Coffee break creative writing: cafes

Writers have a special relationship with cafes, and this week's coffee break creative writing exercise makes the most of it

Set a timer for three minutes. Make a list of all the cafes you have visited – from the earliest you can remember to the one you went to yesterday.

Choose one of them. For the next three minutes write down three things that are true about the place and three things that are not. For instance, for your ‘not trues’ you may decide the café has a cellar, a haunted staircase and a secret garden. Give the café a different name.

For the remaining time create the first draft of a poem or flash fiction or the beginning of a longer story.