Lindsay Roemer's Writing Process

 On a beautiful Friday morning, Lindsay sits in a corner booth of her favorite coffee shop. She looks out the window, watching the cars go by and contemplating what to write about. She enjoys a blueberry muffin and a strawberry banana smoothie to help fuel her brain and motivate her to get her work done. As she opens up her chromebook, she wishes she had a new laptop. The chromebook moves slowly and a new device would certainly allow her to get her work done faster. She pushes through the struggle of slow connection and begins to eat her breakfast before writing her paper. Lindsay thinks it would be nice if she would have brought her headphones because it is a busy morning at the coffee shop. However, she forgot them at home. Next time, she decides, she will not forget them. On the table she is working at sits her car keys, cell phone, and her backpack. She is extremely tempted to look at her phone, just to check and see if anyone needs her. Then, she reminds herself that she needs to get her work done, so her phone needs to stay out of sight and out of mind. She slides her cell phone, blue with a black cheetah print case, into her backpack and zips it up tight. It is freezing in here, she thinks, as she pulls her legs closer to her body. Hopefully, that does not hinder her getting her work done. She is easily distracted and needs to get into a comfortable zone to begin her writing. She remembers writing like this in an English class she took her senior year of high school. This class was Advanced Placement Literature and Composition with her favorite teacher of all time. This teacher drilled many skills into her students’ brains, how to write effectively being one of them. Lindsay thinks back on several papers she wrote in this class and tries to remember what she did to get herself to focus. She puts herself back in time and thinks about having to write papers of several pages in a rowdy high school classroom. It kind of reminds her of the setting she is in now, being in a crowded coffee shop with many people. She thinks to herself, “If I could get all that writing done while being distracted by my peers and friends, I can certainly get myself to write while being surrounded by strangers going about their days.” While looking around at all of the different people, she tells herself why she is here and how important it is to get to work. She takes one more bite of her muffin, which is almost gone by now, and one more sip of her smoothie and sets her cold fingers on the keyboard. Thinking about her writing topic, she tries to get started. She knows that beginning an assignment is always the hardest part for her. Once she gets over that first bit of just getting herself to do it, she knows that she will be just fine.