Tag Archives: writers

TAXES (for and by writers) (You can do it!)

Posted on by under Tax Time, The Writer

Two years ago I started my own publishing house because several writers I knew had done it and praised doing it. What they didn’t talk about was, well, lots of the pitfalls of owning your own business, but mostly no one spoke of…TAXES. (Da-da-daaaaah!)

Until last year, I’d never filed income tax in my life. Let me amend that:

Until I graduated from college, my daddy filed my income taxes; when I was single and teaching, I dumped all my tax info to a tax person who figured it all out for me; and when I got married, my husband filed our joint taxes. So it wasn’t until I was in my 60’s (!) that I filed taxes, by myself, for the first time ever, for my new writing business.

I have to admit that I dreaded the thought of doing taxes. I was terrified of it. What if I did something wrong? Would the government swoop down upon me and fine me for an error I missed or for something I forgot or for something didn’t understand? I mean, taxes on my earnings have been filed my entire life. It wasn’t like I was avoiding them (like some people nominated to political offices; oh, let’s not go there). I was just nervous about making a mistake. Yes, that’s true, but I was even more concerned that I was too stupid to figure out this government form which every American citizen needs to file, every year.

Guess what? I’m smart!

Even with all the record keeping necessary with running a business (buying and selling books, advertizing, traveling, etc.), filing taxes is more about time consumption than doing it wrong. With everything available on-line, tax time is good. Well, do-able. Just make sure you remember from year to year tiny details, like you want a Schedule C form for a small LLC business, not a Section C form for deporting aliens. It’s the tiny details which can confuse.

My tax filing suggestions for writers:

1) Keep accurate and records. I keep a monthly hand-written log of expenses and income and giveaways. I also have a zip-lock bag I keep for the year’s receipts — upon which I write what the purchase was for on the top of the slip before putting it into the bag.

2) Download the right tax form. 🙂

3) Don’t be afraid. Take a deep breath and focus on your task.

4) Read the line-by-line instructions, one section at a time.

Simple Writing Rules

Posted on by under children's writer, Revisions, Submitting Your Manuscript, writing

 Literature Blogs

Rule #1: Writing is not simple.

Rule #2: Write; Finish what you write; Revise; Have it critiqued; Revise a few more times; Let it sit.

Rule #3: Read. Read. Read — read EVERYTHING you can get your hands on: books in your field/genre; NF research; books for pleasure; books so out of whack from your own writing genre that it would make your fellow writers blink to see you reading them; etc., etc..

Rule #4: Take another look at your story; Revise again.

Rule #5: Research agents and/or editors; submit it.

Rule #6:  Start writing another story.

Rule #7: Go out and play. (More grown-up authors might rephrase that to “Go out and live.”)

Well?

Darcy Pattison’s Random Acts of Publicity, Part I

Posted on by under children's writer, writing

Literature Blogs 

This week (7th-10th) is Darcy Pattison’s Random Acts of Publicity, a week she invites authors and illustrators to publicize others.

However, is it really a random act if I plan it, which I have done. But renaming it to Sandy’s Planned Acts of Publicity might be a short cry to the plagiarism police. To me, random would be to go blindly into a library or bookstore or to one of my own bookshelves, and without knocking too many others down or otherwise insulting them, reach out and pick a random book to review.

So, what’s this all about? For four days, September 7-10, 2010, Darcy has sent the word out for us writers to be intentional about giving book reviews on Amazon and/or blogging about them. Brilliant idea, Darcy.

So, readers of this blog, consider this the prologue blog for Sandy’s Planned Acts– I mean, Darcy’s Random Acts of Publicity — which starts tomorrow.

(Oh, whom to randomly choose? Whom to randomly choose? So many fantastic books and awesome authors and illustrators. Just for four days? Focus, Sandy!)

Where I Get Story Ideas

Posted on by under Historical Fiction, Setting, Story Ideas, Storyteller, writing, Writing Fodder, Writing Ideas

 Literature Blogs

I find bits of story ideas from history, from news, from something I did or heard or saw, and from nightmares or by daydreaming.

I wrote my first historic novel from a fascinating bit of news I heard which happened in 1873. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and what it must have been like to have gone through that event and in that setting. So I researched and wrote about it.

I’ve had nightmares and scary visions of the end times lately — of man destroying this world not by nuking it, but by greed, causing gushing oil to ruin the water world we live on. YIKES. Some things are too close to reality for me to write about! I’m very thankful that after 86 days BP finally found a solution which seems to have stopped the leak in the Gulf of Mexico. What the effect of all that oil damage is yet to be seen. (Even more daydreaming fodder.)

Yesterday, my husband and I drove through what we later found out was a thunderstorm watch. But I wasn’t watching. Mostly, I had my eyes closed! Instead of going 75 on the interstate, people who hadn’t pulled over (like my husband and a truck driver or two) were driving 40 mph in the sideways pelting rain, gripping onto the steering wheel which the wind threatened to take control of. Lots of interesting story ideas could come from that experience alone. However, I’ll share here on my writing blog a really fascinating thing I saw for the first time in my life. That is, to me it was fascinating, and therefore writing fodder.

We were heading west. As we came out from under the storm, although it was still raining, we hit sunlight and blue skies. My husband commented, “There’s got to be a rainbow somewhere.” I knew that in order to see a rainbow, you needed two things: sun and rain, and that the sun had to be at your back. Because of our van roof, my vision was very limited. I looked out my side rearview mirror and found my rainbow. It was following us. The rainbow was made in the spray shooting up from our tires turning on the wet road.

There are ideas all around each of us. Storytellers can’t help thinking, reflecting, weaving. It’s half of the fun of being a writer.

Rejection Before Even Submitting

Posted on by under humor, MG/YA Fiction Writer, Submitting Your Manuscript, writing

Literature Blogs

     A member of my critique group sent me a message two weeks ago about a small press which seemed perfect for one of my completed MG novels. I checked out their website, and agreed. They would indeed be perfect, IF I cut some words. So.. I’ve been snatching moments of company time — company which can be very distracting to a writer — to revise and cut 2,500 words in order to fit within their press specifications.
     Since this small press only does quarterly reviews, I decided to call to find out when their next review was, so I wouldn’t be waiting two and 3/4 months before they even take a look at it. The result: The guy said they are no longer accepting manuscripts because of the economy.
     The down side of this? I’ve got a story without a home  — yet.
     Double down side? A rejection is a rejection, even when I didn’t submit it. I.e., For a few days I’m sinking into W.R.F. — Writer’s Rejection Funk — until I can poof-up some writer’s courage back into me. (And, yes, I made up that acronym, too. Although, it sounds an awfully lot like a wrestling acronym, which may also be appropriate in this business.)
     BUT… The up side of this adventure? It’s actually a stronger story.

School Visits and the JOB of being a writer

Posted on by under children's writer, Publication, Reading, Reflections, writing

 Literature Blogs

A writer friend of mine — Ruth McNally Barshaw — was in my town last week, doing five school visits. Of COURSE, I had to both meet up with her and sit in on one of her school talks. I was not disappointed. I never expected I would be.

Ruth’s story is interesting. She sketched in journals all her life, but it wasn’t until she went to the SCBWI NY conference (sketching the whole way on the train and back), did an agent approach her and tell her about the new genre called graphic novels. Ruth found both her nitch and her dream job, and she’s good at it, too.

My former career was as an elementary teacher. I’ve sat through hundreds of school assemblies or special events. Some were awesome; some were utter flops.  I know what works and what doesn’t. I know how to be flexible and change things mid-stream (although there is always THE PLAN to rely back upon). After seeing Ruth in action last week, I made a startling discovery: I want to have that job. I want to write stories for kids, then travel around from school to school encouraging children to write (and read).

Oh. Wait. That’s what I’ve been trying to do for a while now. Ah. It’s all about the confirmation. Someday…

Day 24 — NaNoWriMo — Thanksgiving Priorities

Posted on by under writing

Literature Blogs

Company’s coming tonight for the next 5 days. I haven’t written anything on my NaNo novel the past two days. Today’s not looking too good, either. I wish I could snap my fingers and house cleaning and  food preparations could be done in an instant. Or maybe I, as a writer, just need to get over caring if I have guests who use mildewy toilets, or if I serve  peanut butter and jelly sandwiches v.s. hors d’oeuvres and turkey and scrumptious pies.

Okay. I’m not really grumbling about family coming in, nor about feasting out. I adore my family, and cherish each moment we get to spend together. Family ALWAYS takes priorities over writing, or anything else for that matter.  And food — well, need I say more? And celebrations are worth looking forward to, participating in, and remembering.

But see? I take a few minutes out between grocery shopping and laundry loads to blog that I don’t have time to write today.  Silly Sandy.

NaNo Novel Decision

Posted on by under writing

Literature Blogs

October is supposed to be planning month for NaNoWriMo. Part One of my plan is to decide which novel (story-line/plot) I’m going to be writing out.

When I first decided to take the NaNoWriMo plunge, I was going to rewrite one of my MG fantasy novels (North Wind) during the month. I’ve been struggling with it off and on for a couple months now and thought this would be the nice push to get it completed. 

I also considered rewriting my horrid self-published (PublishAmerica) adult thriller (The Spin Murders). Not that the plot or characters are horrid, but my word by word writing corrections was never put into the draft. My “editor” sent the original ms to be published. Yeesh. So I thought I’d use November to ready that novel for when my 7-year contract runs out.

Decades ago, I wanted to write a novel about my perfect school — what it would be like. (no working title) Years ago, I started the idea for a Native American school, incorporating many of the ideas from my other alternative school idea. (Golden Paints the Sky)

I considered expanding my 3 Tristan fantasy chapters I’d written for my son’s Carlson Photo Writing Challenge into an actual plot and story during NaNo, but all I had were three incidents/scenes, no plot.

Then I thought I ought to just start fresh, like the No Plot, No Problem philosophy of NaNo. I thought of a cool story of a town which disappeared. (based around Silver Lake, MI)

THEN I thought of writing a MG historical novel about dunes taking over a town and a mystery which is buried forever with the town. (East of East, working title) So the past two days I’ve been doing lots of research of different things I’ll need to know. I suppose I can also research it AFTER NaNoWriMo is over, when I do the revisions. Now, with 2.5 weeks to go, I think I’ve settled on this last novel idea. But what great fun it’s been to allow my creative juices to flow in just coming up with ideas and doing research. Writing is awesome.

Raw Writing (i.e., first drafts)

Posted on by under writing

I am an unstructured person. Circle-me cannot fit into the square holes of daily disciplined people. I can read 8 books in one week, then wait a couple or more months before I pick up another. It’s not quite the same with my writing, although I have been known to bing write — like for the many years I was in BIW (Book-in-a-Week). Long ago I heard the question, “So, do you write every day?” I used to answer no, but after giving that answer, wasn’t taken seriously as a writer. So… today if you ask me, do you write every day? I’d have to answer an honest yes.Is that writing always raw writing (i.e., first drafts) or rewrites or revisions? No. This summer I’ve spent more time learning about websiting and the art of blogging than I have in any of those three. In my defence, I am following my summer goals. I finished the revision of one novel and then dove into a study of on-line presence. Having no traditionally published book (YET), I want to be able to have all this awkward learning behind me so I will be able to center in on my real writing.

Today I am craving Raw Writing — getting those ideas, characters, and scenes down for the very first time, allowing my fingers to simply fly over the keyboard, trying to get my thoughts into letters before they fly from me. Vacation time and family visits quench that, this week. I DO NOT REGRET GIVING UP MY WRITING FOR FAMILY — EVER. (Yes, that was me yelling.) Family is always top priority to me. But today I crave sitting down in one spot for 2-3 hours and doing some uninterrupted raw writing. It won’t happen. Not today. But I can wait.