Lots of people read on the subway. But how about writing on the subway?
The NY Writers Coalition recently offered many the chance to do just that–by transforming a subway car into a free writing workshop! With pens and paper in hand, a group of writers on the #7 train wrote from Times Square to Flushing, reports the New York Times:
After leaving Manhattan, the train emerged from its tunnel and rose along elevated tracks into the bright sunlight in western Queens. It was an unconventional writer’s space, with the train rumbling into a new station every few minutes and absorbing a fresh group of passengers, then lurching onward.
Passengers jostled the writers, spoke on their cellphones, dozed with iPod earbuds in their ears. None of it seemed to bother the writers, who scribbled away, seeming to employ the same cone of concentration that an average subway passenger uses to zone everyone else out.
Keeping your concentration on the NYC subway—that might just be the test of a true writer. And if you run out of things to write about, there’s always your fellow passengers. Actually, this might be a great exercise for those with access to public transportation: take the longest bus or subway ride you can (here in Boston, that’s from East Cambridge to Boston College, a good 50 minutes-plus) and see if you can keep writing the entire time. Who’s game?
Further Reading:
- A (slightly) less mobile workspace
- I’ll see your subway and raise you a plane: Heathrow’s writer-in-residence
