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/