Editor’s Note: This article has been updated and corrected.
There’s a sign in Danielle Steel’s office that says, “There are no miracles. There is only discipline.” It’s a conscientious message, and yet everything Steel has achieved in his five-decade career Is seem like the stuff of dreams.
Let’s look at the numbers, shall we? The author has written 179 books, which have been translated into 43 languages. Twenty-two of them have been adapted for television, and two of those adaptations have received Golden Globe nominations. Steel releases seven new novels one year-his last, Blessing in disguise, is out this week and she’s been working on five to six new titles all the time. In 1989, the steel was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records to have a book on New York Times bestseller list for any author’s most consecutive weeks – 381, to be exact. To achieve this, she works 20 to 22 hours a day. (A few times a month, when she feels the crunch, she spends a full 24 hours at her desk.)
Steel writes in his home office. Most of the time it’s in Paris, but sometimes she’s at home in San Francisco, where she writes on her standard 1946 Olympia typewriter, which she nicknames Olly. “Olly is a big heavy machine and she’s older than me,” Steel said. Charm. “There is a very smooth flow. I have 12 to 15 of these which I have bought over the years but they are not good enough to work on. I keep them for parts in case there is a problem. , because it is a very endangered species!”
Steel is a creature of habit. She arrives at her office at 8:30 a.m., where she is often found in her cashmere nightgown. In the morning, she’ll have a piece of toast and an iced decaffeinated coffee (she gave up caffeine big time 25 years ago). After lunch and throughout the day, she will nibble on mini bittersweet chocolate bars. “Dead or alive, rain or shine, I go to my office and do my job. Sometimes I finish a book in the morning and at the end of the day I start another project” , says Steel.
She credits her boundless energy to her productivity as well as her willingness to overcome the moments when she gets stuck. “I keep working. The more material you avoid, the worse it gets. You’re better off going all the way and ending up with 30 dead pages that you can fix later than sitting around with nothing,” advises she. Its production is also the result of an almost superhuman ability to run with little sleep. “I only go to bed when I’m so tired I could sleep on the floor. If I have four hours, that’s a really good night for me,” Steel said.
She is still been like that, even when I was a child in France. Before playing with friends after school, she would come home and finish her homework immediately. At 19, Steel had written her first book – she had promised herself that if she succeeded in selling it, she would be satisfied, ready to give up writing and focus on her family. The novel sold out within a week. One hundred and seventy-nine pounds later, she still hasn’t been able to quit.