As an aspiring author, I spend a lot of time writing. Unfortunately, I spend an even greater amount of time trying to fight through my writer’s block. I’ve tried taking a break and walking away. I’ve tried cooking, reading, showering, crying, and going for walks. Over the years however, I’ve realized that one thing works every time.
There is a balcony in Boston, as a part of the Citizen-M hotel that was built over the Garden. It overlooks the downtown where hundreds of people are walking, and dozens of buildings, roads, bridges and sidewalks are being built. There is infinite inspiration. I can look over the side of the balcony and be filled with thousands of ideas and stories about the people below me.
I also only go when it’s cloudy out. I don’t know what it is about the impending doom presented by the looming rain clouds, but it always puts me in the mood to write. Sitting on a gray stone balcony, surrounded by the gray sky canvas, drinking an espresso or a cappuccino, is the only thing that breaks down the wall of self doubt and criticism.
It may seem crazy that I sneak into a hotel in order to use their balcony, risking the public shame of being escorted out past the residents who paid for their stay, but the love and joy that the balcony of that hotel gives me is a feeling that I can’t ever put into words.