How important is the writing habit to be an Author?



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In his memoir on writing (2010), the great author, Stephen King advises: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There is no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”  This stress the importance of keeping a habit of reading and writing to be a writer, the primary step to be an author.  
A habit results from something you practice every day, which is strenuous for a person like me without external motivation.   Blog chatter’s Write a Page A Day is a friendly motivation. In the labyrinth of your daily life, you are prone to lose track and stray away from the plans you make, however meticulously. 
Does it mean writing regularly alone makes you an author?
Taking the example from King, Jasson Whittaker answers in the negative--we all write daily eg. in our social media about our lives and experiences, reaching eighty thousand words the length of a normal novel doesn't make one an author?  This is because we must follow certain steps in finishing a novel we plan to write.  Daily reading and writing are steps to be an author, but not all. 

What are those steps to be an author?

To be an author you must master novel-writing techniques, which is a step ahead of mastering the daily writing habits that has no shortcuts.  Those steps I will concentrate on in my next post. 
In my post, Goals for 2022, I have outlined the completion of the manuscript of a novel, three-quarters completed, as well as a short story compilation.  As usual, I was struggling to meet the daily quota of writing to meet my goals and I grab the Write a Page A Day challenge with a truckload of hope. 
Was taken from blogchatter's WAPAD

I went through the WAPAD's daily probes that are appealing and contain story situations that I must be using in my stories.  A page is on average five hundred words times twenty-eight gives 14000, but the WAPAD's concessional target to reach the trophy is 10,000 words, which I am aiming to pass.
And I assure you all that I state the truth and nothing but the truth in the daily twitter reports of the word counts.