The Top 5 Editorial Mistakes I’ve Seen… and How to Fix Them, Part 1 of 5.

If you’ve taken a creative writing workshop or even a high school composition course, you’ve likely heard the advice: “Show, don’t tell.”

When we’re writing fiction or creative non-fiction, we want to show instead of tell, which translates to telling our story through a series of interconnected scenes, instead of summarizing the events that happened.

If a character needs a raise to pay the rent, the writer shouldn’t explicitly state, “Bob needed a raise to pay his rent,” at least not without also providing supporting details. Instead, she may place an important conversation between Bob and his work best friend in a coffee shop, where Bob explains that he’s having his second triple latte of the day at 10:00 a.m. after pulling an all-nighter with the quarterly earnings report.

So, yes, “Show, don’t tell.” You know that intuitively. But I’m here to explain part of the “why” behind this age-old adage.

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Book Sales Tax Responsibilities for Indie Authors

In a previous post, I discussed how indie authors can reduce their tax burden by reaching consignment deals with local bookstores.

But what about situations where you do owe sales tax? If you’re an indie author, I hope this post will help you make sense of the relationship between your book sales and your sales tax burden.

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Writing About Race: A List of Helpful Articles

A client recently asked if I could recommend any articles on writing about race, especially about tokenism versus representation.

Aside from an article on not using food metaphors to describe skin color and another on why “gypsy” is not a word we should be using in the twenty-first century, I didn’t have any bookmarked or to share off the top of my head. Determined to do better, I researched and came up with the following list of articles from writers whose experience leads them to be much more expert on these issues than I am.

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Hiring an Accountant Can Benefit You as a Writer

When you start making income as a writer, there’s good news and there’s bad news.

The good news is: you’re getting paid to write! Congrats! This is a dream come true for so many people. Take a moment to relish that thought before moving to the next paragraph.

The bad news is: if you’re making income as a writer, then your tax return may not be as simple as filing a 1040-EZ anymore.

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