I've seen other people do it, hole up in a refuge away from distractions to work. I'd never done it myself, though, until this week.
I'd been plodding along, trying to convince myself that I can work from home and do all that I have to do, but the myth finally collapsed this week. In the next three weeks I have two books to go into production and one to write. I can't afford to fuck around on irc, waste half an hour researching an answer to an unimportant email message, or work on anything but The Next Book.
So today I fled to Barnes and Noble at lunchtime and sat down in a comfy chair by a powerpoint, plugged in the TiBook, and edited like a madman. It was great. I read three chapters (admittedly, the writing was some of the best I've ever had--Randy Ray's a natural) and didn't play Spiderman or AIM with Rael once.
The next mission is to find a nearby 802.11 open access point so I don't have to come home to upload email and download the next batch. Starbucks is closer than home, so they'll be next. I'm hoping there's net available from Best Buy, which is directly across the street from Barnes and Noble. Then again, after the wireless cash register debacle there might not be any 802.11 in the house at all.
Unfortunately, my town hasn't been wardriven yet. If I had an exterior antenna, I'd do it. I'll just try likely places, but if the presence of 802.11 in my dentist's offices is anything to go by, "likely" places are in the most unlikely places.
--Nat
