What My 2026 Writing Process Looks Like
January 12, 2026 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby, Writing tagged as Denise M. Colby, Planning, writing processIt’s a new year and I’m sharing what my 2026 writing process looks like for my first post of the year. Part of this is for me to do an honest review of what is working and what is not. It also reminds me of what I need to do. I’m currently coming out of an editing phase and need to dive into writing the next book. Remembering what works for me helps. I did some of this in my December 2025 blog post as I reviewed my word for the year – flourish
Then I thought it would be helpful to write it out and share it. Holding myself accountable, but also providing others with ideas that they may have not tried yet.
I have found that there are multiple things needed in order to complete a manuscript. Some of this is what comes inside of a person. Determination. Discipline. Action.
But as many authors have asked as they write. What type of action? How do I find time? What type of schedule do I keep? How do I know if I’m doing the right things? What comes next? Asked a bazilion times, over and over.
Writing is a Marathon, Not a Sprint
When I got my contract, I had my first book finished and two rough drafts done. Or what I thought were rought drafts. I had to literally start over, and so the dates I had comitted to, I had to figure out how to deliver. It took my twelve years to write and publish the first book. Six months to write the next three. Add into that mix, editing sessions, proofing sessions, cover design, back matter, inside matter, launch team, promotions, newsletters, and the list goes on. There are a lot of things to juggle.
And you know what? I did it. I’ve released three books in the last two years, with the fourth one releasing in May 2026. Check out my Best-laid Plans Series page on Amazon.
It’s amazing when we have deadlines how we make it work.
But I also got more streamlined the further I went. This has helped me immensely.
The Writing Process I Morphed Into
By far there are a few things I know now I can’t live without in order to write, and I will continue to use these writing processes for 2026.
First is my critique group. Their feedback and support has been a continuous blessing. We send a chapter a week when we need something reviewed. Not all of us are in the writing phase so it’s not everyone sending a chapter a week. This helps. It’s like a rotation. And it has worked for us.
The next thing on my list would be the writing sprint group I belong to. It would be very easy for me to sleep in, get distracted by laundry, or not show up when it’s only myself. But having a 7am zoom call with others writers has helped not only finish three books, I have resources at my fingertips to ask during our five minute breaks.
So if you do not have a community of writers to work with, I suggest joining a local writing group, or an online group. There are many available by genre or in general. Ask here what you are looking for and I can provide links to one of the five groups I belong to (yes, five – and I love them all in different ways.)
I also set realistic weekly goals for myself. I love to cross out something on a list. So I write out all the chapters I need to write, figure out how many writing sessions (I use twenty-five minute sprints where I can write at least 500 words as my calculator) I need to do, then plan for so many words in a week.
When editing, I create a page with the chapter numbers and put a sticker by them to tell me they are done. All of this adds fun, accountability, and helps me see my goals accomplished.
Other writing tools I’ve used and will continue in 2026
Focus@will – this website has allowed me to pick music and sounds that fit my mood, and helps elevate my brain focus while writing. I feel I write stronger when I use it. It has a timer so I keep to the twenty-five minute sprints I’m now used to.
Scrivener – this is the software I use to write my manuscripts
Apple notes – I started using this two years ago and it has worked well. It syncs between my computer, phone, and ipad, so that when an idea hits, I can capture it and then access it when and where I need to. I have built a lot of folders within notes. One folder by book. When writing the book, I have scene ideas and brainstorms, then later I put all my launch info in one note (with links).
I’ve added a research folder and put all the links to things there as I find things. Yes, Scrivener has a place for research but I use that for book specific things. The research I’m leaving in notes work across my series. So in some ways I’ve made a little story bible within notes for easy access.
Other folders I’ve added include a social media folder where I type out my posts first (so I can control the spacing and links), as well as marketing folders for newsletters, bookfunnel promotions, blog posts (I have all my links on a page). This has come in handy when I’ve needed to find things quickly. Much faster than trying to find the file I saved.
2026 Writing Process improvements
I always love starting a new year with reflection and planning. Even though I hope this year is more of the same writing process I’m already doing, I hope it continues to become more refined. so I can write and publish more books.
What is part of your writing process wheelhouse that you can share with all of us?
0 0 Read morePlanning for Peace by Kitty Bucholtz
December 9, 2025 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz, Writing tagged as It's Worth It, Kitty Bucholtz, menopause, organization, Perimenopause, Planning, writing
Everyone who knows me knows I’m big on planning. That’s because my brain gets all stressed out if I don’t know what’s going on, whether I have time to say yes to something, or when I’m afraid I’m missing out on something. That’s why I already know where we’re spending Christmas (with friends a few minutes away), what I’m bringing for dinner (a homemade chocolate pie, homemade cornbread, and drinks), and what I’ll be wearing (embroidered jeans, a lightweight knit shirt, and taking both a sweater and sweatpants for warmth and comfort later). All that in the first week of December! Woohooo!! And now I’m not stressed at all about Christmas. (Yup, Christmas shopping already done!)
But when it comes to still trying to balance the changes menopause is having on my brain and my energy with the goals I want to achieve in 2026…well, planning in a way that will bring me the most peace is critical. One of the things I learned is that cortisol, the stress hormone, can make menopause symptoms worse. So if I’m feeling stressed by how I’m feeling (or by how it’s keeping me from achieving my goals!), the stress actually makes the symptoms worse.
Not to mention the fact that unused cortisol (if there are no tigers to run from or I don’t walk it off quickly) gets stored as fat. Great. Talk about insults and injuries.
I bought a one-year subscription to MasterClass.com last Christmas because Halle Berry hosted a 90-minute “class” with interviews with several doctors and women going through menopause. Here I am two weeks before my subscription expires and I finally finished watching it and taking notes. There was a lot of good information in the class, but let me give you a few bullet points that fit with my topic of planning for peace.
- Decluttering — I knew this was not a time-waster or procrastination technique!! But I’d let people convince me it was, and my mess has been stressing me out all year. It’s gotten to the point, I don’t even like to spend much time in my office. Several items on my to-do list now have to do with sorting papers that are currently piled everywhere, filing the important must-keep stuff in boxes I just bought, and throwing out as much as I can. I need to let go of all the old plays I wrote a million years ago…even though I don’t really want to. I never look at them, won’t use them again, and don’t have room in our small apartment to keep writing only for nostalgia’s sake. (And no, for those about to leave a comment about scanning them or taking photos, it would take me weeks to do that! I have a lot of old writing!)
- Have a “launchpad” where you keep your keys, your wallet, your purse, your phone/charger, etc. I’ve never called it a launchpad, but I get the idea. I have a bowl I made in pottery class in college where I put all those things. It is so stressful when I’m rushing out the door for the train and realize one of those items did not make it to the bowl and now I have to look “everywhere” for it…because right now my brain can’t remember.
- Prioritizing tasks on your list before you begin. Many days I only have a few hours of functioning brain time, so I need to be sure that if I can only get one thing done today, it’s the right thing. And if I can get 2 or 3 things done, they are things I’ll be happy or relieved got done. Much as I want to watch the last episode of The Beast in Me on Netflix to find out how it ends, that is not the best use of my limited brain-time right now! And because limited brain-time has made me perpetually behind in all my goals, when I have a good day (like today!) and can get a dozen things done, I want them to be the things I desperately needed to have done last week and the week before.
- Organizational Skills Therapy — one of the doctors mentioned this and I have no idea what it is, but it sounds awesome!! I’m totally Googling it later!
So those four items are now on my list of tools I want to use to plan for peace in 2026. I have no idea what to expect next year. My brain seems to maybe be working better, but I’ve thought that in the past right before a new wave of menopause hell bowled me over. At least with these tools, I can get a few of the most important items done and choose to be satisfied with it, not stressing about what I can’t control.
I hope this is helpful for you as well! Whether you’re in need of this information or know someone you can share it with, it’s always good to have some reliable tools in your author — and life — toolkit. I hope you plan for a peaceful and joyful end of 2025 and that it spills over into all of 2026. God bless you! And Merry Christmas!
0 1 Read moreHow Do You Say Goodbye To A Series
November 5, 2024 by Tracy Reed in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as Planning, series, The Good Girl Series, Tracy Reed, writing
I have been working hard to close out a series. It’s hard to believe my series The Good Girl started as a one off novella for a boxset. I had no idea this novella would turn into a six book series.
I am doing pre-edits on the six book and find myself in a position I’ve been dreading…saying goodbye…Au revoir to characters I love. Gabriella and Phillippe have had me on a roller coaster ride. Over the years this series has become classed as slow burn. As the story progressed so did my writing style.
Now I find myself in the position of a possible spin off. Although I tied up all of the lose ends, I left a few options for possible spin offs. If I do, I will find a way to include Gabriella and Phillippe because they are the main draw.
In addition to a maturation in my writing style, I also changed the original covers for the first two books. I opted for a more seductive style for the covers and steamy ads. Apparently, Facebook didn’t like the ad image and tag line and shut my account down. I completely freaked out. I did some modest begging and got my account reopened in time for the release date.
I also made the first book free as a way to draw people into the series. This move proved to be wise. The free book has been in the number one slot in a couple of categories several times. Has the read through been what I want? No, but I’m very grateful for the progress of the series.
Once some time has passed, I’ll look at the next ways to share these characters which will include audio, hard cover and special editions.
Here’s a question, How do you end a series?
The Good Girl Series
(Hover over the cover for buy buttons and click on the cover for more information.)
How to Do a Year in Review by Kitty Bucholtz
November 9, 2023 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz, Writing tagged as business of writing, Goal Setting, It's Worth It, Kitty Bucholtz, Planning
One thing we hear a lot of this time of year when we talk about annual planning is that we need to do a “year in review.” We’re told to make note of what worked this past year, what was more difficult than expected, and to decide what we’ll continue in the next year and what we’ll stop.
But what’s the best way to look at it?
If I sit here and think for a few seconds, I would say this past year has been tremendously difficult. (Just shy of “It sucked!”)
If I think about it for a minute, I remember than I got to travel three times this year – three times more than I have since the Covid pandemic began. That’s a win! But the rest of my life still sucked.
But if I get something to write with (pen and paper, computer file, phone note) and close my eyes and try to go through my whole year, looking at my calendar as well, I see something entirely different.
The root of my financial troubles was me not leaving any savings for slow months, but putting every dollar I earned against my credit card balance. Cash flow trouble. Something I can avoid in the future now that I understand it from first-hand experience. (It seemed like such a good idea to pay down my credit card as fast as possible…unless you get to a month where you don’t have enough for even the minimum payment. Oops.) While the short-term results were painful, the lesson learned for the future was invaluable.
My health was another big stressor this year. While I knew that I was learning how to heal from burnout the last few years, I hadn’t fully realized the impact of peri menopause in addition. I started out the year practically homicidal. But I was put on HRT (hormone replacement therapy) in mid-February and my symptoms quickly evened out. I wasn’t 100% back to myself, but at 80-95% (depending on the day), it was a huge relief!
Unfortunately, that 5-20% still bothered me with brain fog and fatigue, feeling like I couldn’t keep two thoughts in my head half the time. That doubled the amount of time it took me to do client work and my own work, which made me feel like I was getting further and further behind every month. Then after my half marathon, I caught a terrible respiratory infection that knocked me out for a couple weeks. A few weeks later, I caught Covid for the first time.
While between them it felt like I lost a good two months in trying to get healthy again, that time also made me think about how I’m living my life without much white space right now. That’s not what I want. I’ve had a half-finished puzzle on the table for a couple months because I keep telling myself I don’t have time to play right now. What’s that about? That’s something I want to actively plan to change next year.
These are only a few of things I came up with when I spent more than one minute thinking about the year. Turns out, there were a lot of good things in my business and personal life in 2023. In addition, of course, to a lot of lessons learned, and a lot of unfortunate things I couldn’t do much about. But once I could see these things written out, I could start seeing a much clearer picture of what the year truly was like.
That allowed me to start a list of what I wanted to change (quite a few things) in 2024, what I wanted to do more of, and a few things I needed to cut way back on. When I start my annual planning for the new year, I’m going to take this new, more complete, list and look at if from the standpoint of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). I’ll also compare my bigger life goals against the year – am I living my life with purpose and loving everyone as much as I can?
So how about your year in review? Can you take longer than a few minutes and really think it all through, write it down and take a solid look at it? I think you’ll find some really helpful information to make next year better.
And I bet you see a bunch of things to remind you that this past year was even better than what you remember!
I hope you take the time. It’s worth it.
0 0 Read moreDo You Need More Time for All Your Goals? by Kitty Bucholtz
February 9, 2023 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz, Writing tagged as It's Worth It, Kitty Bucholtz, Online Class, Planning, time management, writing, Writing Plans
Subtitle for This Block
Title for This Block
Every year, when I write down all of my goals, the list contains enough stuff to last several years. And after I trim it down to the essentials, it’s still almost definitely more than I can accomplish in the next 12 months. But I always want to try! Haha!
Do you have a lot on your mind and in your heart to do in 2023? I’m with you, friend! But there’s a saying attributed to the famous American businessman, Peter Drucker: “You can’t improve what you don’t measure.”
So let’s work together and both achieve more this year than we did last year! We’ll write down our goals AND how we’re going to measure them. As we keep track, we can look for ways to improve what we’re doing — and get more done.
And not just “stuff.” If you’re looking for someone to help you get off the couch and clean the house every Saturday, there are better people out there to help you with that. 😉 I’m talking about looking at the next 10-12 months and focusing on the most important things to you — finishing and publishing one or more books, helping your daughter plan her wedding, gain some muscle and lose some fat, do something from your bucket list.
I teach a class that’s helped hundreds of writers over the last two decades to get more writing done. Going the Distance: Time and Project Management for Writers. And with my new and improved version, we’ll look at my WHOLE PATH System to working on your whole life, not just writing in a vacuum.
The class will be online and self-paced, so you don’t have to show up at a certain time. But as a bonus, I’ll offer 4 live Q&A sessions during February and March. If you can’t make it live, you can send me your question and I’ll answer it so you can watch the recording.
Now is the time to get focused on what’s most important to you. And starting February 20, you can get the help you need to write more with less stress and more peace and joy this year!
I’ve created a couple short videos on my YouTube channel to help you in the meantime. The first is Easy Planning for the 3 Most Important Things in Your Life, and the second is Micro- vs. Macro-Planning. I hope you find them useful and encouraging!
And I hope to see you in class! 😀
Featured Books
LOVE’S PERILOUS ROAD
Travel, houseparties, smugglers, spies--and a mysterious highwayman. Who is the infamous Captain Moonlight? And how many lives will he change—for good or for ill?
More info →
VOICES OF BLAZE
The Voices of Blaze speak their words of advice, but will they bring help or harm?
More info →
