What is the art of accumulation, and how can one person do so many things at once? People often ask Utsudo how she manages to do so many things at once. She admits it’s exhausting and she’s given up on plenty of projects, but looking back she always finds she’s accomplished a lot. Many things don’t bring much change at first; the difference only shows as they accumulate over time. Her path as a novelist involved no miracles—it was built up step by step.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

Doesn’t doing so many things at once wear you out?

Someone once asked me, “How can you do so many things at the same time? Don’t you get tired?”

Honestly, it really is pretty tough.

But after keeping my head down and working hard, when I look back I’m surprised to find how much I’ve accomplished. It feels very rewarding, and I’m grateful to the partners and friends willing to join in my antics. Thanks to your help, I could turn all sorts of wild projects into reality. Looking back, I realize the reason I can’t stop is that as soon as something reaches a stopping point, or I get used to the rhythm, all kinds of new ideas pop into my head.

From long-term projects to small tweaks—once I get an idea, I can’t wait to do something with it. So I can never sit still. I’m this busy entirely by my own doing (x

My will keeps going, but my body can’t keep up

The price is that it’s easy to hit maximum stress without noticing. It’s the state where my will says I can keep going, but my body can’t keep up and starts throwing tantrums.

My mind moves fast, but my body can’t keep pace. Maybe it’s time to build an exercise habit? But my fingers move fast when I type every day—why doesn’t my body count that as exercise? So unreasonable (x

It’s okay to abandon some projects

Ahem, back to the point. Anyway, messing around always leads you to some direction. I’ve abandoned plenty of projects along the way, but I’ve stuck with many too. This column, for example, started on a whim. Thanks to 紅老虎 providing illustrations, it became much richer—but that’s a digression. Many projects are worth doing, and so are works. Sometimes a plan we find fun takes lots of time and effort yet doesn’t produce the result we hoped for, or there’s too much real work, so we set the project aside or end up abandoning it.

So if I listed all the projects I’ve given up on, there’d probably be quite a few QQ

But that’s okay. At least I tried, and I’m content.

By the way, I recently happened to see a video saying that the urge to rush into doing things may stem from past trauma, and that it’s supposedly linked to a constitution more prone to cancer. That scared me a bit.

Thinking about it, I do get anxious easily. But since I’m aware of it, I find ways to cope—like drinking fewer caffeinated drinks, going for walks when I notice I’m anxious, and talking to people close to me about what’s on my mind.

At least my sleep seems better, so I guess it’s working XD

The art of accumulation: the difference time makes

Many things don’t bring much change when you first start. But as time passes and you accumulate more, you begin to feel the difference.

There are ups and downs along the way, but as long as you keep fighting on this path, however winding, I think you’ll keep climbing. As you accumulate more, the scenery and experiences grow richer, and before you know it, you may have made a new path.

For me, the path of a novelist was built up this way. No dreamy colors, no miracles descending from the sky. But every step I took was truly toward where I wanted to go. The me you see now was built bit by bit by the me of the past.

Do you believe in the art of accumulation?

I hope that you, holding on to your dreams, can keep going too.

FAQ

Further reading

• Previous: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #142: Sensitive Souls Are Good at Creating—and Easily Hurt
• Start from the beginning: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #01: Utsudo’s Debut — A Road to the Dream Covered in Frost
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.