Member Blog

It’s free to join SPR and blog about your writing experiences. Read the latest blog entries from our community

How Journaling can be a Training Ground for Aspiring Authors

JournalingIt’s a proven fact that the more time you spend writing, the better at writing you will become. Writers who write out of passion do not have a problem with this. They write each day because it is a necessity rather than a habit, effort, or obligation. On the other hand, some writers tend to have difficulty developing a daily writing routine. One thing that separates successful writers from unsuccessful writers is commitment. When one is committed to the task at hand, their chances of success increases exponentially.

If you’re struggling to form a routine of daily writing, try journaling.  […]

2016-01-12T04:29:12+02:00January 12th, 2016|Categories: Member Blog|

Selling English books written by an Ex Gurkha in a Chinese society is really hard…!

tim gurungAll the new and self-published writers know how hard it is to sell a book, it is not a new subject and one shouldn’t be surprised at all if this doesn’t catch your attention. But I am not only a new and self-published author but also a non-native-English writer and doesn’t even live in a country where people mostly speak English.

I actually live in Hong Kong, one of the most expensive metropolitans of the world where everything starts and ends with money, 95% of the population is Chinese origin, and due to the immediate impact of China’s huge influences […]

2015-10-05T03:56:14+02:00August 6th, 2015|Categories: Member Blog|

How Dyslexics Can Benefit from Using Ebook Readers

dyslexiaWhen you hear the word dyslexia, the first thought that comes to your mind may be some type of inversion such as reading backwards.

However, dyslexia is more than just that. Dyslexia is a disorder that refers to people with normal intelligence levels who have trouble reading. Though it affects about one in twenty people, the cause has remained somewhat elusive. For treatment, researchers have discovered that the most effective way for dyslexics to become more efficient at reading is to read more.

As such, the search for ways that have the potential to make reading easier for dyslexics has […]

2015-07-16T07:07:53+02:00July 16th, 2015|Categories: Member Blog|

The Adventure of Writing a Memoir – When All Balls Drop

When you see the word ‘adventure,’ you probably think of action, travel, and the outdoors. You don’t naturally think of writing. However, I beg to defer. 

I define adventure as something new, challenging, and perhaps frightening. In almost all cases, it’s all consuming. Deciding to do it and then executing it despite the fear is what makes it an adventure. And, writing a memoir has been an adventure to say the least.

My debut memoir, When All Balls Drop, started as journal entries. I know it doesn’t sound that adventurous, but it was my way of navigating all that occurred […]

2020-02-21T07:39:06+02:00June 17th, 2015|Categories: Member Blog|Tags: |

Spec Fic Writer Searches For Utopia

For all the weirdnesses in my book of linked stories New Sun Rising—e-beasts who rule the world from within Networld, witchcraft, ghosts, and a human warehouse—I couldn’t have written the stories without knowing three New York lakes: Otisco, Skaneateles, and Chautauqua. This is the literal truth: without knowing the lakes  I would not have known how to create the utopian community central to the action in New Sun Rising, or how to describe it.

Those lakes feed a thirsty creative soul.

The lake in my fictional world is named Star Lake. It is mostly based on Chautauqua. However, the […]

2017-08-24T03:44:22+02:00May 13th, 2015|Categories: Member Blog|

3 Pitfalls to Avoid While Writing a Book

three pitfalls graphicThe beginning stages of writing and self-publishing your first e-book can be a very exciting experience.  You daydream about being on Amazon’s best seller list or sitting next to Oprah while discussing the intricacies of your book to an audience filled with your admirers.  But amidst your fantasies about the “glamor” of authorship, you must make room for the realities of what you’re up against on the road to self publishing your book.  While there are many “do’s” to follow when self publishing, there are also many pitfalls you’ll want to avoid.  Of course I couldn’t possibly cover them all […]

2015-04-21T04:10:07+02:00April 21st, 2015|Categories: Member Blog|Tags: |

How to Plan and Organize a Book

organizeWriting a book can be a time consuming process. In order to write a book as efficiently as possible, authors should begin by organizing and planning their ideas. Starting to write a book without a solid plan is an invitation to failure and wasted effort. While an author may be able to reach their end goal without following a solid plan, they will most likely waste a lot of time and end up taking a lot of unnecessary detours and reaching a lot of dead ends.

While authors do not have to know exactly what they are going to write […]

2015-04-17T05:41:31+02:00April 17th, 2015|Categories: Member Blog|

My Neil Gaiman Odyssey: Twitter, The Pixies And A Lost Denim Jacket

When I was a sixteen year-old in Cambridge, UK, it was the late 80s, and it was dull as the ditchwater gathering in the River Cam that splashed onto my Doctor Martin boots ( inscribed with Tipp-Ex “Smileys”) as I walked to the local polytechnic, where I studied a sort of art A level course that consisted of me being able to take my pet dog to class, a boy who was scared of both purple and broccolli (yes we did paint some broccolli purple, and yes, we chased him with it up and down the art studio) and lots […]

2015-03-30T10:48:36+02:00March 30th, 2015|Categories: Member Blog|
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