A symphony of fiddling around

Excerpt from the introduction to Rules of Thumb (73 authors reveal their fiction writing fixations); edited by Michael Martone and Susan Neville.

Writers write. But writers more often than not are not writing. They are waiting to write, preparing to write, rehearsing, practicing, taking notes, outlining, reading. On top of the anxiety of writing (or not writing) is this other anxiety - that all the activities of the prelude, in reality, are not prelude at all, but a symphony of fiddling around, a divertimento of tuning up.

Oh...so that's what I've been doing when I'm fiddling around: tuning up! :)