRITERS INSPIRED DEALS SEALED — IN A FEW SIPS IN TIME
There’s always so much selection on coffee shop menus these days. You might always simply prefer a basic cup of coffee, but wherever you go you can usually choose from cappuccinos, Frappuccinos, lattes, a range of teas, hot chocolate, cold drinks, and smoothies, as well as seasonal favourites. And if you’re feeling hungry, coffee shops have sweet and savoury items to tempt just about any palate.
Yet in addition to the occasionally bewildering array of menu items, there’s often much more brewing at your local coffee shop.
In Calgary, we’re fortunate to have a choice between major and smaller chains as well as delightful neighbourhood coffee shops throughout the city, many of which are true hidden gems.
Our coffee shops are frequented by a rich microcosm of local citizens, some of them using the coffee shop as a personal workplace.
Writers in particular inhabit coffee establishments, typing feverishly at their keyboard or staring at their laptop screens, perhaps waiting for inspiration. Of course, their fellow customers have no idea what they’re working on, unless they creep up behind the author and take a peek at the screen.
Rather than the next blockbuster screenplay or award-winning novel they could just as easily be writing a corporate marketing plan, an annual report, or checking over the previous year’s accounting statistics. They might also simply be surfing Facebook or some other social media site.
Yet if they are creating a novel or script their fellow customers might even provide the writer with an idea for a character or scene that fills a gaping hole in the plot. Writers can also observe others as they truly are or simply make things up about other people and their lives. The characters they invent might never appear in the writer’s story but it’s still a fun exercise.
I must admit that I’ve written in coffee shops in the past, usually to flesh out a chapter or a character or to work on some notes, usually with a pen and paper rather than with a laptop or tablet. It’s occasionally beneficial to have a change of scene and temporarily get away from the home office for a break.
And yet the coffee shop sometimes seems to be an odd place to try to craft something with words, particularly fiction, which often demands solitude. Even those corporate reports require at least some degree of concentration and focus. And coffee shops don’t exactly seem to be an ideal setting for students engaged in university projects or exam preparation either. Employing headphones to play the music of their choice may help but there are still so many visual distractions in a coffee shop.
As I mentioned earlier, peoplewatching can be an interesting diversion in a coffee shop. Couples encountering each other for the first time after connecting online often choose to meet in coffee shops. Meeting a stranger, or perhaps someone that you’ve only previously chatted to on a website, by text, or on the phone, actually works well in a coffee shop. A meeting can last anywhere from the time that it takes to finish a drink simply to be polite to a couple of hours, providing the couple gets along and that each person has time to spare.
Sometimes you might see couples on an initial date that are clearly not hitting it off. The body language alone may be enough to make your trip to the coffee shop that little bit more interesting.
I’ve even observed couples breaking up over coffee. This could have been deliberately chosen by one of them to avoid the possibility of an ugly public scene but it still seems like an odd location to officially end it all.
Coffee shops often appear to have been selected as a venue for other dubious reasons. I’ve seen interviews take place at Starbucks, ostensibly to make use of a relaxed setting.
However, surely there’s nothing less relaxing than discussing your strengths, weaknesses, hopes and ambitions for the future, relevant personal information, and of course your suitability for the job with a stranger in the company of an ever-changing group of coffee customers.
I’ve seen business meetings held at coffee shops too. Sometimes these appear to be for the purpose of finalizing the details of a project, between people who have met before and are comfortable with both each other and the location.
However, I’ve also noticed meetings that would probably have benefited from a different setting, including those involving discussions about complex or even legal matters.
Well, since I’m writing this in one of my favourite coffee shops, I’d better either get another drink or let someone else have my table.
There are just so many distractions in here. Simon Rose is a Calgary writer and the author of many novels, non- fiction books, and articles on a wide range of topics. He also works as an instructor at local universities, schools, and with community associations. You may learn more at www.simon-rose.com