Unique Characters in Writing @kayelleallen #MFRWauthor #amediting

~ MFRW ~

Marketing for Romance Writers was created for a group of romance writers, but quickly gained members in every sort of genre. As writers, one thing we all have in common is the need to create strong characters. To that end, here is a questionnaire you can use to get to know the people in your story. There's a downloadable version at the end.

Questions for the Character to Answer

How do you dress?

If we could only hear your voice (but not see you) what characteristic would identify you?

Please tell us about your education.

Are you book-smart, self-taught, widely-experienced?

Do you get by, live comfortably, live extravagantly?

What is your viewpoint on wealth?

On what special skills do you rely?

Are any of your skills a source of pride or embarrassment, and if so, which ones and why?

What kinds of things do you always carry (in pockets or purse)?

What is your family like?

Are you close to family?

Do you have children?

Are you involved in your community?

How well do you know your neighbors?

Do you see morality as black-and-white, or with shades of gray?

How do others perceive you based upon looks, and is this assumption accurate?

Do you care about what others assume about you?

If someone from your past showed up, who would you most want it to be, and why?

If someone from your past showed up, who would you most NOT want it to be, and why?

Can you keep a secret? Why or why not?

What secrets do you know about people around you that you do NOT share?

What inner doubt causes you the most difficulty?

What past event causes you the most fear?

What is your biggest need?

What are your biggest hopes and dreams?

What would help you face hardship and meet any challenge?

If you could make any one thing happen, what would it be?

What is your biggest personal flaw?

When there is a setback, what doubt or flaw surfaces?

How do you handle challenges?

What is your breaking point?

How do you express disappointment?

How emotionally expressive are you to others?

When (if) you lie or are upset, what gives you away?

Who in your life has the power to hurt you the most and why?

What would you like to tell your writer?

What would you like people who hear your story to know?

Questions for the Writer to Answer

(Change gender to fit the character)

Your character is at a party. Considering his story, describe the party.

How does the character feel about being this particular party, and what body language is he displaying that gives it away?

Is he more likely to mingle or remain aloof?

If he drinks, what is his drink of choice at this party?

How much drink is his usual?

The character figures out where the hiding places are and then goes there. Is it to hide, to avoid someone, or to go drag a friend back to the party?

Is he likely to latch onto a friend and stay with him/her and ignore others, or is he the friend that others latch onto?

If someone picked a fight at this party, how is the character going to handle it?

Is the character the one most likely to get tossed out of the party, or the one who does the tossing?

Will he know when to leave, or stay late and make a nuisance of himself?

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This is not an exhaustive list of questions, but it should give you some insight into creating a unique and memorable character. Download this article in RTF.

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A Romance for Christmas by Kayelle Allen

A Romance for Christmas
by Kayelle Allen 

A sweet feel-good holiday romance. It's Christmas Eve, and the end of a year in which everything Dara loves was lost. Everything but her little girl and a fierce determination to survive. When a cop brings Christmas to her door, he brings another gift she never expected to get. http://amzn.to/1wpW8qE

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Visit my Romance Lives Forever blog to find these questions, among many others, on the various downloadable questionnaires for guests to answer.

Kayelle Allen is a bestselling author. Her unstoppable heroes and heroines include contemporary every day folk, role-playing immortal gamers, futuristic covert agents, and warriors who purr.
Homeworld https://kayelleallen.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/kayelleallen
Facebook https://facebook.com/kayelleallen.author
Pinterest https://pinterest.com/kayelleallen/
G+ https://plus.google.com/+KayelleAllen/

Retweet Day for #MFRWauthor #Romance

For this month's Retweet Day on Twitter, we'd like to invite all Marketing for Romance Writers to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Once the tweet has been posted. Click on the ... (three dots) in the right hand corner.


This will give you the option to (copy link to tweet). Copy this link and put it in the comment section of this post.


On Dec. 9 click on each link and share everyone's post on twitter. Also, make sure to have #MFRWauthor in the tweet.


Here's to a great day of retweets,


Tina Gayle

How to Use SEO for Authors @kayelleallen #MFRWauthor #writingtips

#MFRWauthor 

Let's begin with a brief explanation of terms, so everyone understands what we're talking about.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization - the process by which we gear our websites to be searchable by search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others.

Keyword: a significant word used in indexing or cataloging, or in labeling other text. For example, some genre keywords are romance, historical, fantasy, scifi, highlander, etc.

Label: These are similar to keywords, but are brief descriptions given for purposes of identification.

Hashtag: a word embedded in a searchable text on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. These words (or tags) are preceded by the symbol # which is also called a hashmark, hence the term, "hashtag".

How do I use SEO?

How do you make your website findable by a search engine? First, you need to give it content that can be searched. If you are a photography site, your content is photographs and words about the photos. If you are an author, information about your books is your content. It might also be info about you, your genre, and any other material that pertains to books, writing, the genre you write, and so on. To optimize the searchability (SEO) you want to have a strong combination of terms (keywords, labels, and even hashtags). More on that in a moment.

Putting SEO together

Do you have the right material to be found? Here are some basic rules I follow to make sure.

1. Decide on a theme for the post (an article on using SEO for example).

2. Have at least 300 words about SEO in the post.

3. Pick a main word (not to belabor a point, but SEO would work) that will be your keyword.

4. Use the word SEO in the title.

5. Use the word SEO in the labels for the post.

6. Use the word SEO multiple times in the content. (see the pattern?)

7. Have a photo for the post and put SEO in the alt tag.
8. Use a short URL with the keyword in it. Yes, it can be edited. The one for this post just says how-to-use-SEO.

If you use Wordpress, get the Yoast SEO for Wordpress plugin. It will teach you these very things. If you do them, your article is going to be much more findable by search engines. Use the checklist, and write good content that contains information people want to find. It's that simple.

Kayelle Allen is the founder of Marketing for Romance Writers, and a best-selling author. Her unstoppable heroes and heroines include contemporary every day folk, role-playing immortal gamers, futuristic covert agents, and warriors who purr.

Join the Romance Lives Forever Reader Group https://kayelleallen.com/bro
Twitter https://twitter.com/kayelleallen
Facebook https://facebook.com/kayelleallen.author
Pinterest https://pinterest.com/kayelleallen/
G+ https://plus.google.com/+KayelleAllen/

Beyond Aesthetic Attraction: The Romantic Relationship Is More Than Skin-Deep #MFRWauthor #WriteTip #Writers #Authors

We all appreciate beauty. How can we not, when it's all around us? From babyhood, we are attracted to pretty things, and as adults this partiality continues. As romance authors, we try to bring beauty to our readers. Who doesn't admire the stunning heroine? Or fall in love with the smoking-hot hero?

But is this what romance really is about? A simple equation with few variables easily solved? Stunning Heroine + Smoking-hot Hero + Major Hots For Each Other = Happy-Ever-After? If you're thinking: sure, why not? Keep reading.

Lust is not romance   

Let me ask you this...are you in a relationship? What made you fall in love with the person you're with? Was it his amazing eyes and fabulous hair? Her tinkling laugh, and impressive waist-to-hip ratio? I'm willing to guess that you fell in love with your beloved's core qualities. Don't get me wrong, attraction is a huge part of the falling-for-you stage of any relationship, but it isn't what makes us commit to a lifetime with this one person above all others. The same should be true for our hero and heroine. Have you ever read a story/book and wondered what on earth the H/h saw in the other person? I have! We might fall instantly in lust with the way someone looks, but getting to know that person dictates how we will feel about them long-term. The same ought to be said for our H/h. 

We might fall in lust with looks, but we fall in love with personalities 

If your hero is horrible to your heroine on almost every page the reader will wonder what on earth the heroine sees in him, and what sort of glutton for punishment she is.

I remember years ago when I was trying to crack a particular category romance line, I would read almost every book in that line each month and more often than not hate the heroes. They tended to be coldhearted toward the heroines--except when they wanted to cart them off the bed!--and I so desperately wanted to read about wonderful, caring heroes who showed the heroine love and affection while still having big enough internal conflicts to keep them apart. So I wrote these type of heroes, hoping to change the romance world with my wonderful, fun heroes. Needless to say, these guys never managed to get me picked up by the publisher. I still write this type of hero because this is the type of man I love. If I can't fall in love with my male lead, how can I expect my readers to love him?

So what makes people fall in love?           

We've already establish that it's beyond aesthetics. It's more than skin deep. It's the many layers that make up a person's character--their very essence. It's their hopes and dreams, virtues, interests and skills, ambition. It's the connection between the two central characters--yes, most definitely physical attraction should play a fundamental part, but also a meeting of their minds--mutual admiration (even while they butt heads), compassion, affection. Not only do you want your reader to see why these two people would fall in love, you want the reader to believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that your H/h's HEA will last forever, and not until the first hiccup that comes along after the reader has closed the book.  

A few years ago, my husband and I were on our way out for the day when we came to a set of traffic lights that were on red. We were six cars behind the first car. The lights changed to green and the first car didn't move. Being British, we waited politely until the light turned back to red and no one had moved. With some neck-stretching, and head bobbing and ducking, we managed to see that the driver of the first car was a woman and she had her friend with her. I know some men who would have started griping about women drivers, but not my hubby. He said he was going to check to make sure the women were okay and, as he got out of the car, I hopped into the driver's seat. 

I can't tell you how big my heart swelled in my chest as I watched my beloved walk past four other male drivers in front of us on his way to the first car in the queue containing the two women. My hero-hubby spoke to the woman driver, then as the light changed back to green he moved to the back of the woman's car and pushed her around the corner, and off the road. Would you believe me if I told you that none of the other men in that queue even attempted to help those women, or even helped my hubby to push the car??? 

At that moment, as I watched my beloved rescue the female driver, I fell deeper in love with him. Until that instant, I didn't think it was possible for me to love him any more than I already did.

Once back in our car, hubby told me the woman had flooded the engine and was so upset it brought her to tears. She kept thanking him for his kindness and help, and I suspect she probably fell a little in love with him, too.

It's these sort of actions that make our central characters fall for each other and creates the magnetic pull of deep attraction. And it's what makes our readers believe the love story we tell them.      

Give your characters scenes which show them in action doing the things that compel them to fall in love with each other. At the heart of your romance story is the relationship, and this relationship is a collection of layers that run far beneath the surface appreciation of beauty.


Until next time, write with clarity and style!

Monique x 

Author/Screenwriter Monique DeVere currently resides in the UK with her amazing hero husband, four beautiful grown-up children, and three incredible granddaughters. 

Monique writes Romantic Comedy stories some call Smexy—Smart & Sexy—and others call fluff. Monique makes no apologies for writing fun, emotional feel-good romance! She also writes Christian Suspense with a more serious edge. 

Monique loves to hear from her readers. You can contact her by visiting her HERE to learn more about her and check out her other books.

Retweet Party for #MFRWauthor - Join the Fun

For this month's Retweet Day on Twitter, we'd like to invite all Marketing for Romance Writers to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Once the tweet has been posted. Click on the ... (three dots) in the right hand corner.

This will give you the option to (copy link to tweet). Copy this link and put it in the comment section of this post.


On Nov. 11, click on each link and share everyone's post on twitter. Also, make sure to have #MFRWauthor in the tweet.


Here's to a great day of retweets,


Tina Gayle

Why #Authors Use Hashtags in Blog Titles #MFRWauthor @kayelleallen #bookmarketing

A Romance for Christmas 

Have you noticed on social media that many authors use words with the # symbol in them? Wondered why? Here's the reason.

What Are Hashtags

Hashtags are words which denote topics of interest. By placing the symbol # in front of a word, it becomes a tiny search program on Twitter (or other sites using the system).

Hashtags are important because many people on Twitter only use hashtags. They logon, bring up their saved hashtags, and follow, like, and respond on those. I follow #Thranduil #Hobbit #Loki #TheFlash #Arrow #AgentsofSHIELD #RLFblog #MFRWauthor -- and don't see much else. I just added #StarWars though. I'll be all over that. So if you tweet something with no hashtag, I'm unlikely to see it.

Are hashtags necessary in a blog title? No. However, when people share your title on Twitter or Facebook, the hashtag will become part of the message.

If the blog is linked to Triberr, it can be vital. Most of the posts going out do not have them, and it means they are going to be seen by a limited number of people. Namely, only those who use Twitter by actually reading posts of certain people, or if they happen to catch your post as it zooms by in the feed. By the time 20 tweets load, another 60 are waiting. When you refresh, the feed can jump right past them. I don't bother with the feed. I might glimpse it now and then, but I spend serious time on the hashtags. They are what interest me. I can save hashtags in my search menu and bring them up at will.

On Tuesday nights, I watch Flash, Agents of SHIELD, Limitless. It's three hours of glorious fun for a geek like me. On Mondays I watch Supergirl. Wednesday s I see Arrow, and Thursday it's Big Bang Theory. During those shows, I'm on Twitter, RTing and liking tweets with the hashtags of my fave shows. I've gained followers that way, but I do it because I love the shows and enjoy the interaction during the program. Commercials are when everyone posts, so it's a flurry of fun.

There's no way to keep up with all that unless you use hashtags. Give it serious thought.

Mentioning Guests

Do you host guest authors on your blog? If so, why not use their twitter name instead of or in addition to their name? When your post is shared on Twitter, they will get mentions and that will expand their reach. I do that on Romance Lives Forever blog, and it gets guests about 50-75 mentions per visit for each person. That's a huge reach. I also do it on my own blog, using hashtags that target my reading audience. For me, that's often #scifi.

If you have tips for making your titles work well, please share it in the comments.

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Kayelle Allen is a bestselling, award-winning author. Her unstoppable heroes and heroines include contemporary every day folk, role-playing immortal gamers, futuristic covert agents, and warriors who purr.

Homeworld https://kayelleallen.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/kayelleallen
Facebook https://facebook.com/kayelleallen.author
Pinterest https://pinterest.com/kayelleallen/
G+ https://plus.google.com/+KayelleAllen/