Welcome to Writes & Bites — a series where Creative Writing MFA student Arianna Gundlach will periodically review a potential writing spot in New York City and tackle a writing topic that might be on your mind.
Hello, dear readers (and hopefully writers). I’ve been expecting you.
If you’re looking for that trendy café to plot the next great American novel, look no further. If you’re searching for the most picturesque park to conjure your world-building, read on. If you’re dying to find that hole-in-the-wall bookstore with page-turning reads to inspire your next premise, please continue. If you simply want a convenient study space (outside of The New School) with reliable outlets and tasty snacks, this series is for you.
Today we’ll be looking at some perspective on a classic and a favorite — Starbucks. And before you stop reading, don’t worry, it’s not just any Starbucks. Ten minutes from the University Center, you will find the Greenwich Lane Starbucks Reserve at 1 Seventh Ave.
Starbucks Reserve is an upscale version of your typical Starbucks with a larger space, more seating, “a selection of the rarest, most extraordinary coffees Starbucks has to offer,” and a commitment to “evolving the coffeehouse experience to something surprising and multi-sensory.” You can even take it a step further and visit the nearest Starbucks Reserve Roastery at 61 Ninth Ave., which is more akin to a gorgeous art installation than a coffeehouse.
When you enter the Greenwich Starbucks Reserve, you start a choose-your-own-adventure experience. Go to the right for the café (nonalcoholic drinks and food items) or to the left for cocktails and the bar. There’s a homey feel in the café’s seating section with leather chairs, thick curtains, and black Art Deco lamps. The bar seating has higher tables, counter space at the bar and along the windows, and seats similar to bar stools with a low back. For those who need to charge up, there are more outlets in the café seating than near the bar.
The entire store has classy wood furnishings and the good-times vibe of an after-work place, where you can enjoy catching up with a friend. There’s also outside seating for when you want to enjoy yourself on a nice day. It’s a chatty atmosphere inside the store — not the place for people who prefer quiet and seclusion to study. There’s a good number of people but not so many that you can’t find a seat.
This could be a productive place to get out of your head but probably not the right place to focus. On the flip side, the soundscape is perfect for listening to conversations, either because you’re a writer or just curious (I don’t judge, either way). The seating arrangement and large windows also make this the ideal place for people-watching.
When you decide you’ll stay and pick a seat, you’re then faced with all the choices. A regular Starbucks already has many offerings: what’s on the printed menu, the full menu online, and customizations. The Starbucks Reserve menu elevates this with new signature drinks, cocktails, pastries, and savory foods beyond breakfast sandwiches.
So you start to consider: maybe go with something in season and trendy like a pumpkin spice latte or a cool and adult drink like an espresso martini or something that immediately catches your eye like the dark chocolate mocha. Picking a food or drink practically becomes a challenge, and you might start to wonder if it would be easier to take a seat and order nothing.
Your inner critic comes out to play: whether it’s the calorie count police, the Instagram foodie, or the indecisive perfectionist. They sit there at the bar with a pumpkin spice espresso martini in hand, mocking you — judging you. And for us writers, the inner critic can be just as crippling.
But instead of menu items swirling around in your mind, questions take their place. Am I a good writer? What if I have nothing to say? What if no one likes my work? What if no one even reads it? Suddenly everything you try to write has this enormous pressure that has you hitting the backspace after every sentence, every word.
Writer’s block takes up residence in your head.
I recently learned the phrase “kill the committee.” The committee is when your icky inner critics all band together against you. The hard fact is you have to take them down — no mercy.
But how do you do that? Don’t worry, I’m going to tell you.
First, implement hard limits. Put away your phone, have your preferred writing instrument handy, shuffle your favorite playlist, or sit in silence. Don’t give yourself any room for excuses, and don’t enforce any expectations on what you’re about to write.
If nothing comes to mind, if your current work in progress is too daunting to continue — write anything. Write absolutely anything. It doesn’t have to be good or coherent or important. It just has to come from you, and that’s enough.
Now, try not to immediately delete what you write. Writing by hand can be a good method for the perfectionist since it takes more time to erase something than just to press the backspace button.
Surround yourself with a small circle of trusted readers: friends who are honest, but also hype you up. These friends are good for pep talks in person or over the phone, when you’re really feeling in your head about your writing. They’ll help remind you of what you love about the practice, and jog your memory of what it’s like to get lost in exciting characters, worlds, and plot lines.
If you still feel the committee creeping in, take a shower or a walk. There’s something about the cleansing powers of hot water and fresh air that clears the mind. Come back to the page or the screen and word vomit what came to mind in the steam or out in nature. No pressure, no judgment.
Then try to keep this practice up every day; keep yourself limber. Again, it can be absolutely anything. I know one day you’ll write something you’re really excited about, and it won’t seem so hard anymore. Because that committee will be far gone, or at least more of a whisper than a roar.
So when you find yourself at the Starbucks Reserve, choose that delicious drink and that scrumptious treat guilt-free and then put something down on the page. I personally recommend the dark chocolate mocha and the cinnamon roll. Kill the committee; wave goodbye to the critic. You got this.
Writers, if you want the inside scoop about writing in the city, please bookmark The New School Free Press’s website and follow us on Instagram (@nsfreepress) because you won’t want to miss this series.