Writing Romance (Anything) in Public

Here are seven tips to help you get more work done in public spaces.

Photo by Ceyda Çiftci on Unsplash

Where We Write VS What We Write, and What’s the Right Way?

So at home, I turned my dining room into my writing room. Before you get all jealous that I have a lovely writing room, it’s a cubicle against a wall. I live in a condo, and my dining room isn’t a room but an area off the kitchen and living room. I hate open-space layouts! But that’s another topic for another day.

My cubicle is tiny, like so small I only have enough room to twist my chair from side to side, not actually move the rollers. But my chair is pretty comfy. I scored a gamer chair at Costco for a decent price. I also have a monitor, not super big, but way bigger than my iPad I write on out in the wild. Plus, with my laptop as a second screen, I can see multiple things simultaneously, making my life so much easier when writing.

But I hardly ever get to write at home anymore, which is why my production has gone way down.

Between taking my husband to the hospital three days a week for outpatient therapy, we have numerous other doctor appointments. So I use my iPad and keyboard to try and get work done.

I’ve come to spend my time at the hospital in my car instead of sitting in the waiting room because the HGTV channel blaring and people interrupting me has driven me to anger too many times.

But today, it’s over 100 degrees in the desert, so I had to give in and go to Starbucks and sit inside while I try and get some work done. This brings me to today’s topic, writing sex scenes in public.

I kid you not; I was writing a three-way MFM situation when a man decided to ask me what I was typing so fast. First, I was in a flow and interrupted. Second, dude, mind your own business. I said work, then slipped my over-ear noise-canceling headphones back on, but he decided to let me know it was Saturday like I did not have a screen in front of me which displays the date.

“Yes, I know,” I said after pulling back one of my headphones and first asking him, what? Since I couldn’t hear him.

“You need to enjoy your weekends. Before you know it, your life will pass you by.”