Daily consistency in writing is the best way to finish novels. That’s my experience. Writing two hours every weekday is much better than doing ten hours on Saturday.
Stephen King makes a similar point in On Writing. For aspiring writers, he prescribes four to six hours of reading and writing per day. Six hours is a lot for new writers. It’s a great aim, but I think it might scare some people off before they even try. One can achieve quite a lot in half that time. Two hours of writing and one hour of reading can be very productive, provided you approach the work with focus.
But arguably the most important thing is this: King doesn’t take any days off from writing. He writes on holidays, special days, weekends, bad days, and good days. This consistency has allowed him to finish countless novels. This habit also helps him to stay connected to the story. Here’s a quote from the memoir:
“If I don’t write every day, the characters begin to stale off in my mind—they begin to seem like characters instead of real people. The tale’s narrative cutting edge starts to rust and I begin to lose my hold on the story’s plot and pace. Worst of all, the excitement of spinning something new begins to fade.”
This consistency is admirable, and it’s a required ingredient for finishing novels. A few years ago, I managed to finish Chasing the Sun by setting a minimum writing time of two hours per day. I did not worry about word count, and I did not concern myself with progress. I just showed up and wrote. I wrote six days per week. Some days I wrote very little. I have come to understand that good writing days follow bad writing days. Here’s the encouraging part: It was the quickest I’d ever finished a novel of that length.