You may not have written anything spectacular, you may not have a novel out there or even write for that matter but you can still make people think you are a writer / famous novelist.
Here are some useful tips on achieving that all important ‘I am a writer’ look. It’s very fashionable and bang on trend.
We writers always hang out in coffee shops so this is the perfect location to give the general public the impression that you are a writer / famous novelist. This is what my Saturday mornings are spent doing – sigh!
1. Look the writer part. Track suit bottoms / pyjamas, hair not seen a brush for days and that bleary eyed / been stuck in front of a laptop for days stare.
2. Your coffee order is a reflection of your creativity. As a writer you need to be ordering something creative. Make it wild, wonderful and overly complicated. Try something like a ‘Caramel Macchiato, Venti, Skim, Extra Shot, Extra-Hot, Extra-Whip, Sugar-Free’ and watch those behind you in the queue stare in amazement.
3. Make sure you have a pencil tucked behind your ear and you are wearing glasses. Even if you are using a laptop / tablet make sure you still have the pencil behind your ear. Glasses make you look brainy so whip some on. Together these simple touches scream ‘creative person’.
4. Place yourself by a window. Stare out of the window with creative expression on your face (blank look) and then start typing. Stop typing and return to gazing out of the window. Repeat ten times for maximum effect. It looks like you are getting creative inspiration for your novel from the world around you. No one needs to know you are typing your shopping list!
5. Stroke your chin a lot. Makes you look like you are in deep consideration mode and you are pondering over your next plot sequence. Make sure it is a stroke and not a scratch ladies, regular scratching of the chin can lead to awkward looks.
6. Mutter to yourself. Those characters inside your head need to come alive inside a coffee shop. This is what writers do – they make characters come alive. You are a creative person so this sort of thing is expected. Creative people who mutter to themselves always attract attention. Top tip: I find the stronger the coffee the more I will mutter.
7. Pile some paperback books around your laptop at the table. People instantly think you are a writer if you have books next to you. Such a simple trick! Just make out they are your earlier novels. Top tip – check that you are the same gender as the person who did write the novels. As a female there is ‘crash and burn’ potential if you try to make out you wrote a ‘John Grisham’ novel.
8. If someone asks whether they can use one of your chairs say that your literary agent will be sitting there shortly. This is such a jaw dropping statement to make. Watch their eyes widen after you say this. They will then return to their table, have a hushed conversation about you with someone and if you are lucky you will get a finger point. If you play this well you might even get a “can I have a selfie with you?” Sigh!
9. Yawn a lot whilst typing. Give the impression that you have been up all night writing your literary masterpiece.
10. Make loud imaginary phone call. Use a phrase like “they say I am the next J.K Rowling” whilst looking around and catching the eye of other customers who can’t stop staring at you. This works a treat with older people.
11. Use glamorous friend to pose as an agent. Thanks to M.L. Kappa for this gem. Basically you ask a glamorous-looking friend to wear shades and a power suit and drop by pretending to be your agent.
Have a great day!
If you liked this post, don’t miss, ‘How To Spot a Writer In a Supermarket.’
photo credit: Gui Seiz <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/45537764@N06/6575395943″>Quoffee</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/”>(license)</a>
I’ll have to make use of these tips the next time I go to a caffee house. The problem for me is that I don’t drink coffee but whenever I see one of those extra special cappucino caramel mocca latte whipped cream creations I get such a craving for them. They look too cool. Ah well. Maybe I’ll put a pencil behind each ear to compensate.
Yep get that pencil wedged behind an ear! Go for that subtle creative look
Great tips! My problem in coffee shops is I can’t write…the voices around me interfere with the words I am trying to think of. Weirdly, though, I have an enormous writing connection with such shops because there’s a coffee shop in central Wellington where I’ve been meeting various of my publishers for many years! (They serve good coffee, too).
Thx Matthew – I just like to look like a writer – perhaps if I spent less time looking like a writer and actually being a writer I would finish my novel – food for thought 🙂
Matthew, how annoying can you be! This was obviously not meant for you, if you already
Have publisherS! AAARRGGHHH
This is so interesting and useful, i loved it 🙂
This sounds like fun xD
Thanks 🙂
These made me chuckle. I think I have number two covered: “Tall, classic hot chocolate, with a shot of peppermint, no cream.” Although I’m in there so much they start making it when I walk through the door 🙂
Thx Tara – nice to see you in these blonde parts 🙂
I haven’t called myself a writer…yet, but maybe I can look like one! Lol I need a lot of work.
Don’t worry YaYaSays Blondewritemore is here for you: grab a pencil, some glasses, a few books, a laptop and hot foot it down your local coffee shop 🙂
🙋 high five! Thanks!
Anytime American mentor 🙂
😳
Aw shucks!😳
Haha nice one
Thx Ifrahrao 🙂 happy Wednesday
Happy Wednesday to you too:)
I’ve another one… Ask a total stranger to keep an eye on your laptop while you go to the toilet. Only an indie writer would ever be so insanely optimistic as to imagine it will still be there when they return.
Yes love it!!! Thx Jools
Such a fun list 🙂 I know I’m guilty of #4, as I’m likely to stare blankly out of windows when inspiration isn’t hitting. Number 8 is a brilliant gem! I don’t have the stones to pull it off, but imagining it is fun 🙂
I have tested them all Augustmacgregor and they all work. Its good to see you wandering through these blonde parts 🙂
I can’t stop laughing at this post! I might add, you look very writerly in the photo on the left. 🙂 Well done!
Thx Sue – make sure you adopt the writer look at all times 🙂
Awesome, I’m gonna go out there and be a famous novelist! I even have the writer’s backpack to carry the books and laptop in for an added bonus. 😉
It’s all about looking the part E Rawls!
I never realized that before! 😀 Watch out, because here comes the Next Miss Best-Seller!
Oh bless! I am sorry but that label is taken by me!! ha!
NooOOoooOOOoooo!!! I’ve got my lasso out (borrowed from Cosmic Hunter) and I’m gonna steal that title!
Don’t mention his name, still upset from when you stole him from me! Lol
Mwahahahaaaa! (evil laugh) Cosmic Hunter was never yours to begin with! He’s taking me to the beach tomorrow. ;P
Don’t rub salt in my wound!
*rub rub rub*
Check and check–but the fancy coffee. Just can’t get myself to do it. ‘Black, small’ is about all I can muster.
At least you are ticking some items 🙂
Reblogged this on blindoggbooks and commented:
Looking pretentious, hip and smart all at the same time isn’t easy!! These tips will help you impress the Starbucks crowd!
They sure do Tim, all tested and I guarantee you will get the ‘is he a writer?’ whisper!
Thx for the reblog 🙂 Happy Monday
Reblogged this on It's a bird! It's a plane! No, It's the Shiny Happy Sherry Fairy!.
Many thanks for this – Happy Saturday and virtual hugs 🙂
Thx for this 🙂
Well, #1 should be no problem at all 😉
Go for it Sue 🙂 Thx for dropping my these blonde lands 🙂
I usually do 🙂
Nailed it! (Do you have a camera on me?!)
Yay Ron! I knew it! What was your drink order? Hope it was creative and complicated. Happy Saturday!
I went rogue with tea. But looked extra thoughtful as I gazed out the window. Ya know, to balance it out.
Go for it Ron – rock that writer look!
Reblogged this on B. Shaun Smith and commented:
Like this!
Hey – thx for this – happy Saturday!
You misspelled intelligent in point 3, or was that part of being creative?
Oh my goodness – hang on!
Reblogged this on Suzie Speaks and commented:
This made me smile – I think Lucy over at Blonde Write More has got it spot on!
One more tip – get you most glamorous-looking friend to wear shades and a power suit and drop by pretending to be your agent….
Yes!!!!!!!! 💪 I want to add this!!! Can I – and quote you?
Be my guest 😜☕️
Done – thank you so much 🙂
Great post, btw!
Thx for dropping by and reading! Happy Sunday to you 🙂
I could deifintely pull this off – if I could spare the time from actually writing to go to coffee shops that is.
Go for it!! Thx for dropping by 🙂 happy Sunday
I’ve had a lot of trouble using my pencil to make corrections on my laptop. Could you expand on that point, including full instructions?
Lol! I have also had no luck with Tippex. Just tuck pencil behind ear and tP
Right. Do not use pencil. Consider pencil a hair ornament. I think I can handle that.
Tap away..
haha Made me smile. Though how anyone could write in a coffee shop is beyond me. I can just about bare the maddening-babble long enough to order ‘creative coffee’ and head outside with it 🙂
Oops…’bear’, not bare O_o.. Although, it might make a for a good story, to come across bare or bear in a coffee shop 😉
Ha ha ha. I love number 1. So funny. I dress like that, not to get coffee, but…
Thx D Wallace Peach 🙂
Sadly, I fell at the first hurdle… Can’t stand coffee. Does it work the same in a pub?
Yes of course – transferable skills. Just make sure your drink order is creative and complicated 🙂
Maybe we can practice at the Bloggers Bash. We didn’t really talk last year
Yes!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Hysterical!
Hey thx for reading 🙂
It was fun…I will be back!!
Yay!
Hilaripus
Hey thx Sacha Black 🙂
Brilliant! I can’t write at home, so I always go to my favourite tea room – I usually find I’m far more productive in there than I am in the house – just too many distractions!
Hey thx for dropping by! Happy Sunday!
I love this! You have such a fantastic sense of humor. In all honesty, I’m looking to get me a pair of the stereotypical ‘geek glasses’ just because I’d like to look more like a nerdy writer when I go places. Also, I love the ‘they say I’m going to be the next J.K Rowling’ part! Reading the first Harry Potter right now, (I know – so late to the party) and am loving it!
Hey thx! Enjoy your coffee shop trips looking like a writer!
Thank you! I can’t wait 😁
Too funny!!! Wish I liked coffee..
#3 – I already use a pencil to hold my hair up/back most of the time. Does that count, or do I need to add a second pencil? Because I feel like if I’m adding a second pencil, it should really be used to take some of the load off of the first one… adding a third, non-structural pencil seems like overkill. And possibly a waste of pencils. Plus, if someone asks me for a pencil, I’m going to look like a twat when I claim not to have any – which I will absolutely do, with a straight face.
Lol – great comment thx!
Love this! I also get so engrossed with people watching that i start to invent storylines for them in my head… maybe coffee shops are a great inspiration all round 😀
PS…i shall now be highly suspiscious of anyone sitting in a coffee shop with a pencil behind their ear, gazing wistfully out of the window, surrounded by books 😀
I am always inventing storylines lol! Yes look around writers! 👀
And to think, I’ve been doing wrong all this time. I thought writing in my bathroom, congealed coffee in a stained mug was how it’s was done! My bad. 😉
Lol, this is great! I’m definitely going to pull the “literary agent” line when someone asks me for the empty chair across from me next time haha!
It’s such a good move and if you are lucky you will hear a gasp followed by “she’s a writer – wonder if she’s famous?” Enjoy this special moment 🙋🏼
Fab post, Lucy! I love writing in a coffee shop, but now I know I’ve been going about it all wrong, so thanks for the tips! Btw that last one is a clincher… But how many non-writer friends don’t work in the daytime? All my local friends (as opposed to virtual internet ones) have proper jobs… sigh 😆
Enjoy! Hope you get the gasps and whisper “OMG she’s a writer!” from coffee shop customers. Its a special moment over a latte!
I so have this nailed! Note: most of my blog are about stuff I’ve noticed in the coffee shop! (Lots of mileage there). The only things I don’t do are: make loud phone calls (that’s just rude), order exotic coffees (as a writer I can’t cope with change, I need my securilatte), and I never have a glamorous friend drop by because a) I don’t have any glamorous friends, and b) I’m still writing my new glamorous friend…Otherwise, this is a perfect representation of my life!!! You’re a gem, as always!
Arrrr thx Caron – sounds like you already living the writer dream!
Well, blow me down with a feather duster in the library where Professor Plum killed someone with an icecube tray. I appear to be going about this all wrong and unconventional. Coffee shops are where I go post school run of a morning for toasted brown bread, marmalade and a pot of tea. Granted I sit by a window seat but I tend to stare into the tea listening to conversations, or people watching. Great sources of dialogue and mannerisms. Obviously that is broadened somewhat and turns me into a weird eccentric thinking about it….eek…or, not eek, I rather like the infamy approach. Introvert and all that.
Very funny post though and something I can so see Roxy et al doing…although, it might be fun to replace the eccentric vagrant look for a more befitting authoresque pretense…is the pencil blunted by the way? I rather feel a sharp one might throw the rest down the pan to a sharp mind such as Sherlock Holmes. Blunted and used I say, with a chewed end for those thoughtful pauses as the manuscript nears a tricky bit.
Gary, you need to start acting like a writer in your coffee shop. Scrap the pot of tea and quiet listening, get creative with your coffee order and start having some character conversations out loud. I will await an update.
Oh my, scary thought. I’m actually reducing caffeine too; not sure that’s a wise move for a writer and shhh, but I was all over Starbucks last weekend on holiday, my bad there! Maybe if I have jam instead of marmalade?
Well I have the messy hair, muttering and glasses part down pat so will work on the others now.
Ahh, great tips. I’ll employ some of these next time I stop by a coffee shop to write. Unfortunately, I live in a small town so many (most) people will know that I’m just the finance manager at the county library, but there are a good number of tourists in the summer. If I could convince them that I’m writing historical fiction, I think the selfie-sticks would appear like cord-wood.
Thanks for reading 👩🏼💻