What are some effective strategies for completing a novel or manuscript in a timely manner?

Yes, a writer does need to pace themselves, yet the longer a story sits, the worse the odds it’ll never be completed. While the public has this image of authors struggling with a subject for years, the truth is every story goes stale after a time.

Steady progress isn’t a problem, especially if you’ve only limited time, yet once the productivity dries up, it’s generally a red flag. The key is steady pronged progress, but over time the mind wanders, you lose interest/focus and then the story itself tends to drift, until soon it’s merely a shell of what it initially was. It’s just how the mind works.

It’s similar to how repeated delays in a project’s funding/approval, the productivity dramatically declines and soon, the key players start resigning one by one, looking for better opportunities.

I’ve stated before that I’m a tad obsessive, typically doing seven full revisions, where I typically hand it to my editor at revision three, and revisions four and sometimes five are editor generated. Not everyone does that, obviously, yet again, I gained my experience by consistently cranking out three full novels a year, with that number of full revision cycles l, because again, the longer a story takes, the more substantial story issues start cropping up.

Thus speed is often a necessity, just so that typical meandering story won’t get out of hand. Humans feed on challenges, yet over time, when continually facing the same challenge when nothing changes, the mind shifts direction, so it’s often difficult rediscovering the same creative spark, as creative muses are fickle, and if you wait overly long, they tend to whisper in another artist’s ear.

Again, slow and steady is fine, yet once the steady fades to a mere fiddling, the story’s already in trouble. Or.maybe that’s just me, yet after 18 or 28 full novels, I tend to trust experience over empty conjecture.

Prolific don’t grow on trees, it’s earned by sheer hard, dedicated work. Now, I’m sure everyone will brag about it’s never once happened to them, but words don’t need tress, as they froth from mouths when spinning tales.