Summary

The narrator continued walking, which she knows is “not much of a plot” (139). She has trouble doing things “of consequence” as “a fictional character” (139). She wonders at the definition of plot. She dislikes “writers as characters,” because everything they do “feels false” (139). For a while, all of her plots “were about time” (140). Her stories changed, however, after experiencing several difficult things.

Although she dislikes craft, she does have ideas about plot, fiction, language, and character. She recalls what she once told her students. She can teach one version of writing, but is unsure she can teach others. When she worries her writing is incomplete, she tells herself, “I am only one person” (141). Not every book can contain everything. The same is true of her life. She respects other writers as individuals, but they are not her community (142).

The narrator knows writers are perceived...