Puttering Around

 

Q:  Charles Willeford said he wrote for a couple of hours and then puttered around for the rest of the day.

 

A:  Yes.  The puttering around is a part of the writing.

      You read, you watch videos, you think.

      You drive places.

 

Q:  You babysit, or work for wages.

 

A:  I have been a babysitter.  I have worked for wages.

      A career takes 40 years.

      I have it made, but I earned it.

      I built it.

      All the sweat-equity I put in is paying off.

      A novelist travels, but a poet doesn’t have to leave the house.

 

Q:  An immobilized hero novel is a book of poems.

 

A:  A book of poems is an immobilized hero novel.

      What’s a book?

      A book’s-length worth of daily typewriting.

      Related to the book before it and the book after it.

      40-Year Run is a book.  The great long continuous book of my life, after Thoreau.

      Thoreau walked.  In nature.

      He thought, on his walks.

 

Q:  Strolled and pondered.

 

A:  A writer strolls and ponders.

 


 

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