There Will Always Be a Gap
June 3, 2019

Like a lot of writers, I wish I was more productive. At the end of the day, when
I look at what I hoped to accomplish and compare it to what I actually did
accomplish, there's always a gap. I wish didn't exist and do everything I can to
increase my productivity. Nevertheless, that gap is always there.

Productivity has been on my mind over the past few days because of an article I
read last week. I'm a big fan of Austin Kleon[1] and a recent edition of his
newsletter contained a link to an article in Glamour about why 
Danielle Steel is so prolific.[2]

The short answer is that she works twenty hours a day. Twenty Hours. A Day. And
that's not some I-got-a-deadline or the-muse-is-puking-all-over-me writing
spurt. She lives at her desk. According to the article, she survives mostly on
toast, decaf and miniature chocolate bars, and only goes to sleep when "I'm so
tired I could sleep on the floor." Steel says, too, that there are times she'll
write for twenty-four hours straight.

Twenty-four hours pegs the productivity scale. Every minute of an entire day at
the desk. No writer could be more productive than that. Yet for all my writerly
desire to do more than I'm currently doing, I found myself thinking "that sounds
like pure hell." Now, I admit it would be impossible for me to write for twenty
hours. I need at least seven hours of sleep a night. I have a bad back that
forces me to get up from time to time. And there's always plenty to keep me busy
around the house. But even if I could write twenty hours a day, I don't think I
would want to. It just doesn't sound like fun.

Steel says she writes as much as she does because she enjoys the craft of
writing. I love the craft, too, but for me part of being a writer is also going
out and gathering material by meeting people and reading (which is something
Steel says she doesn't do while she's writing). By spending so much time at her
desk, I feel that she's actually missing out on not only gathering raw material,
but missing out on life itself.

I wish Ms. Steel well, but her writing life seems too pinched and narrow for my
liking. But having seen and rejected the theoretical pinnacle of productivity,
all that remains is to simply make peace with the fact that, for me, there will
always be a gap.

[1] http://austinkleon.com
[2] http://www.glamour.com/story/danielle-steel-books-interview


(c) 2019 by Andrew Gudgel 
email: contact [at] andrewgudgel.com