Writing question: Do you go to a public place to write or need total privacy?

I was curious what our collective writing habits were, so recently I started asking some questions. Here we learned that a lot of people like to listen to music when writing, mostly instrumental, no lyrics to distract. And here we learned a lot of great — ahem! — excuses not to write.

So today’s question arises from an experience I had when I was last in LA. Visiting with a screenwriter friend for lunch at the Brentwood Market, he kept talking about showing me his office. This was a new thing because as long as I’ve known my friend, he’s written in his home office. But he walks me across the street to this building — right at 25th and San Vincente Blvd I believe — and inside were about 15 writers! Each at their own desk or cubicle. And this was my friend’s ‘office,’ a place where writers pay a monthly fee to have access. There’s wireless Internet, magazines and writing journals, coffee, but mostly it’s writers writing amidst a bunch of other writers.

I asked my friend why he paid money to travel to a place to be surrounded by other people — and he said, as I recall, that it helped him to commit to writing. When he’s at home, he gets distracted; in his ‘office,’ he just writes.

I should also say that as we were having our meal, there were these two young guys at a booth next to us, swapping time at a laptop, working on their screenplay. And, of course, you can’t go to a coffee joint in LA without seeing someone working on a script.

So how about you? Do you need privacy to write? Or are you one of those more ‘social’ writers who wants / needs the stimulation of other people around to stoke your creative juices (or whatever reason you choose to write in a public place?)

UPDATE: Here is an article from the WGA about various public writing spots in LA including The Office, the one I mentioned above, which my screenwriting friend writes to say is located on 26th right across from the Brentwood Mart.

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