Writing a book is hard. I had a book contract once, and for a multitude of personal & productivity reasons, failed to ship. So I definitely relate to the problems associated with the pressures of deadline driven forced creativity/production. To this day, I regret not finishing that book.
It sounds like Merlin is making the right choice for him, right now. The end product will probably be better for this experience... how did it get this point? Why was he writing empty chapters to satisfy his deadlines. Assuming this book is about productivity, there's probably some definite lessons learned to share if he digs deep.
I don't know why it went that way, but I know that having kids is a full time job that doesn't help the process of writing (books or software). I have a small daughter and I know how hard it is to reconcile the duties of parenthood and making money. I keep my fingers crossed for him.
It sounds like Merlin is making the right choice for him, right now. The end product will probably be better for this experience... how did it get this point? Why was he writing empty chapters to satisfy his deadlines. Assuming this book is about productivity, there's probably some definite lessons learned to share if he digs deep.