Track progress toward a novel word goal.
Progress on a novel is best measured in writing sessions rather than calendar days, because those are the units you actually control. Dividing the words remaining by a realistic productive-day output gives the session count, and dividing that by your writing days per week converts it into a finish date you can commit to. The genre check is the other half: manuscript length expectations are real commercial constraints, with adult general fiction expected around 80,000 to 100,000 words and fantasy tolerating considerably more. A debut substantially outside its genre band faces additional resistance from agents regardless of quality.
Sessions remaining
Sessions = ceiling((target - current) / words on a productive day)
Weeks to finish
Weeks = sessions remaining / writing days per week
Because a target based on every calendar day fails the first time life intervenes, and then the whole schedule loses credibility. Counting only the days you genuinely write produces a higher per-session figure but a plan that survives contact with a normal week.
For a debut, yes. Print costs and shelf conventions make length a commercial factor, and agents use it as a filter for craft — a 150,000-word debut suggests unresolved structural problems. Established authors have far more latitude than first-time ones.