My New Writing Hangout

Hi guys,

Never fear, I've been busy!

Last week, I had a thought that'd been intensifying throughout the days. As the end of the year draws near, I grew more tired day by day. That, and I could only keep up a routine only for so long. I would like to think that I'm a patient man, and two years of the same thing is long enough. Anyway, my productivity's down, and I have been frequently missing my quota, only hitting it sometimes, while at other times, I was writing at around 500 words each day before passing out. On some days, I'd even skip out on it.

That was when I'd decided. It's time to change up the routine! Introduce something new!

I've died and gone to heaven.

I'd decided to spice up my writing sessions, at least once a week. Previously, all my writing was done at home, sometimes in one long marathon, usually in two 500-word sessions per day. It was all nothing but the writing - no distractions except classical music on my other computer.

The alternative:

Yum... Always love myself some meat off a poor victim... (Of course it's not human!)

I didn't think it would work. See, there's a Korean BBQ restaurant in the local shopping centre, and lunch there is at a very reasonable price. About $17.50 per pax after GST and service. I get to barbeque my own meals there, so the result is a slow meal with time in between, so I thought I could squeeze in some time in between.

Of course, there were many reasons as to why such an idea would fail. First, my meal would require constant attention, attention which will be pulled away from my writing. Secondly, with that barbeque tray in the middle, it gets a little crowded. Third, any restaurant's noisy.

I managed to pull it off and more. The problems I encountered weren't much to begin with. I was able to multi-task, I was given a large table because it's office hours and there weren't as many customers, and noise means little when you're in the zone.

I was able to write 1,500 words in one seating that day. I haven't done such a thing even during my Batam writing retreat, where about 1,000 words in one seating is the norm.

I've done this again today, and I managed to pull off 1,300 words, even with company.

While I'm still trying to understand how on Earth such a place could accommodate writing so well, I have a few ideas:

- I have to wait for my meat to cook. It gives me time to write.

- The cosy, campfire-like ambience is good for self-reflecting and internal dialogues and struggles while writing.

- Each meal lasts several hours with my writing thrown in, as opposed to 30 minutes tops.

- The barbeque and the meal justifies sitting in one place for several hours, whereas just sitting down in my room for the express purpose of writing is intensive and thus exhausting and taxing on my nerves.

It's incredible. I guess I have another weapon in my arsenal for good writing. You guys should try it! And it doesn't have to be human meat!