Ep 292 An Intentional Writing Life

Welcome to pencils and lipstick. This is a podcast for indie authors. I'm Kat Caldwell, novelist, short story writer, and book coach. Here on pencils and Lipstick, we're obsessed with all things story, and it is my goal to bring you the writing tips that you need to make your novel come to life. Happy New Year, everyone.

Welcome back to Pencils and Lipstick, and it is episode 292 of the podcast. That is crazy, and it is 2026 already. We are past 2025. I hope that you guys had a wonderful holiday break or at least holidays, whether you took a break or not. I am recording this right up at the last minute because I had a bit of a cough and lost my voice, which makes it difficult to do podcasts, but all better as you can hear more or less.

It so it is January 4, like, evening as I record this, and it goes out January 5. But yeah. Happy New Year, everyone. I hope, that you are anticipating a great year to come. And of course, as we go into the the new year, I like to use the first podcast to sort of talk about what do we expect from this year.

And if you have been following the podcast for a while, you might have noticed kind of an evolution of how I view goals. I don't discount that writing down your goals works. It obviously works. You, you cannot keep everything in your head all the time. Vision boards work for people.

Planners work for people. And I highly agree with, I guess, writing down your goals and sort of living your life around those goals. But and this comes hear me out for a second. When it comes to writing a book, it's hard to make those goals in a way that will not frustrate you, especially if you're new to writing. And new, I think, encompasses you've written four books or less.

Like, unless you are like I guess there are certain personalities that might figure this out a little sooner. My personality did not. I used to be really into, like, the goals that, sort of the, you know, the American life coach people, teach. But I think when it comes to writing books, it's different. Like, we our brains work differently.

Okay. So I was reminded the other day as I was making the Roscon de Reyes, if you guys don't know, if you're new, my husband is Spanish and so we celebrate King's Day, which is tomorrow as this goes out, January 6. That is when we open presents and then we eat arroz con. And so I'm trying to learn how to make arroz con. It has it's okay.

I would grade myself, like, on a b at this point. You know, it's not a d like it was one year. It was, like, five pounds literally one year. This year, it was not like that, but I overcooked it. So we're gonna have to make another one.

Maybe. We might just have to eat that one. I don't know. So anyway, I was reminded about this when I was making the roscon. Okay.

I have been trying to make a roscon in the way that it's supposed to be for years now, and it never really comes out correct. And so I was thinking about that. I was like, I have all the ingredients. I'm doing all the things. I'm trying to knead it right.

You know, I'm looking up the videos and trying to do the the the window pane window glass. You know, if you ever made bread, you have to, like, stretch it and see if you can see through it without it breaking, you know, then you know that the gluten is is working. I don't know. All those things. You know, I'm I'm sort of like every once in a while bread maker, and so it always sort of comes out as a b, b minus.

Right? Edible, good, but not like, oh my gosh. You should start a bakery, obviously, because I'm a writer. But okay. So I'm I'm like mixing the eggs and I'm mixing in the the orange water and, you know, all these things.

And I can do that. Right? Like, I know how to put ingredients in, but it's like, you know what the words are that you need to put in, you know, the characters, right? You know, the plot, you know, the setting, you know, certain things are going to happen, but you might not know that thing. Right?

That thing that, that is going to make the story. And I don't yet know that thing for Roscon. I don't know that like moment, that touch, that feeling of like, now it's perfect. Right? And here's the other thing.

You might even have that feeling, but, like, if you don't let the bread sit and let the, the yeast ferment and bubble and make it rise, you're going to ruin the Ruscone. If you don't shape it properly and fold it properly when you're shaping it, the second rise isn't going to really work as well as it should. It's not going to rise up as well. It's going to be flat. Been there, done there.

I had a very flat rose cone one year. If you don't know what it looks like, it's like a bread wreath. So it's in a circle with a with a hole in the middle. And so you have to shape it in that way. And there are different theories on how to shape it.

Right? So you only get one shot per roscon. Then you have to cook it. You have to heat up the oven. You have to cook it at the right temperature.

You have to cook it for the right amount of time, which I did not yesterday. Anyway, I kinda overcooked it. So your book is kind of the same. You might know the ingredients. Again, the settings, the characters, you know, the at least the main ones, the plot points that are in your head.

You might really you might have gone to a couple of classes and you know how to write a story and what's expected of that story. Right? The templates, I guess. What's expected in a thriller and in a mystery. But you might not have that thing that it needs yet.

Or maybe you do have a thing, like I said, and you don't have the time. It hasn't fermented enough. It hasn't developed enough. The characters have not come into their own enough. They have not matured enough to really be ready matured enough to really be ready to go out into the world.

Maybe it hasn't cooked enough. Like, do you see where I'm going with this? There is writing a book is not exactly as straightforward as some of us want to think it is. And as some of us teach it to be, yes, you can write and finish a book in three months. You could barely do it in one month if you wanted to kill yourself.

But is it ready? Like, is the story actually ready? I think that we have to go into 2026 giving ourselves a little bit of grace and giving ourselves some space to allow the story to grow on its own and for it to find the moment that it's ready to go out into the world. This is kind of like when you're giving birth, when you're, when you're pregnant and you're getting closer and closer to that moment. If, if you've ever been in this moment, you will always ask the doctor, like, how will I know?

And the answer is most frustratingly, you'll know when it's coming. When that baby is deciding to come, you'll know. And it's so frustrating because if you haven't experienced it before, you're just like, but but I don't know. How will I know? And we tend to stress out about it.

And the truth is when that baby's coming, you know. Right? And so I think in this time that this age of, like, pushing books out and that has sort of dropped off a little bit. Right? Like that quick turnover of books, teaching people to get, like, far four books out a year or whatever.

Thankfully, maybe I'm just not near those people anymore, but I think it's cooled down a little bit. And I'm glad because sometimes books are going out sooner than they should go out. And if you've read one of those books in the last few years, you know what I'm talking about, where it's like, that book could have been something great, but they brought it out too quickly. It was missing that thing. It was missing something.

It wasn't fully developed. Like, the author had not allowed it to sit yet, to sit enough. The characters weren't mature enough. The plot point could have been more satisfying. You know, the just the story in general, it was just missing something and we all know those stories.

And I want us who are in this together at Pencils and Lipstick, I want us to avoid that. I want us to be proud of our stories ten years later and not think like, oh, I was in such a hurry to bring it out that I didn't let it become what it could have become. I mean, I read one story last summer, and I I hate telling you guys the the titles of these stories. Because one, like, you might disagree with me or you might not have thought this because I do look at stories a little bit differently than most readers. Or you might not have read the book, you know, and I I just don't like putting names.

I don't want you guys to think that I'm trashing the author. The author is actually very, well known and is doing very well. Still, I don't wanna trash, their book, but their book could have been something. It could have been so satisfying and it was just rushed, especially, like, halfway through. It was repetitive.

The character was not mature enough. Like she was 32, but she didn't act 32. Like she needed someone to say, like, it's not ready to come out yet. And I don't know if this is true, but I have a feeling that, like, the publisher was so eager to reenact the best selling, you know, to sort of ride that wave that they push this book out and it just wasn't ready. Like, it just isn't memorable enough.

It isn't up to what I think this writer could have done. And what whatever. She's making tons of money, but is is that the point? Is that what we're doing it for? I don't know, because I would assume if you're listening to my podcast, you're not making tons and tons of money, but it wouldn't be a bad idea, bad thing to happen, right?

At some point. We are competing against the traditionally published authors. We are competing against 2,000,000 books going out every year. Your book has got to be ready. It's gotta already have that pizzazz, that thing that makes it just stick to the reader, stick to their brain for weeks afterwards.

Right? Makes them think. And it again, I'm not trying to say that it has to be, like, literary, but even some romance and mystery and thrillers have stuck with me. Like, I still think about them. It doesn't matter that they're genre.

That that doesn't matter as much. It's just that the the story was so complete and so there that it was it it held its own weight. So when you're trying to make a goal for the year and it's the January and you're trying to write down, you know, that goal of writing your book, it's hard to know what date to put down for that end moment. Okay? And I believe me, I've tried, I've done it.

And I know some of you can write like that, but I would bet you're well beyond your fourth book, if you know how to do this. So I'm going to talk to you who are sort of in the beginning of this. It's really difficult and I want to acknowledge that and I want you to kind of relax about that goal. Now, that aside, if you don't make it a priority to finish your book, you won't ever finish your book. So we're kind of in this sort of catch 22, right?

Now, there are things that you can put goals onto, like a date onto when you're going to have your author newsletter ready to go. That is something that you can put a date to. When you are going to have the cover, the title, at what point do you want to have the editor chosen? You can put an end date to the draft if you understand what I'm saying. So I want to have this draft done by the January in order to give myself some time to look over it and let it firm it and let me think about it and give my my editor time and then myself time to think about my editor's comments and all that.

That is all part of the story growing. So while I say that it's difficult to say at what end point this book is going to be, There are all different ways of how people write and how people organize themselves. You can go with writing 500 words a day. Just know that not all those words are probably going to end up in the book. And I say that quickly because so many people hate it when I say that.

You can, give yourself goals of how you're going to develop the characters. You can give yourself goals of what days of the week are you gonna think about it. Although I feel like we think about our stories all the time, right? So I'm not, I'm not against you finding a way to figure out how to get that book written. And in fact, I've worked with several writers in which I think what they like is the idea of having written, but they don't necessarily like the idea of writing.

And I think that the more, the less you write, actually, the more pressure you put on yourself for the words that you do write when you do actually sit down to be the most perfect words. And I want you to dispel that from your brain. That's not possible, spell that from your brain. That's not possible, especially if it's your first, second, third book. That's that's not possible, and you're putting, pressure on yourself that's not needed.

Writers have always had editors. They've always worked with other people. It's it's silly to even consider that your first draft. And, I mean, your first draft is the first time that you actually finished the book. It's not gonna be perfect at all.

It's just not going to be perfect at all. It takes quite a few books and a quite a quite a lot of knowledge of storytelling for it to be b, to be at the end of the first draft. I do know that there are people out there, writers who, on their podcast, say, this is what I do. I write for six weeks. I send it to my editor.

I edit, and then we go on. Hear me when I tell you those authors, all of who like, the ones that I have listened to, they all are well beyond their fourth book. All of them. Okay? So you you have to be careful about who you're trying to emulate when you aren't at the same spot on the mountain as them.

Just you have to climb the mountain differently if you are at a different spot. It's just impossible to to do exactly what the other person is doing when they're a mile ahead of you. Like so it's good to listen to those who aspire to that, to be in awe of it. So all that's that's something to look forward to when I can do that, but it is not something to emulate. Because if you don't know how the structure of your story is going, what the plot points are, what the you know, if you're not writing a series, if you're on your first or second book, please maybe look forward to that moment that you can do that, but do not expect yourself to be like that.

Okay. We're going down too many rabbit trails here. I want you in 2026 to set a goal. I'm not saying not to, but I want you to realize what the goal is. And I guess I'm trying to help you avoid certain pitfalls that I have seen from my different clients.

So here's one of them. I'm gonna write this book in the next two months. It's gonna be done. It's gonna be pretty perfect. I'm gonna get feedback from the editor.

I'm gonna fix it, and it's gonna be out in five, you know, by May May. June. Okay. June 1. That if you're in the first stages of writing, that's gonna be rough.

You might be able to do it, but my question to you is, is the story actually how it should be and have you given it enough time? Then I have the other client who says, I'm gonna get it done, who has said that for the last five years, doesn't prioritize their writing, and they'll end up with twenty twenty six of not having finished their book. And I those are like two extremes, and I I don't want that either. I want you to give yourself some writing goals per week. I want you to, if it helps you put a date on finishing the book, but to understand in between those two extreme clients, the finish quote unquote of the book is not finished.

Your you finish the draft. You reread the draft. You sort of fiddle around with some editing. If you haven't learned how to edit or how to self edit, your you are kind of fiddling around with the story. You're probably not objective enough to be actually editing it.

Okay. So you're, you're sort of doing the author thing. You think that the story is good enough, and so you're kind of just line editing. Like, you're not story developmental editing, if you get my drift. Those are two different things, and it's very difficult to do that to your book if you haven't trained yourself on it.

I'm not saying you have to go to classes, but you have to sort of read up on how to edit, what storytelling is, what is expected of by the reader, all of those things. And then you have to learn to be objective and to be kind of hard on yourself. Okay. So if you're fiddling with it, that's still your first draft and most likely your book's not ready yet. Then you need to get an editor.

And I know that it costs a lot of money. I do know that. But you need to get an editor. You need somebody who is objective, and you need somebody who is going to help you make that book shine. And I don't mean that you need an editor who tells you exactly all the things that are wrong and how you need to fix this.

That's not how an editor really should be. An editor should be working with you on how to polish the story up. They should be your friend. They should be your coworker in that moment of the story. They should be asking questions for you to reflect on.

They should, be rooting for you and for your story, and you should not be taking offense to their questions or their suggestions. You should take them to into consideration, and you should not be upset about the work ahead, that a change might bring. And you will not be upset or as upset if you tell your brain that just because you are finished with the draft and with your own quote unquote editing, that does not mean that the book is done. And I think that is one thing that, that we make a mistake on. We think we tell ourselves the book is done, then we get our edits back.

We realize that the book is not done, that there's more work to do. So I'm giving you kind of like all these different hints because really what I want is for, yes, I want you to to hit some goals. I do not want you to hit the end of 2026, having claimed you were going to write your book, but not doing it. I don't want you to be that writer, but I don't want you to be overly confident that you can do it now. And it you either bring out a book that you're not, you know, isn't really ready or you don't bring it out because you know it's not ready, but then you're upset with yourself because you didn't hit your date.

Okay? So I want you to sort of have just reflect on these goals, reflect on how you're writing these goals, reflect on the pressure that you're putting on yourself, reflect on how how a book needs time and that sometimes the timeline that we make is not the timeline that it needs. Alright? And be okay with that if it turns out that your book needs more fermenting time or if it needs to be needed longer because you will live at a higher altitude, I don't know if that's a thing for bread, but we're gonna say that it is. Maybe it needs to cook longer or less time.

Maybe it needs another run through. Maybe your first editor doesn't work and you gotta, you know, go find another one. I don't want you to get frustrated as long as you're working on it. Do you understand what I'm saying? Like, I want you to understand that it takes the time that it takes to write that book and bring out that book that you're super proud of.

And the more proud you are of your book, the more it's going to resonate with your readers. If you are not confident in the book, that's going to show. It's going to show in your marketing. It's going to show, in the way that you talk about it. It's going to show up everywhere.

So you need to be the most confident in it. And that's how I want you to go into twenty twenty twenty twenty twenty six. There are lots of writing planners out there. I have some. I I I support my friends who make them.

I think they're great. I think they work for some personalities, but I think that they can put pressure and more stress on a certain personality or some of us when the story just isn't coming as quickly as maybe we hoped it would. And maybe that's a little bit of our artistic brain. Right? We have sometimes stories come really quickly and sometimes they just don't, and they just need time and you'll wake up at 3AM with the answer on a random Thursday.

Be sure to write it down when that happens. So I have been in those, all those different spots. Right now with, my next contemporary romance, I started at the October. I finished it before Christmas in the sense that and I know I told you not to use the word finish, but I finished the first draft of it. I am now going back over it.

I am pretty confident in my self editing skills and yet I'm still going to get an editor. Yes. I know. Like, I I kind of look forward to the day I don't need one. On the other hand, I know that you always need one, you know, like you always need somebody else's eyes on it.

I will be opening beta up really quickly. This is this book is gonna come out in the mid mid April, and that is kind of unprecedented for me. That hasn't happened since An Audience with the King. I've never I have not gone that fast since An Audience with the King, which is my second book and kind of my outlier book. It's just like, you know, speculative fiction.

It doesn't fit with any of my other genres. Every other book took me a lot of time and thought and fermenting and, like, struggle. And I have a couple other ideas of books started, and they're just taking more time. They're just it's weird. I don't know why that is.

And I know I'll finish them, most likely. Two of them I've put to the side. They're probably never gonna come out. But but I just don't know why that happens. And so I wanna encourage you for 2026.

Just give yourself some time. Give yourself some grace. Give yourself some space. Do set goals for yourself, but understand that in this creative world, things might need to get a little adjusted in a way that doesn't have to happen when you need to, like, sell a product or, you know, develop a prototype or I don't know what it what are things that other people do? Get the taxes paid.

Like, those have, like, actual end goals. Right? That that you can see it. You can there's like a formula. You can do it.

You fill in the spreadsheet. I don't know what people do, but we are creating stories out of thin air. Like, out of our brains, our creativity, that there's no way to determine what point that's going to be finished. I hope you understand what I'm saying. But yes, do set up a writing routine.

Do push yourself to work on the story. If you do want to write the book and not just like the idea of having written the book, you have to put in the work and yeah, sometimes it feels like work. So I hope that that, I hope that that wasn't just rambling, because I want to bring some practical, like, just the reality of being a creative. I am not against goal setting at all. I hope you hear me on that.

There are some great planners out there. It's just that as I thumb through them and they're like, and this week, you're going to get up to this point in the story, and next week, you're gonna get up to this point in the story. And the idea of that's great, but I just know the reality is that sometimes it just doesn't happen. Sometimes we just can't find that moment. Sometimes our brains just can't find that thing, that what they're supposed to say or do or what's supposed to happen and it just needs time.

And I don't want the planner date to stress you out. It doesn't mean that you failed. It doesn't mean that you don't know how to write. It doesn't mean anything. It just means that the story is taking its time and it's fermenting.

And one day it'll just come to you. Be sure to have a notebook handy or use your voice memo. So be encouraged that while we can set goals, those goals are okay to be massaged. And that if your story is taking longer than you thought it, quote, unquote, should take, you are not alone. And sometimes, maybe you should just start the other story because it'll come out faster and no one knows why.

I cannot tell you why it came out faster. So happy new year, everyone. 2026 is your year, whether you're writing your first book, your fifth book, your tenth book, I'm going to read right here with you. We're going to bring out some books this year. I want to hear about your book that's coming out.

Please let me know. We haven't done this in a while. But if you have books coming out, just send me an email. I'll give you a shout out on the podcast. I want us to be in this together.

I want to follow each other on all the social medias. I want us to encourage each other. I have a little idea brewing for the podcast in which we might do live coaching. Let me know if that's something that you might be interested in. You can DM me on Instagram, or on TikTok.

All the links are in the show notes below. Yeah. I'm thinking I'm thinking some live coaching and coaching in the sense of, like, talking through that thing that's not working in your story. Like, let me know if that's something you guys might be interested in. Next week, we have an interview and it is an amazing interview.

I I kid you not. You have to show up next week. It is like one of the best times I had. I think it's going to encourage you so much. And if you missed the last episode, two ninety one, which came out on December 15, it was with Victoria Nicola.

I really think you should go back and listen to it. She had to endure a crazy cancellation last year as an author, and she just kept going. And I think it's a really great episode to start the the new year with of just like tenacity and perseverance because that's what it takes in this business, y'all. That is what it takes. You have to just love your stories, love writing, and you have to have a perseverance in this.

That being said, we're gonna try to bring in more people like marketing people and salespeople and all the people that we need and all the things that we need to learn. But, right now you just give yourself some goals that are attainable, some goals that are in the creative sphere, right? Give yourself some grace and I will see you next week.