The Kitchn’s Emma Christensen finds it worthwhile to get out of her house for this group. (Photo by Danielle Tsi)
A guest post by Emma Christensen
I love working from home. My own schedule. My own space. Peace. Quiet. No one randomly stopping by my cubicle and interrupting my flow.
But even for a consummate introvert, the work-from-home gig can get lonely. This is why, shortly after moving to Northern California in 2011 and taking the plunge into full-time food writing, I found a few like-minded work-from-homers and forced myself to leave the house once a week.
How It Happened
It was like this: I met Cheryl Sternman Rule of 5 Second Rule in 2011, who introduced me to another South Bay-er, Danielle Tsi of Beyond The Plate. Then I met Sheri Codiana of Pork Cracklings at a press event and it turned out she lived a few blocks away. This felt like a quorum, so I put forth the idea: would anyone be interested in a weekly work session at a local coffee house?
The response was an immediate and enthusiastic “yes.” It would be like an old-fashioned salon, a gathering to support, inspire, and challenge one another, complete with witty banter. And thus, in June of 2012, the South Bay Salon was born.
How It Works
We meet every Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at coffee shops, each other’s kitchens, and libraries around the South Bay — wherever we can find enough seats around a table and have reasonable assurance of decent wifi. Sometimes just two people can make it, sometimes it’s the whole gang.
Unlike other groups, we’re not getting together to share our writing or workshop each other’s pieces. We simply wanted a change of scenery, where we could work on our own projects alongside company. We work alone…together. But our time is also a little social. Yes, we have our laptops open, but we still have conversations and crack jokes.
The group has changed a lot over the years. When one of our early salon goers moved up to San Francisco and could no longer come, Sheri introduced us to Coco Morante of It Was Just Right. Michelle Tam of Nom Nom Paleo joined last year. The balance of our time together has also shifted – we still work on our own projects, but there’s much more conversation and collaboration. We seek advice on sticky work problems, serve as sounding boards for new project ideas, and pick each other’s brains on such diverse topics as social media strategy and how to achieve the best biscuit texture. I might get fewer emails written, but I’m definitely not complaining because it’s been so worthwhile. If you want to start your own “alone, together” group, here are my tips:
1. Find a Friend or Two
You only need one person to get a group going – someone who also wants an excuse to get out of the house. Pick someone you like (important!), and whom you feel like you can work alongside without things getting too social. Through trial and error, we found that five or six people is the maximum. More than that and it’s hard to find a table at the coffee shop, plus the group loses cohesiveness.
2. Choose a Day
Find a day that works most of the time and roll with it. Picking a new day every week gets annoying. It’s fine if not everyone can make it every week. It’s the consistency that’s important.
3. Pick a Spot
The members of our salon live all over the South Bay, so we try to rotate locations so that no one gets stuck driving all the time. If we lived closer, we’d probably stick with one spot, but it’s also fun to change the scenery and try new places. (Be sure to scope out the wifi situation beforehand. More than one unsatisfying salon has broken up prematurely because the wifi was too spotty.)
4. Tag a Team Captain
I am the one who sends out the reminder email, picks the spot, and so on. I can assure you that it’s not onerous. You might think a captain is not necessary, but we’ve found that having one designated person to do these small maintenance tasks has helped our salon keep ticking along.
5. Get Ready for Fringe Benefits
We were all a little shy around each other at first, talking in study hall whispers and respecting each other’s work space. But it’s impossible to meet week after week and not become good buddies. As those respectful whispers grew into animated conversations, we tacked on after-hours salon get-togethers like field trips to local food spots, dinner parties with our partners in tow, spontaneous deliveries of leftovers after a day of recipe testing, co-hosted events for new cookbook releases, and all sorts of other reasons to gather and support each other.
We started off as colleagues, but we have ultimately created a real community. It’s the best benefit of all, and none of us anticipated this would happen. In retrospect, though, it feels like a natural evolution, and one that any group of like-minded individuals can enjoy happily.
Do you belong to a group like ours, or a traditional writing group? How did you get started? Got any tips to share with people wanting to start their own group?
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Emma Christensen is the recipe editor for the popular home cooking website The Kitchn. A graduate of the Cambridge School for Culinary Arts in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she is the author of two cookbooks on homebrewing, True Brews and Brew Better Beer. Emma lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two feet-warming house cats.
Your post inspires me to get a writing group going again. We fell apart when two members published their cookbook and needed to work full time on marketing it. I miss everybody! Writing can be so isolating and coming together is so supportive.
Definitely! Feeling isolated was the main reason I wanted to start our group. Good luck with yours!
Love this idea! The key is, of course, finding other writers locally!
True! Though I bet that once you start putting feelers out, you’ll find a few kindred spirits. Also, they don’t necessarily have to be other writers — at various points over the years, we’ve had a school teacher join us while on her summer break, a visiting software engineer, and other non-foodie folks!
I love this! And what a great crew you’ve gotten together!
When I started blogging, I thought it was going to be a social activity…considering how much interaction we often have (through comments, social media, email). I quickly learned that it’s quite the opposite; sitting in front of your computer all day is a very solitary activity.
In Los Angeles, we have the Food Bloggers Los Angeles group — but we’ve historically done monthly (potluck) meetings, surrounding a specific topic. It’s been more like an informal conference (and social gathering) than work-time. Might be time to float this idea to the group.
I know — I’m online all day “talking” with people, but it’s not quite the same, is it? I love the idea of a monthly social gathering too! We may need to start doing that in our group.
I have been thinking of a way to get together with other like-minded folks here in Denver and this sounds like the perfect way to get people i know through social media and blogging to actually meet in person and have an initial purpose. I think the fact that it isn’t a workshop group but rather a gathering where some chatting and some working gets done makes it an easier transition from ‘i don’t really know you’
Thanks for sharing
Good luck!
I enjoyed this post.
It would be wonderful if I could find a few people here to form a group like yours.
It would be almost impossible. Internet is LIMITED out here in the BOONIES.
Thanks for sharing this.
Sarah
Maybe a monthly or quarterly gathering of people in your area would be more feasible?
Hi Emma,
I love this story! It’s a reminder that no matter where you live, you can make things work and there are always writers! You just have to find them. We are introverts!
A few years ago, we moved from central Florida to rural western Kentucky, a place I thought I’d NEVER find writing friends, let alone food bloggers! After the unpacking was over and the newness of the move wore off, I was hungry for meet ups and workshops. I’d left behind a huge food community and close friends.
Anyway, I decided to contact the director at the local public library. He was also new to this community, and embraced my idea to create a writers workshop. I ran a free ad in the community section of the newspaper. It took several months to sort out the hobbyists from those who were serious, but the four women I work with now for the last few years have become friends as well as a sounding board for new projects and ideas. We travel to regional writing conferences and they are eager to be my recipe testers. Alas, I am the only food writer among us. I agree with you on the number of writers. Six is more than enough.
We meet every two weeks at the only coffee shop/cafe in our shared area and WiFi is stellar! Sometimes there are only two of us. While the focus of the group is primarily critiques (we all write in different genres, a bonus in itself), and like you, I manage the admin of the group, I always encourage the other writers to take a week and lead with whatever they want. Funny how no one has taken me up on that yet! lol
Thanks for sharing your little slice of life in CA.
So very jealous about your coffee shop with reliable wifi! You’d think, living in Silicon Valley, that it would be mandatory for all coffee shops to have stellar wifi, but… alas.
Love this idea too. There is nothing like the support if good friends with similar interests and ask the fun that goes along with it is just an added bonus. I don’t have a group that meets in person at the moment, but this inspires me to start one!
As a stay-at-home-mom/part time work-at-home marketer/wannabe writer, I completely understand what you experience. Still trying to find my own group that will actually commit. Hope you’re enjoying SoCal. I left there 3 years ago for the east coast. Big difference! Thanks for the inspiration.
Hi all,
I don’t know how many people still read this post, but like many commentators above I would like to start a group like this as well. I found already one friend who also loves the idea, but if they’re more people in the South Bay interested, shoot me an email: blog@edithdourleijn.com.
Hi Edie, this post is from back in 2011, so I doubt it gets read very often. Best of luck in starting your group.
hi all,
I already read this post months ago and the idea lingered and lingered in my mind. Finally I’ve found the nerve to ask a friend to set up something like this, and she said yes! Now we’re looking for more people to join us. So do you live in the Southern part of the Bay Area and want to tag along? Shoot me an email; blog@edithdourleijn.com
I’m not sure who’s still reading it but you could put this post on your social media and ask people to join you. Would that help?