I have a good friend (and a fine colleague) who says he's a "binge writer".  (http://www.jlake.com/)   He will write for hours and hours and for days and days.  Then, he tells me, he stops.  He doesn't write at all.  Jay is a hare.

I'm a tortoise.  I write every day (yes, every day.  Sunday, birthdays, holidays).  I don't write for hours.  Two or three contiguous hours is a lot for me normally.  I have reasons for this, of course:  I excercise rather a lot, I have a dog who needs lots of attention, I have a house to clean, lessons to teach, meals to shop for and prepare.  All you moms out there will understand, and not a few of you dads.

Out of curiosity, I compared Jay's output to mine.  I can't give you some exciting number, because I'm primarily a novelist, and he writes lots--and I do mean lots!--of short stories.  We've been publishing about the same amount of years.  Jay's website boasts of 240 short stories and four novels.  Mine--both of them--claim eleven novels, a short story collection, and about fifteen published stories.  I think I can safely say that, though it's hard to compare Jay's and my bibliographies, our rate of production is similar.

I tried, a few years ago, to increase my daily output.  I kept a little diary so I could see if my efforts were fruitful.  A friend (the fabulous writer Kay Kenyon, author of The Rose and the Entire series, www.kaykenyon.com) told me she writes five pages a day, so I aimed for that.  Day 1:  5.   Day 2:  6.  Day 3:  7!  Day 4:  threw away most of what I'd written.  Day 5:  resigned myself to my usual three pages per day, or whatever I can get done in whatever time I have.

Partly this is a process issue.  Even when I'm not at my computer I am, like most writers, still writing.  I'm thinking, puzzling out problems, searching for stakes.  In my process, I often have to step away from the computer and do something with my hands to stimulate my problem-solving neurons.  I can't imagine typing away for hours and hours like the indefatigable Jay.  And he probably can't imagine juggling the multiple tasks I set myself, while still getting the writing done.  Kay works really, really hard.  I work really, really steadily.  Jay works in bursts.  But we all get there.

So.  Do you want a carrot, or would you prefer a few low-flying insects?