VS Grenier ~ Award-Winning Author, Speaker & Podcaster

Write a story about irony, with a teacher as the main character and a fuse box as the key object. Set your story in a lab. Subscribe to CreativeSparks!, the official e-zine of CreativeWritingPrompts.com and download a copy of the CreativeSparks! E-book (volume 1) free! Click here to read a sample issue of CreativeSparks!

This weeks special guest is Suzanne Lieurance, she is a writing coach. It’s a great idea to have a coach to help you get through the tough times that all writers have. Suzzane has quite a list of accomplishments , besides being a writing coach she’s also a children's author and she hosts an afternoon radio show called Book Bites for Kids every weekday at 2:00 central time on blogtalkradio.com. We welcome callers. Please call - (646) 595-4478 For those of you that do not want to be on the Internet you can call in and listen to the show on the phone.The phone number is the same ( 646- 595-4478 ). Listen in and have some fun! 9pm EST 8pm CDT 7pm MST 6pm PST Listen live at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rrradio/2010/09/21/rr-tracks--a-good-story-is-a-good-story or on demand.

I'm really excited to be doing something a little different today. Some of you know I'm part of a blog group that does author tours every month. It's really exciting getting to know each of these wonderful writers and their work. Well today, I"m hosting Karen Cioffi. Now Karen isn't a stranger to The Writing Mama. She was one of our authors for interview Friday, but today she's going to share a guest post with us. But before we jump in, I would like to first introduce Karen . . . About the Author: Karen Cioffi is an author, ghostwriter (for authors, bloggers, and business), editor, copywriter, reviewer, and on the team of DKV Writing 4 U ( http://www.dkvwriting4u.com ). She is also the founder and manager of VBT Writers on the Move, and co-moderator of a children's writing critique group. For writing and marketing information visit KarenCioffi.com ( http://karencioffi.com ) and sign up for her FREE newsletter, A Writer’s World. You’ll get TWO free e-boo

It has been four months; you know there should be a call coming any moment from the editor of the magazine or book publisher you sent your manuscript to. How could they turn down your story about the shy kid finding the lost ticket booth money? You studied their magazine; read books they have published, spent months writing and revising your story . . . and your critique group loved it. However, the phone isn’t ringing and there’s email in your inbox either. You are afraid to get your mail. It’s been three days and you know the post woman must be getting mad. How much more could he really stuff in that little P.O. Box? You take a deep breath, put on your shoes, call your dog, and go for a really long walk. Maybe it will keep your mind off the mail, off the thought of your manuscript, and maybe you will get past your writers block and come up with a new story idea. Your dog is pawing your leg. You have been walking around your neighborhood for an hour. Okay, time to head

Writing articles that are informative is a big first step towards getting people to read them. I did say FIRST step! When you write an article, the intention is always to compose something that will benefit the readers. It is all too easy, however, to be caught up in the writing process and overlook a few key elements of your article. These elements actually have more to do with knowing how to 'communicate' your thoughts than knowing how to write an article. It is almost funny how often we can take something that is relatively simple and make it complicated. The fact is that the most popular articles online are the most that are the easiest to read. Here are three 'rules' you want to make an effort to follow to help you consistently produce popular articles for your readers. Write Simply Use a style in which ALL readers can understand what the heck it is you are trying to say. By rambling on or using words with which you may be comfortable but the reader is not you