In his book The Art of War for Writers, James Scott Tell tells us the secret to becoming a successful novelist.

…there is one discipline that stands above all else in the quest for writing success. I was fortunate to get this lesson early in my writing pursuit, and took it to heart. It is the single biggest reason I was published in the first place, and have produced the books I have.

It is, simply, this:

WRITE A QUOTA OF WORDS EVERY WEEK 

The daily recording of the number of words you write is an invaluable incentive to get your work done. But set your goals on a weekly basis…

If something comes up on one day that prevents you from writing your quota, you just make it up later in the week.

It sounds simple.

Just set a goal for the week. 5,000 words is sensible, but even just 2,500 is fine. Hell, 1,500 is good.

1,500 words a week is 78,000 words in a year.

A novel made with just five days of 300 words per week, for one year.