VS Grenier ~ Award-Winning Author, Speaker & Podcaster

I know I haven't been the best lately with sharing about my writing course with James Patterson and also my reading challenge for 2016. Life just seemed to get in the way, and I found myself off track and not writing like I've wanted to. So here I am trying to get myself back on a schedule of some kind and making time to write not only on my blog but also my books. I am happy to say that I have completed one of my novel outlines. I'm in the final stages and ready to begin the writing process. I'm really happy with how the outline turned out and I feel it was a great way to begin as there were things I didn't even think about putting in the book and things I just didn't see or notice until I went back through the outline and saw how they did or didn't work. Outlining is key I think for any writer and something all traditional publishers and agents ask to see before taking on a new author or when working with a new author after signing them. Hopefully, t...

Today's post comes from Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ, WriteSparks! creator Write Possibilities We writers are a powerful lot. We control time. We dictate actions. We control destinies. We can make two completely opposite people fall in love with each other, and we can create family feuds that can last for centuries. We can make our heroine travel back in time to rescue her soulmate, and we can give the most villainous person the punishment she deserves. We can take our characters to the most exotic places and give them their own adventures. Simply put, we writers can create our own possibilities. In our world, nothing is impossible. Try creating your own possibilities using the given prompts below. There are 4 givens: theme, setting, character and key object. Randomly pick 1 from each and use these to start off your piece. Themes : deception, irony, love lost, infidelity, rejection Characters: chemist, divorced woman, doctor, teacher, singer K...

Instead of the usual article, here are 31 story sparkers you can try out over the next several days. Have fun! First Lines Use these to start your story. 1. It was a gift her mother gave her on her eighteenth birthday. 2. The door slammed with finality. 3. Alice tried to remember who had given her the key. Cliche Starters Use these cliches to spark a story. 4. burn the midnight oil 5. bed and board 6. an idle mind is the devil's playground 7. the raw end of the deal 8. keep your fingers crossed Random Story Words Use each set of words in your story. 9. lab instructor, computer, garden, spinach 10. painter, cooking oil, hallway, cake 11. prisoner, ruler, stairwell, running shoes 12. flight attendant, torn page, river, cookie jar 13. security guard, broccoli, kitchen, hat Quick Prompts Use these to jumpstart your writing. 14. Write about how a first kiss should feel like. 15. What do you usually do on Sunday? 16. Write about what you'd cook for an enem...