Savannah Knightly

You hear about people writing on their lunch breaks, and maybe their lunch breaks are different from mine. I’m not sure I’d be able to write at lunch at work. I especially can’t see writing romance novels in public places like that.

First off, I don’t like people looking over my shoulder when I work. I guess maybe in a restaurant or something where there’s more privacy (because you don’t know the people, or there’s a high booth behind you), it would work out. In a break room would definitely be chancy. I’d have to have my back to the wall, and knowing my coworkers, they’d still ask what I was working on and tease me for working instead of relaxing and talking to them. So I doubt I’d get much accomplished.

Even with that, though, the biggest reason I don’t think I’d get a lot done in a public place is because I’m writing a romance novel. *a steamy romance novel. That involves love scenes – the more, the better, right?

Call me paranoid, but I can’t help think that writing love scenes in a public place could backfire big-time. Especially at work. At minimum, it’d be incredibly embarrassing if someone looked over my shoulder, realized what I was writing, and reacted loudly enough for everyone to know. Not that I’m embarrassed about what I write – it’s more that sex is not the sort of thing you talk about with your coworkers.

Talk about unprofessional! HR would definitely not approve.

On top of that, reading a love scene has very specific side effects (part of why we read them, right?). Writing them isn’t that different. And that’s also something that I’d rather not be dealing with at work. I mean, I’m not gonna jump a coworker or anything (Even if I really wanted to, I like my job, and I would like to keep it), but that feeling is not at all conducive for focusing on work. Plus, well, it’s not the most comfortable way to sit for hours. And as a woman, even finding a private moment to take the feeling to its natural conclusion isn’t going to reduce that. In fact, it’d make it worse.

Not to mention embarrassing side effects on clothes and furniture…

So I guess writing in public works better for other genres. Or for people with showers nearby. Hell, maybe it works for people writing romance novels that skip the love scenes or rely extremely heavily on euphemism and metaphor.

As for me, I guess I’ll just have to keep writing at home. And wonder whenever I see someone working on a laptop in public… 😉