The Genius of Accountability
By Jill Davis  

      Read the following with an intonation of absolute awe and reverence, “Oh, you wrote a book? I could never be that self disciplined.”
       Anything I say next to set this person straight falls on deaf ears and is inevitably followed with the next question, “How long did it take you?”
       “About two years” I answer. And then their eyes bulge out.
       “Oh, now I know I could never do that!” I might as well have just told them that I was the first monkey to land on the moon. Now they feel a false sense of safety that they will never have to learn to write like I did, the easy way and do what sportswriter Red Smith describes; sit down at a keyboard and just open a vein.
       I have a long standing addiction to demystifying what appears easy and magical for some. Thomas Mann said “A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”
       I get the imposter syndrome if I accept their compliments without telling them how the sausage is made. Ever notice how few believe the truth? I’m really not self disciplined, I just know how to set myself up for accountability. In her book, Write it Down, Make it Happen, Henriette Anne Klauser and talks about forming an accountability club; a what by when group she calls it. She met with only one other person, but the effect was the same, being before someone of like mind. I may not need the novel writing class that I am in, but showing up with six pages to read every week keeps me accountable.
       I recently had the honor of speaking with Oliver Saks about writing. He told me about how the work comes through him, it is born more than it is created.
       “You have to get away from your work and let it incubate and when it is ready, it will happen.” He had also spoken of how it cannot be forced. These statements filled me with a boundless joy for the question I was about to ask the great Oliver Saks.
       “Oh, could you expand on how writing cannot be forced in light of deadlines?” Just think, if I could take a note from Oliver Saks to my editor explaining how deadly deadlines were to the creative process; how could she ever send every neuron synapse in my brain into overdrive again.
      “Oh,” he said, tilting his head in an empathetic nod. “It is hard, you have to have them. My assistant, she will say to me “Oliver, you have thirty minutes to finish this section or it doesn’t go in the book.” And it happens, it comes to me and I get it done. Ahhh, you have to have deadlines.” My shoulders drooped, I had no excuse for my editor, all I could do is pass this on to you by the deadline for my column.