My Favourite Writing Haunts in Bristol

Writing can be a lonely process.

In many ways, it's necessary, to enclose ourselves in our little writer's bubble and keep the world at bay, but when you live in such a fantastic city as I do - Bristol UK - there are so many great places to hang out and so much inspiration to be had outside of the four walls of my house!

Any creative and cosmopolitan city worth its salt has a buzzing cafe culture, and Bristol is no exception. Proud and stubborn supporters of our rich tapestry of independent businesses and cultural diversity, there are always new coffee shops, cafe's, bars and eateries popping up in this foodie city.

Being a writer is a perfect excuse to sample the many delights Bristol has to offer.

I pack up my notebooks and pens, my neat little Acer laptop, and love to venture out and explore.

When seeking out a space to work in, I usually end up in a coffee shop.

I'll give any place a try and here's the evidence...

My wallet of shame...

These are the coffee shop loyalty cards my wallet is bulging with:

I touched on my hunt for the ideal space to work in on a blog last year:

Coffee Shops: Office of Playground

With so much to choose from in Bristol, it's important to have a strategy, or at the very least, some criteria.

And just to be scientific about it, I created scoring criteria to measure different venues against.

I've scored independent places higher and chains lower, as I want to support local businesses - I'd rather my money went to the people that work for it, instead of shareholders and faceless corporations.

I've also scored child-friendly places lower. Sorry - I have nothing against children, but it's hard to work with children screaming and running around. There are enough places in the city for all of us, and for working, meeting poeple and writing, I favour places that don't double as a schoolyard!

I've marked the highest scoring, and my favourite places:

There are many more places than this, some I've tried, some are still on the list. This is just a snapshot!

One thing that did surprise me from the scores was the variance between Boston Tea Party's.

The one on Whiteladies Road scored the lowest: I scored them lower for environment, (it's dark, cramped, noisy and busy), low on Value For Money (the food and drink are expensive and although good, the portions aren't generous). The one on Park Street similarly, although the staff there are really friendly and attentive and seem to enjoy their work, so they scored higher. My favourite of the three is the one by Stokes Croft. They have a lovely outside area at the front and being a more studenty part of town, there are rarely children in there. It's narrow and twisty so the tables tend to be for two (ideal for working at), larger tables tend to attract crowds of noisy people and families.

My all time favourite snack when working is from BTP: 'Crunchy peanut butter on sourdough toast'.


Of all the coffee shops on this list, the ones that stand out, and that I spend most time in are:

Bakesmiths on Whiteladies Road

Book editing in Bakesmiths

They are a bakery and coffee shop, and the range of baked goods made on site is fantastic, and good value. I often get little free samples and they'll happily keep topping up my teapot with hot water. The staff are really friendly (they recognise me now!) The only drawbacks are it can get very busy and noisy in there and with all the big windows it can get really hot in the summer and pretty chilly in the winter.

Cafe Du Jour on Park Street
It's less busy and child-friendly than the one on Whiteladies Road, it tends to be frequented by office workers so there is never any issue with holding meetings or working on a laptop in there. The staff are really friendly too (they recognise me now!). Sometimes the coffee is a bit hit and miss, but the tea is always a winner and they are happy to top my pot up with hot water. The food selection is limited but excellent (although sometimes the cakes have been sat in the open for a while and can be a little dry).

Crazy Fox
One of the few independent coffee shops in Broadmead (most are chains). The coffee can be a bit hit and miss and it gets busy, especially at lunchtimes, the service can be slow (but at least they bring food to your table). I sometimes feel like I'm outstaying my welcome in there but its central location makes it a great place to meet people from outside the city, as often visitors don't know parts of the city other than the Broadmead and Cabot Circus main shopping districts.

The music is also great in here, it's as if they've hacked my favourite GooglePlay playslists!

Watching the world go by in Dom's

Dom's Coffee House
This place is new to Bristol and I met the owner, Louis, at an event in the summer when he was still working on the refurbishment of the building. Since then I've watched its progress with keen interest. The coffee is exceptionally good, staff are lovely, the big upstairs lounge is inaccessible for pushchairs and dotted with plug points to encourage people to work there. It's rarely busy and is easy to direct people to as it's right on the central promenade by the Hippodrome.



And on a sunny day, the best place is...

Bridgstow Bar and Kitchen

Pretending I live in Nice at the Brigstow

On the waterfront, with views out to the SS Great Britain, it's off the beaten track enough to be relatively quiet (except at weekends). The whole front opens out and with chilled beats gently throbbing through the speakers and seafood to die for, it feels very continental.


Some other noteworthy things about places on the list...

The Arnolfini shop is a highlight (it's often better than the exhibitions!) - I could spend hours in there looking at the gorgeous books.

At The Well have bite-sized cakes for when you want a sugar hit but don't want a sugar hangover!

Bristol Coffee House do the best Pastel de Nata (Portuguese custard tarts) in Bristol.

Cafe Amore has the feel of a brown cafe in Amsterdam (without the smell of pot!). The food is great value too, ideal for lunch.

Cafe Kino is vegan and veggie (I'm not) - their veggie sausage rolls are amazing (dare I say it, better than a meat one!).

Hennesey's is bursting with literary quirkiness, really sweet little place, my favourite cafe in Bedminster.

Although I wouldn't actively choose a Starbucks, at Christmas I love their seasonal coffees - 'Egg Nog Latte' is just warm creamy loveliness, it's like a hug in a mug!

The Bristolian is rather conveniently located at the bottom of my brother's street and our hangout of choice. Their breakfasts are phenomenal, generous and delicious!

The Playground has playground stuff in it - I love the swing seats!

I always bump into people I know in the Watershed, and famous people randomly turn up there. I met Natalie Bennett (at the time, Leader for the Green Party) in there and had a long chat with her about sustainable small business and we've chatted on Twitter since. I also ended up in the middle of a Roni Size pop-up DJ set in there! With free WifFi, it's the go-to workplace for luvvies and media-types.

Where do you like to write?




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All I want for Christmas...

My mewsings are all about Christmas right now...

My business is taking the back seat while Christmas invades every inch of desk space in my office.

Spot the proof copy of 'Gabriel's Game, Part 2: The Black Knight' languishing in a pile of tissue paper.

It's already filled with scribbles and editing notes. My first job after Christmas is to update it, get feedback from my other beta readers and then publish it. I'm hoping to publish it by the end of January.

Too late for Christmas unfortunately, but just in time for everyone who had a Kindle for Christmas


...to load it up with new books!



Although I'm not making much money this month with my Amy Morse, Authorpreneur business, I am at least saving money by making lots of presents this year (sort of). 

I've been melting chocolate and baking biscuits like a woman possessed and creating labels for all the homemade goodies going in Christmas hampers this year...

 

I've also been thinking about what my next 365 project should be for 2016. 

In 2015 it was 'Authorpreneur Almanac: 365 Adventures in Writing and Entrepreneurship'

I launched my authorpreneur business and have worked at it every day, updating my blog weekly.

I will publish a compendium of 52 blogs on writing and entrepreneurship in the new year, so watch out for that...

Zentagling my way around Bristol

I'm taking a break from writing after the marathon effort of the Sheridan and Blake Adventure Series.

By Christmas I would have published 4 books in 2 years, with the final installment; Gabriel's Game, Part 2: The Black Knight - coming out.

I have some ideas for other writing projects and some spin off books from the series marinating in my head, but for now, I'm finding my creative muse elsewhere.

This weeks musings involve ink on paper...

I've been playing around with Zentangles and as is mandatory for me when I embark on any kind of project, I, of course, create a Pinterest board of inspiration and ideas:

Follow Amy Morse - Authorpreneur's board patterns on Pinterest.

The meditative therapy of Zentangles is becoming more and more popular, with books now on the subject:

I had this one for Christmas a couple of years back :

Zentangle Basics

Essentially, it's creating repeating patterns.

Dusting off a sketchbook, the first thing I did was to create a sampler board of various patterns to refer back to:

 

I then took out a pair of compasses, drew some intersecting circles and had a play

 I experimented with a variation of one pattern:

I thought about how I could apply my experiments with black ink. 

Still stuck in the world of Sheridan and Blake, I thought about images to do with my books and decided to start with locations. 

An obvious place to draw inspiration is from the place I know well, the place that I love and the place where much of the books are set: 

The City of Bristol

Bristol has an iconic skyline. Being a city build up the slopes of the Avon Gorge it benefits from some fanatic vistas at various elevations. Panorama's range from the magnificent Clifton Suspension Bridge, to the jaunty colourful houses along Cliftonwood and Hotwells and Totterdown. 

There are also some impressive old buildings in Bristol, such as the Wills Memorial Hall, the Cathedral, and Temple Meads Station.

Going through images of the city it's mind-blowing deciding which buildings and vistas to start with. 

So I've started by studying windows:

Can you guess what this building is?

 

What about this one?

The next one isn't a building but a majestic piece of maritime engineering:

My experiments are getting more ambitious now, I'll share some more images with you next time.

Please comment below and see if you can guess where these windows look into?

 

5 Non-monetary Reasons to Love Crowdfunding

 My latest...

Adventures in Writing and Entrepreneurship 

After successfully completing a crowdfund last year to publish Solomon's Secrets, when I was asked to join the organising committee for Bristol Festival of Literature this year and we talked about how we would finance such a monumental project to host a fantastic city wide event; crowdfunding was my first thought.

But crowdfunding is not just about money - there are plenty of other reasons to consider it to boost your business.

Here are 5 non-monetary things I love about Crowdfunding:

1. Building Community. You can mobilse the support of your fan base and give them a hook to share with their networks
2. Social Proof. It’s a very public way of showing that people support what you are trying to achieve
3. Marketing Platform. It’s a great excuse to embark on a sustained marketing campaign to raise awareness.
4. Newsworthy. A crowdfund is a newsworthy activity and makes better editorial copy than an advertisement
5. Telling Your Story. People don’t just buy people, they buy stories. A crowdfund campaign can provide a great platform to share your story and engage people

Support Bristol Festival of Literature by sharing this link to the crowdfund:

https://www.fundsurfer.com/project/bristol-festival-of-literature

Follow on Twitter: @BristolLitFest

Use the hashtag: #Unputdownable2015

Coffee Shops: Office or Playground?

Follow my adventures in writing and entrepreneurship on my website and read more blog posts offering; tips, advice, inspiration and ideas for freelancers and small business:

www.AmyMorse.co.uk

 

I am self employed, but I'm also a social person and gather energy and inspiration by being around other people. 
 

It means that one of the greatest challenges I face is struggling with the isolation that working at home can bring.

I find a reason to go out every day and like to conduct business over a coffee with people, when people meet me, they are more likely to want to work with me.

As a writer, it's easy to lose an entire day tapping away at a keyboard and not see another person until my husband gets home from work.

I like to take my laptop out with me and work in coffee shops. I find that just the babble of voices around me feeds my creativity and motivation to write, and it gets me out of my pyjamas and out of the house!

I live in the fantastic city of Bristol UK. 

A city that has won awards for its cuisine and its independent spirit.

A city that celebrates diversity and does so through food and drink. 

I am spoiled for choice for places to eat and drink and all within walking distance.

But Bristol is a different animal in the daytime during the week, when most people are at work. 

As you would expect in a family friendly city; during the week most of the coffee shops are filled with mums.

At this point, I need to add a caveat...

I'm in my late 30's, I'm very happily married (and have been for 12 years) and I have no desire to be a mum.

This is the part where most people look at me with either; fear, disgust, mistrust, horror or sympathy. 

I am a social pariah by virtue of the fact that I am childless and I choose to be. Even my own family (especially my own family) don't understand it.

I'm a proud aunt, most of my friends have kids - I don't hate children. I'm not some weird Cruella DeVille character who wants to make a child skin jacket. 

Kids are fine, they can be fun to be around, but at the end of the day I want to come home to a quiet house and minimal responsibilities.

Frankly, I'm amazed I've managed to keep myself alive for this long, let alone another person!

My husband and I are very happy in our family unit of 2 (+ cat) thank you very much.

I can work in a noisy, child filled environment but I don't want to. When I told this to my sister (who has 2 small children) she said that was "depressing".

Is it? Is it not okay for me to want to have a public space to work in that is not filled with children? (Without having to pay to book a room - the whole point is to be around people, not in a room on my own!)

Picture this: You're trying to have a professional meeting with another freelancer and you have to raise your voices over the sound of children screaming and make sure your bags, coats etc. are out of reach from sticky fingers.  

In a city as eclectic as Bristol with its, literally, thousands of coffee shops it should be possible to find one to take a laptop into or meet a client in, without feeling like I'm sat in an adventure playground?

This is my challenge.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to work in a variety of coffee shops in the city and rate them for their useability as a mobile office.

I've constructed a short survey, so that I measure each establishment against the same criteria.

My questions include:

• Do they have Free WiFi?
• Value for money - Not 'cheap', I'll pay more for a good coffee.
• Friendliness of staff
• Noise/Environment

I'll score each place and report my findings.


Have your say...

Am I out of order to seek this?

 

Should there be places where adults can find sanctuary from other people's children?

 

Are there enough child friendly places?  

What's it like where you live - how child friendly are public spaces?

(Please comment)





  

When Books Become Art and Other Shiny Things

This year my 365 day project is:

Authorpreneur Almanac: 365 Adventures in Writing and Entrepreneurship

Evey day this year I am working on my Authorpreneur business and regularly sharing content, ideas, tips, techniques and inspiration for creatives and entrepreneurs (especially writers).

This is the third 365 day project I've done, having completed them for the past three years.

I suffer with 'idea-ism' (hence the name of this blog). Idea-ism is the affliction of having too many ideas.

By doing a 365 day project, I find I can focus my attention and alleviate some of the symptoms of idea-ism and actually achieve my goals.  If I don't focus, I tend to get distracted by minutia and the next shiny thing - I move on to other things before seeing through the last thing.

In 2013 I completed my first of these 365 projects. It was called: Project Book 365, something creative everyday with books.

I put a daily update on a Facebook page as I completed each activity: 

https://www.facebook.com/ProjectBook365

Projects ranged from deconstructing books, to dioramas in books, book binding and most notably, I publishing my first book, The Bronze Box.


 

All these small acts of creativity had been packed away gathering dust in a cupboard and this year I'm bringing them back out.

Bristol has more art trails than any other city in the UK, creativity in all its forms is the beating heart of my eclectic home city. 

I've exhibited at a couple of trails in the past, but this year will be the first time I've exhibited at Southbank Bristol Arts as an authorpreneur.

Now in its 13th year, Southbank Bristol Arts art trail is one of the oldest and best in Bristol and each year thousands of people flock to this welcoming community on the south bank of the river Avon to see artists in their homes, open studios, community spaces and performances all over the area.

The trail spans the weekend of 16th and 17th May and I'll be exhibiting in the community centre at the heart of this area; The Southville Centre 

Check out their website for this years artists listings: 

http://www.southbankbristolarts.co.uk/

The trouble is, 365 things is a lot to cram onto a table in a community hall. I've had to be quite selective about what to exhibit. I've tried a few mock ups for my stall:

And I also found some children's books I'd written a few years ago, that my husband helped to illustrate: The Spoilt Princess and Dinosaur Dave. I only have about 3 of each left, so these little beauties are as rare as hens teeth.
 
The most challenging decision, however, was; which book dioramas to display? 

They take up too much room opened up, so in the end, I've decided to pile them all up and invite people to rummage through and discover the secrets inside these books for themselves.

The next problem is what to charge for these random and unique pieces of art? 

The physical materials are inexpensive, but making them is fiddly and time consuming and each book is one of a kind. 

I've decided to sell these on a 'pay as you feel' basis. In other words, pay what you feel they are worth. 

The coolest thing about these dioramas is that when they're on the shelf they just look like any other book, until you open them up...

If you are in the Bristol area during the weekend of 16th & 17th May I highly recommend you visit the arts trail. 

There are over 170 local artisans displaying work as well as fun and games and activities for all the family. You can download the trail map here: 

http://www.southbankbristolarts.co.uk/download-map

It's free, but bring some cash so you can support some of these local creatives and buy some lovely things or at the very least, enjoy tea and cake at many of the venues on the route selling homemade goodies.

If you do visit, come and say hello to me, I'd defiantly appreciate the moral support. Also, if you tell me that you found out about the trail on this blog, I'll give you a 20% discount off anything you purchase from my stall.

Let's get inspired! 

11 Ways to Share your Love of Stories

 2015 is Authorpreneur Almanac year. 

Join me in my 365 Adventures in Writing and Entrepreneurship...

There are only really three things I've ever been good at:

1) Writing

2) Speaking

3) Enabling others

But at the heart of it all, and something I've always loved, is stories.

Writing stories, understanding other people's stories.

As an author, conveying and sharing a story with readers is what I do. 

Because writers love stories and so do readers.

Writers are also readers.

11 Ways to Share your love of Stories

1) Write a review. Even if it's only a few words, on Amazon or Goodreads. Writers love some feedback and books with reviews are more likely to be bought. If you loved a story and want others to discover it, a review will really help.

2) Blog about them. If you have a blog, stories make great engaging content, or if you read a story that you are itching to comment on, whether good or bad,  blog about it. 

I wrote a blog post recently on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of books and had a conversation with a writer whose work I really love, Stephen Leather, as a result.

3) Vlog. If writing isn't your thing or you really want to convey your passion for a story in person, do a video blog about it. You could read the story to the camera and share your take on it.

4) Podcast. If you don't want to see yourself on camera or perhaps want to have some fun with sound effects, an audio blog is a great way to share your thoughts and ideas. 

There's something quite intimate about wearing headphones and listening to someone speaking to you, it's somehow more absorbing than watching a video.

5) Print a chapbook. Not sure what a chapbook is? Here's a neat Wikipedia article that sums it up well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapbook. 

Create a small pamphlet of stories to give to people.

6) Write a feature article. Write an article about stories that inspire you and publish it online ie: on Goodreads or LinkedIn

7) Tell the author. Contact the author on Social Media and tell them what you thought. I've had people message me on Twitter and Facebook  to say hello and tell me they enjoyed my writing and it's brilliant. It's a tiny thing that can really make someone's day. 

Writers are a solitary bunch and we put out a lot of content without getting much feedback. Every small connection is precious to us.

8) Join a book club, or start your own. Watching movies and box-sets is often a shared experience, and what films we've seen recently is a popular topic in social situations, but it's unusual to find people who've read the same books. Social reading is a great way to share our thoughts on stories.

9) Host a book party. This was an idea that popped into my head and I'm not sure how it would work but it's something I'm considering. Get a few friends together who are keen readers and bring some books to swap. Have a chat over a drink and some nibbles and share the stories that moved us.

10) Interview an author. The thing about authors, like any 'small business', is that we love talking about what we do. We're passionate about our stories and our characters. Any excuse to talk about them is warmly welcomed. Many authors would be happy to be approached by a reader and be interviewed (although you may struggle to pin down someone famous - I suspect Stephen King or JK Rowling may be too busy and expensive to get!). 

A local writer or independent author would be much easier to speak to - a Tweet could be that start of a new friendship.

11) Go to an Open Mic event or host your own. Most towns and cities will have a community of writers looking for opportunities to share their work.

In the city of Bristol UK where I live, there is a growing community of writers. I wrote an article recently listing some of the regular events going on in the city: http://www.bristolprospectus.co.uk/when-writers-come-out-to-play/

How do you share stories you love?