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Tokyo’s Manuscript Writing Cafe won't let writers leave until they are finished
- MrLeap 5y agoThis post fills my heart with joy. What a grand idea. I'm making a creative writing game. It's been a goal channel whatever techniques I can, even dark patterns, to help people be more prolific writers. Glad to see the real world is getting weird with that goal in mind too.
- vjust 5y agoLines of code comes to mind. They could monitor developer productivity well.
- cmrdporcupine 5y agoI need this for meatspace pursuits that I avoid. Quit my job in December, fatigued of computers and my life with them. Hoped to clean the basement, my shop, and renovate a bathroom, and ski. Just those things. Did almost none of that (other than the skiing, which ended with knee injury), but I've written a software VST synthesizer from scratch. Someone needs to come here, take my computer, and stand over me with glaring looks while I clean the basement and organize all my hobby projects. My wife has given up.
- JJMcJ 5y agoIf you do the math, it's amazing what even a little bit of writing EVERY DAY can do. 200 words, about two sides of lined paper hand written, every single day for a year, is 70,000 words. The first draft of a short novel. Even if you spend another year polishing, that's a novel every two years. One writing teacher said the main problem for most would-be writers is that they don't actually do any writing, not even what Anne Lamott calls a shitty first draft.
- dr_dshiv 5y agoSign me up!
- karaterobot 5y ago> 1. Upon entering the store, write down at the reception desk how many words and by what time you are going to write your manuscript. > 2. The manager asks you every hour how your manuscript is coming along. > 3. You are not allowed to leave the store until you have finished writing your manuscript or writing project. Sounds like a cute idea. I wonder what would happen if you decided you wanted to leave before finishing. Do they berate you? Do you lose a deposit? I imagine you can't hold customers hostage or trap them in your cafe if they actually want to go.
- BiteCode_dev 5y agoBeing interrupted every hour would kill the zone for me.
- echelon 5y agoHold a deposit. You can break the glass if you really need to make an exit, but make it painful.
- atoav 5y agoI mean it is japan. If we go with the cliché, it would be hard to find any japanese writer who would choose social emberassment over actually doing the job. Especially if they chose to buy into this thing themselves.
- grapeskin 5y agoNah, people will just sternly say “I need to leave” and go. They’re not ants.
- makeitdouble 5y agoPeople underestimate writers' will power and the effort and sacrifices they will do to _not_ do their job. Even (especially ?) in Japan.
- thebeastie 5y agoAs a programmer, I need to understand this better.
- markus_zhang 5y agoOn a similar line, I kinda think prison is a good place for deep learn and work if the environment is safe and one is allowed to bring books and equipment in.
- trothamel 5y agoI don't think either of those caveats is true about prisons.
- Jtsummers 5y agoYou don't need a prison, many kinds of retreats (not just religious or spiritual, but artists and writers retreats and others) often are "tech-free" (which may be partial or total, though usually at least internet free). Just getting away from the firehose for a couple days can be very effective for resetting your relationship with the internet and its ability to distract for a while.
- breakfastduck 5y agoSo basically simulating the environment of sitting in a university library all day until you have to submit a piece of work at midnight, while 100 other people all sit and do the same around you. Very good idea. Works like a charm.
- chrischen 5y agoI think it’s more like simulating a work environment where s helicopter boss is checking on you constantly.
- n4bz0r 5y agoHow about a work environment with... BOSS HELICOPTER? https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tHBOcN_2Fp8/maxresdefault.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tHBOcN_2Fp8/maxresdefault.jpg
- sharkweek 5y agoI miss those nights of social studying at the library on campus. The mood was stressful sometimes near finals but it was kept light enough with breaks to get coffee and snacks with friends, was a good time in life.
- TecoAndJix 5y agoFew bonds are as strong as shared misery!
- rubyist5eva 5y agoHonestly, I could see this working really well for lots of things which require deep focus. Even for programming without external distractions part of me thinks this would be absolutely wonderful.
- drcode 5y agoThe article suggests that the term "writing" is used in the broadest way possible, including image editing, etc
- lucisferre 5y agoThe coding cafe version. 1. Upon entering you must write and demonstrate one failing test 2. The manager asks you if you want someone to pair program with you 3. You are not allowed to leave until the test is passing
- bad_alloc 5y agoThe test: bool halts(function) { // todo: do not halt if function halts, halt otherwise. } assert(halts(halts));
- grishka 5y agoAre you allowed to edit the test, or must you make it pass exactly as you wrote it the first time?
- intruder 5y agoAlready exists, also in Tokyo: https://medium.com/opensource-cafe https://medium.com/opensource-cafe you would write down a task you want to accomplish and deposit it at the cashier. Upon completion, you would say so and would get a free drink (iirc). Was nice, I think it's closed due to Covid atm.
- endisneigh 5y agoNot a bad idea for a small tractable set of discrete tasks to be completed.
- victorclf 5y agoVery refreshing to see this innovative idea after all the daily politics/apocalyptic news here.
- tgv 5y agoWe're not on the same page, clearly. To me, this sounds like dystopia had an early start. It's self-flaggelation under social pressure.
- _just7_ 5y agoHas anyone else had any luck with creating artificial accountability? Kind of miss the days where I had to show my progress to someone, be that my teacher or parents
- thelettere 5y agoStikk is a company that specializes in this, and they say their numbers indicate it works.
- iooi 5y agoThere's gyms that charge you more the less you show up.
- SamoyedFurFluff 5y agoCoworking sessions are great ime. People come in with some project they want to work on for the next 2 hours and every 30 or 45 minutes the host checks in on everyone and everyone says what they did or didn’t accomplish, everyone does a little yay to every accomplishment even small ones each check in so it’s all dopamine. I’ve seen this model successful in multiple definitions of craft (writing, coding, painting etc)
- mellosouls 5y agoThere are a few low-cost services that have been mentioned on here before that provide the accountability thing, eg Focusmate, Boss As A Service, etc
- post_break 5y agoUse a laptop, leave the charger at home. Get your work done before the battery dies. Depending on the computer this could be stress inducing or no big deal.
- MiddleEndian 5y agoWhen I was taking my employment break, I got some good work done in the park like this. No coworkers meant I didn't really need to be online most of the time either.
- elliotpage 5y agoYou see this kind of thing with Manga Authors too, except in those cases the authors editor comes to their residence and stares daggers at them until the manuscript is ready. That being said the most often place I have seen this is within manga itself, so this maybe the incidence rate is actually low and the authors who draw this into their series are either traumatised or just passing along a story!
- tkgally 5y agoI’m sure it’s a real thing, not only with manga but also with literary writing. Like manga, a lot of novels in Japan are first published in serial form in weekly or monthly magazines, and publishers count on being able to run installments in each issue in order to keep their readers loyal. I subscribe to the monthly literary magazine Shinchō [1, 2]. The 364-page edition for May 2022—yes, it is still published only in paper form—contains chapters from eight different serialized novels as well as a half dozen serialized essays. I’ve written for several Japanese publishers, including, for a while, a regular essay for a monthly magazine. While I don’t think my essay was drawing a lot of readers, in my interactions with the editor I could feel the pressure he was under to get my manuscript on time each month. He had a fixed number of pages to fill, and he didn’t want to have to substitute something else for a regular feature. The Hilltop Hotel in central Tokyo used to be famous as a place where publishers would have their popular writers stay while finishing up novels [3]. The hotel is near the headquarters of several major publishing houses, and there used to be a lot of typesetting shops in the neighborhood. Apparently the editors would more or less camp out in the lobby or hallways of the hotel to pressure the writers to stay in their rooms and keep writing—a process known as kanzume. When a writer had produced ten or twenty pages of manuscript, the editor would take it directly to the typesetter to start the process of getting it into print. The writer Hisashi Inoue [4], while prolific, was famous for putting off writing and missing publishers’ deadlines. In 1997, he was commissioned to write the first play to be performed at the New National Theatre, Tokyo. I happened to attend the opening performance on October 22, and I was surprised that the actors, all experienced performers, flubbed their lines and exits several times. I later read in the news that Inoue had finished writing the play at the very last minute and the actors had not had enough time to memorize the script or rehearse. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinchō https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinchō [2] https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/新潮 https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/新潮 [3] https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/山の上ホテル#「文化人のホテル」 https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/山の上ホテル#「文化人のホテル」 [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hisashi_Inoue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hisashi_Inoue
- markdestouches 5y agoI wish G.R.R.M paid a visit there
- BadCookie 5y agoYes, or Patrick Rothfuss.
- cyberpunk 5y agoI’ve given up on him; probably won’t even buy it. Yeah, authors don’t owe their readers anything, but if you start a trilogy waiting checks watch 11 years for the final instalment, after you said you’re finished before book 2 was even out is either a fuck you to your readers, or much more likely: he can’t finish it. Not finishing it is okay, but be honest!
- nonrandomstring 5y agoFascinating. Terrifying. Alluring. I may need this service some day.
- shakezula 5y agoWould unironically love a version of this in my city. I would probably use it a lot. My adhd would benefit greatly from a strangers disappointed looks.
- wolpoli 5y agoThis Cafe uses traditional waterfall framework with fixed scope but flexible timeline. I will be opening an agile writing environment with time-boxed duration. There will be all your favorite ceremonies such as Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospectives.
- vjust 5y agoWith all those agile ceremonies, this cafe will become the hotel California.. you will never check out... Or rather to use a github term: you will checkout but never checkin.
- nabla9 5y agoDouglas Adams would have loved this. His editor put him into motel with a typewriter and sat next to him until he finished. "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by" – Douglas Adams
- throwanem 5y agoI dunno. I thought of him as well, but to wonder whether it might actually have been his literal worst nightmare.
- oldgradstudent 5y agoHopefully, George R. R. Martin would visit this cafe soon.
- paines 5y agoIsn't he pretty focused with a distraction-less pc cause it's like from DOS times without internet? Or do you refer to haven't finished GoT yet.
- oldgradstudent 5y agoHe may be focused, but not on finishing A Song of Ice and Fire. https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2022/03/21/this-that-and-tother-things/ https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2022/03/21/this-that-and...
- michaelmrose 5y agoSo if they catered to programmers would it be the Strongly Typed Cafe or Halting Problem Resolved?
- lofatdairy 5y agoI find these sort of businesses so delightfully charming, it's a shame that I don't hear about any of them in the states.
- lemax 5y agoThis is a great concept. I've often wished I could just pay someone to call me and make me get out of bed when my sleep schedule falls off the charts. Even if people can't physically force you to do something, I think most of us are intrinsically motivated to show up for people when they expect it, especially if we develop respect for them. This is how managers get people to get things done, even when it's hard to hold them to account or pay isn't tied to particular deliverables.
- steven_pack 5y agoMain take away: we all need to go spend some time in Japan.
- idiocrat 5y agoHere is their HP. Some pictures of interior. https://koenji-sankakuchitai.blog.jp/ManuscriptWritingCafe/ https://koenji-sankakuchitai.blog.jp/ManuscriptWritingCafe/
- JetAlone 5y agoFor once in my time on this site I'm hype to try out something new as seen in an article. I'd absolutely like to visit this cafe.
- nomilk 5y agoIt's Pieter Levels's 'Go Fucking Do It' [1] but with imprisonment instead of extortion. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3nb_Qj3mRA&t=312s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3nb_Qj3mRA&t=312s
- sammalloy 5y agoI’m really surprised this kind of business hasn’t taken off in the states. This would be hugely successful in major US cities.