I Am Not Nicholas Sparks
For all of you in the same boat as I – sole proprietors praying to the tax gods right now for a little mercy – this is a tough time of the year. Some of us wisely saved money all year to pay the tax-piper, but others of us, like myself, didn’t.
In my defense, I tried to set up quarterly payments – I’m going to make a lot more money next year, I told her – but my tax lady (who’s now NOT my tax lady) didn’t think it was necessary or didn’t want to make the effort to help me get my new writing and editing business on the up and up.
So, I went on the up and up on my own – and now I owe a bunch of taxes.
Ouch.
New year. New accountant lady. I moved to a new state. Then THAT accountant quits her job a few papers shy of my filing being completed.
New tax dude comes on the scene.
Are we all caught up now? So, where was I…oh, yes, I owe taxes. Plenty of it.
So, the new tax dude is setting me up with monthly payments to pay what I owe for last year and sometime in a year (or so) I hope to have all that paid off. He’s also got me set up on quarterly projected payments, the first of which is due April 15. And I have to pay off the state taxes in one lump sum. So, come April, I’ll pay over 4K in taxes just to get caught up and kick-off all these on-going tax payments.
When I didn’t wince at that, perhaps he got the wrong impression?
Perhaps looking at my financials – with “writer and editor” as my job – this new tax fella was a little, well, overly impressed with me?
It went a little like this…
You’re the next Nicholas Sparks, right? Uh, probably not.
You’re going to move to the beach, right? And write novels, right? Well, I am looking at condos at the beach…and yes, I’ll write novels…
I’ll expect an autographed copy… uh, ok, sure.
Writers Face Stigma and Assumptions
Maybe you are in the same boat? Maybe people look at you and think you’re either of two things:
A writer-wanna-be super-creative type who really doesn’t know what they want to do when they grow up and are just out there writing stuff and hoping against hope to make the bills this month—because, well, you wasted all that time writing, right?
Nicholas Sparks.
There’s nothing really in between those two extremes.
And I—not Nicholas Sparks—have got a big year of challenges ahead of me. While it’s keeping me up at night, stifling my creativity, and burning a hole in the back of my esophagus worrying over aaalllll the details…I am not worried about the forward momentum of my writing career, and whether or not that will put food on the table.
What I am worried about is paying all of that taxes.
And saving up a down payment for my first home purchase—while I am paying all of that taxes. (Yes, I am looking at condos at the beach. Obsessively, if I’m completely honest.)
Fighting the stigmas and assumptions people have about my work…that’s just a bit of the wrong spice thrown into the dish. You’ve done that right? Mixed in Baking Soda when the recipe called for Baking Powder and ended up with a bitter cake? Or cooked in that fresh parsley and found out later you’d been buying cilantro by mistake? No wonder that dish tasted so—odd.
We Need to Represent Working Writers
How about you? Are you a writer/creative/sole proprietor? (Many of my readers are, which is why I ask…)
Do you have to explain to people that yes, writing can be a real job? Or do you have to talk down the swoon when people get a little silly, like they are in the presence of greatness…talking to a real live celebrity? Here in small-town South Carolina, it’s either one or the other reaction. Every single time.
As working writers, editors, creators, we need to represent this career as well as we can. With good business sense. With planning and scheduling and all that responsibility, because face it folks…the world thinks our jobs are just a side-gig. Just a hustle that one day will or will not make us famous.
I’m not looking for fame, for the record. I just want that condo at the beach.
Ok, maybe I will pretend, some days, while that salty air breezes in through my window, that I might just be the next Nicholas Sparks.
Until I get that condo, though…I’ll be sharing my work with you all and hoping for that next take-off article to help me scrape up my down payment for my condo.
Here’s a little of what I’ve been working on lately.
Check out some of my work at VEGAMOUR blog, which is a hair loss product aimed at giving you your most lucious hair ever! Or over at cbdMD where I help educate the public on the ins and outs of using CBD products from head to toe.
On Medium, I’ve been pretty candid with recent stories like these: 7 Signs You Need a BIG Change in Your Life Right Now and How to Get Your 100 Followers Quickly – Without losing your dignity.
If you can’t view those articles…here’s how to fix that. If you join Medium using that link a portion of your fee each month rolls into my earnings—and eventually, that condo, of course!
I’m also helping to share some of what I am learning as a professional freelancer: Learn About SEO and Long Tail Keywords Right Here!
I’ve been super busy (along with my NEW ASSISSTANT!) with The Poet’s Lair materials. Learn how you can grow your own talents while learning more about the genre of poetry and poetic prose. There are group meetings, workshopping events, a monthly book club we call the Lair Library…fabulous merch and more!
And lastly — I hired a professional today to help with my first novel Elephant Song, which honestly I am struggling to query. OK, I dread sending queries. I have been outting it off for far too long. What if that book sells and helps me get that down payment ready? Stranger things have happened. I hope this helps me cross that final milestone and find an agent. (My accountant will be sorely disappointed if I can’t get published!)
That’s all for now. I thank you for following the Fiddleheads & Floss newsletter…hopefully someday soon this newsletter will be coming at you live from the coast of sunny South Carolina, where I just know a “writer’s retreat condo” is waiting patiently for me to purchase it.
Fingers crossed.
Christina~