: As mentioned already, writing tends to be a task suited for solitude. Now, while it's not necessarily the "Silicon Valley" of writing, one of the main things I see most Fiction and Non-Fiction

@Samaraweera193

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As mentioned already, writing tends to be a task suited for solitude. Now, while it's not necessarily the "Silicon Valley" of writing, one of the main things I see most Fiction and Non-Fiction writers have in common is military experience. Many writers I've met started writing while they were in the Military and many of them weren't necessarily writing about their military experience. Tangentially, many writers were military brats or came from military families.

I attribute this to a couple key factors.

Time. While in the military there is a tremendous amount of "Down-time" where there isn't much to do. Standing post, cleaning equipment, being in formation, are all activities where there is plenty of time to think and observe. Since military members have all basic necessities taken care of, ie, food, water, housing, clothing, there's not much else to worry about, so there's no real need for a second job or anything like that. Free time is actually free time, unless you're overseas, then free time can be more "sit around and wait" time. All this leads to an abundance of time which people can devote to writing, if they desire.
Experience. Having spend 4 years as a infantry Marine, I can honestly say that I've experienced a great many things that most people haven't. From relationship drama of people getting cheated on, to people dying, to hiking through dense jungle, to being in firefights, to overt racism, all these experiences were things that I probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to see/do if I hadn't joined the military. These experiences translate directly to writing, whether someone is writing Fiction or Non-Fiction. Not all these experiences were necessarily positive or "fun", but depending on what you're looking to write, you won't find a place to gather a collection of adventures/stories better than the military.
Diversity. This more ties into the above "Experience" but people of all walks of life join the military. If you're looking to write about our world or a fictional one, you'll need to explore this diversity, in some way, to create well rounded and believable characters. Some people get this diversity by observing the people around them. "People watching" does provide a great benefit to most writers and can help them create characters and/or interactions. The military is a collection of people from all walks of life and vastly different socio-economic backgrounds.

The aforementioned New York, specifically at coffee shops, would be the next best place and the most likely place to run into other writers with similar goals. However, I would expect most of these writers to be "aspiring" writers who may not provide the best platform to share ideas or improve your writing.

John Green has a youtube channel(vlogbrothers) where he addresses this type of question indirectly a few times. Can't find the exact video.

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