Four people sit in a hotel room, laptops out, writing. None of them know any of the others otherwise. If they do, they don’t really talk that much. They are not working together. Well, not directly. They are not collaborating on any one project. They are all writing, but nothing any one writes has to do with any of the others, besides being written in the same hotel room. They are just four people, writers, sitting in a room, writing. They do not interact with each other, in writing or in action, besides maybe to ask a question on grammar, vocabulary, or some such. Why are they here, then?

As earlier mentioned, they are not working together on a project. They have nothing in common besides sitting in the same hotel room and writing. Well, not exactly.

They all have one more thing in common. Every one of these four people are writers, but alone, they hardly ever write. They are lazy. They procrastinate. They are all slackers, but slackers with deadlines to meet — some professional, some personal, but deadlines nonetheless, deadlines that must be met.

The idea behind this is that putting a handful of lazy writers in the same room makes it easier for them to write. It forces them to write. It creates a situation where they feel they’re ‘supposed’ to write. It’s purely psychological. It’s all in their heads. It’s very effective.

It’s a delightful little mind trick. You come, you write, the alternative being just to sit there twiddling your thumbs while everyone else works. Then there wouldn’t be any point in showing up in the first place, would there? Of course, you could just not show up, but then you wouldn’t be doing anything useful with your life, now would you? Then you’d just be a pathetic waste of skin. A waste of space. A waste of oxygen. A waste of everyone’s time. Now, that wouldn’t be the case if you were born particularly attractive, or photogenic, or a natural leader, or talented with your hands, or kind, or charming, or blessed with a big, uh, inheritance. But no, you just had to be a writer, you couldn’t have just listened, you just had to — but I digress.

Back to what I was saying. Writers do this very often. Bestselling author John Green wrote Paper Towns in the same hotel room as at least two other authors writing two other books(including fellow YA writer Maureen Johnson), though in his case, they knew each other very well and were very close friends. Sometimes they spent more time talking than writing, but that is not the point. This is what writers do when they really need to force themselves to write. This is the sort of thing I’d like to try.

I’d like to arrange something like that. No need for a hotel room, yet. A café or something will do; anywhere with a table, seats, and power outlets, really. Only laptops and relative sanity needed. Conversation unnecessary. Snacks and/or wi-fi optional, but very much welcome. BYOB. Or coffee.