Authors Playing in Characters’ Closets

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How do you decide how to dress your characters?

The characters in my romances drive the plot. Besides unfolding how a couple falls or stays in love, I like to portray them doing it while holding down jobs or running businesses. While they may not be flat broke, they still have to get up and put in the work, and their clothes reflect their ambitious and entrepreneurial lifestyles.

Readers want impactful characters that make them laugh, cry, yell and swoon. The clothes they wear when doing one or more of those things can deepen the connection as readers turn the page. In Sweet Love, Bitter Fruit, I wanted the clothes Marcus and Toni wore to reflect their complex lives. Continue reading “Authors Playing in Characters’ Closets” →

July 20, 2020 1

Author Interrupted – Dealing with Distractions

20200120_081547_0000 #openbook

What are your top three distractions and how do you deal with them?

Note: I am writing this post on the road. Please forgive any typos.

A writer’s life is full of all kinds of distractions, which can make finding the time to develop ideas and getting out of one’s head and onto paper (or the screen) difficult. I have mentioned that time management can be an external factor hindering writing.

Damn those twenty-four hours in a day. They just won’t listen and become more. Authors have professional (novel writing is not the main source of income for most) and personal lives, each demanding energy and time. Finding sufficient time to develop a plot, construct character arcs and write content can be difficult. One cruel irony is that creative often burgeons when there is no time. Authors scramble to find a moment to weave a story, but frustration usually sets in when the brilliance blazing in their minds flickers into embers because that’s how it often works. Write right now or risk losing everything.

Continue reading “Author Interrupted – Dealing with Distractions” →

January 20, 2020 6

Male Authors, Female Characters and the Wonders of Writing Sex

I have read many social media posts and articles from women expressing shock and frustration on the ways some male authors describe female characters and sexual encounters in their writing.

Here is one example.

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So, @courtnimax shared an article with men authors writing about female characters. This one was my fave lol

A post shared by ♥ 𝙇𝙮𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙒𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙢𝙨 ♥ (@laylawriteslove) on Feb 24, 2019 at 10:01pm PST

Yeah, the dude wrote that women’s insides are “mazes” and men “conjure up” pee. There are far worse. This one just gave me so many giggles when I read it that I had to share. Some of my other favorites include: Continue reading “Male Authors, Female Characters and the Wonders of Writing Sex” →

December 10, 2019 0

Feeling a Character: Why Toni Kent Tore into Me

Original Post: Feeling a Character: Lyndell Williams’ novel Sweet Love, Bitter Fruit 10/5/19 – Just Contemporary Romance

I am thrilled about the release of my new novel, Sweet Love, Bitter Fruit. It is the second book in the Brothers in Law Romance series and the most difficult to write.

The characters in my books face realistic issues that impact their falling and staying in love. In Sweet Love, Bitter Fruit, Toni must deal with the pain of infertility while watching her sister-in-law have baby after baby. She was successful in concealing her anguish the first time, but with a new pregnancy comes renewed pain and desire to be a mother. She needs to decide if she should stay quiet and suffer in silence or try again, something her husband, Marcus doesn’t want.

Marcus loves Toni and works hard to make her happy. Seeing her in any pain tortures him, so he decides that they just shouldn’t try to have a kid anymore. Unfortunately for him, the infertility demon doesn’t play fair. Toni vacillates emotionally; he feels helpless, and their marriage begins to fall apart. Continue reading “Feeling a Character: Why Toni Kent Tore into Me” →

October 25, 2019 0

Weaving Stories Readers Want

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Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?

Authors frequently discuss notions of originality and fulfilling reader expectations. I have read posts all over social media and on blogs, all with writers seeking to draft texts that pristine from anything else written under the sun and that will satisfy a mass of readers worthy of their artistry. Both are exercises in futility.

Defeatist? No. A powerful storyteller resolves to the realities that neither is their story completely untold nor will it enchant every pair of eyes (ears hearing, fingertips touching) gracing it. At the crux of any good story is the distinctive style and voice of the weaver of the tale, which is the primary way an author can create something that is theirs to share for people to connect with and respond.

Continue reading “Weaving Stories Readers Want” →

October 21, 2019 3

Dry Those Writer Tears: Dealing with Reviews

#OpenBook

Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?

Ah, book reviews. They can send an author’s heart soaring or sink it like a stone into a deep abyss of despair. Because a writer is often intimately connected to their works, reviews can have a substantial impact on the creative process.

I have warned new authors to be mindful of the effects reviews have on them, particularly negative ones:

All authors get negative reviews. Reading is subjective. There will always be at least one reader who doesn’t like something about a book, and some will express it in reviews. A lot of new authors are simply not ready for people to express any level of dislike.

Continue reading “Dry Those Writer Tears: Dealing with Reviews” →

October 7, 2019 7

I Don’t See No Stinkin’ Writer’s Block

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How do you move past writer's block?

I never get writer’s block. I may say I do but not really. What I usually experience is more like a hurdle to clear and keep things moving. A basic definition of writer’s block is, “the condition of being unable to create a piece of written work because something in your mind prevents you from doing it.” Other definitions describe it as an inability to write—as if there a mystical wall keeping words stuck in the mind or a force imprisoning creativity. There are reasons why a writer can’t write, and it is not always psychological or due to “having something on your mind.”

Through years of academic, professional, teaching and coaching writing, I learned a few things about the ominous “writer’s block” and the external and internal factors that drive writers to fall back on what is ultimately an excuse, a justification, for a blank screen. Covering everything in one post is not possible. So, I will highlight some prevalent ones.

Internal Factors

Continue reading “I Don’t See No Stinkin’ Writer’s Block” →

September 30, 2019 11

LWL Podcast: Naming Characters

LWL Widescreen (17)

Naming characters can be an involved and frustrating part of the novel-writing process, but it is critical to provide ones that will pique readers’ interest and give them a chance to connect with the personalities making up a story’s plot. In this LWL episode, I talk about the undertaking of finding the most suitable names for my stories’ characters and a little bit of reader drama with one character’s name.

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September 25, 2019 0

LWL Podcast–Book Reviews: Author Drama

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LWL Widescreen (10) Book reviews can invigorate authors, but it is not all rainbows and sunshine. Negative reviews may drain and stress writers. In this episode, Lyndell talks about the need for anybody sharing their words to put reviews in their proper perspectives and avoid having them crush creativity.

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Continue reading “LWL Podcast–Book Reviews: Author Drama” →

September 21, 2019 0

Do It Write: Where Lyndell Williams Writes

Original Post: Romance Lives Forever by Kayelle Allen

Lyndell Williams, welcome to Romance Lives Forever. I’m Kayelle Allen, author, and owner of this blog. Happy to have you here!

How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing in varying capacities since I started writing for my college newsletter. Once I got bit with the writing bug, I expanded into writing for online publications as well as writing essays for a literary journal, books, and peer-reviewed articles.
This year, I had several short stories published in collections and published my first novel.
What was your first published book?
My Way to You is my first novel. It is an interracial romance about an Asian American lawyer who falls in love with an African American pro-Black blogger. They have to learn to comfort each other as each encounters levels of racial microaggressions from society. They also have to worry about her big brother finds out, who would not appreciate his best friend and little sister dating.

Tell us about your writing space or home office.
My writing space is in a corner of my bedroom in our family’s cozy cape. I bought one of those affordable big box store tables and a swivel chair to stake my claim. The table hosts my laptop (pc of course) with an attached keyboard and second monitor. My writing demand requires the ability to work from multiple screens.
I also have a wonderful lamp I got from my daughter as a gift. It has multiple settings, which is great when I’m trying to work at 4 a.m. while my husband sleeps.
Anything special about your space?
My space is also “mommy central.” Because I try to get writing done during a day packed with mothering 6 kids and homeschooling as well as communicating with colleagues and students, I have a bunch of non-writing supplies, such as combs and brushes to do my little one’s hair and moisturizing butter to keep everyone’s skin smooth. Continue reading “Do It Write: Where Lyndell Williams Writes” →