Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Karlan-Lawson Kelley-Williams. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Karlan-Lawson, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

Oh man, that’s a fun question!

I believe it was when I was first offered a paying job to ghostwrite a story for someone. They gave me an outline for their novel – a list composed of the major plot points they wanted me to build around and connect – and gave me six months to get it done.

I did it in four, multiple drafts and all. The finished product was a little over four-hundred pages and when put to market, it sold really well. It wasn’t a New York Time’s best seller, mind you, but it made my employer a pretty penny, and got me paid well as a result.

But it wasn’t the money that made me decide on pursuing writing professionally for myself (though it definitely weighed heavily into my decision), it was the reviews I read, both the good and the bad.

People… enjoyed my work.
People felt strongly enough about it to leave a review critiquing it too!

It was a heady feeling, bringing me back to the first time someone praised my work. And I decided then that somehow, someway, I would make a living off of my writing.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hello, oh reader mine!

Hopefully you saw my name in the title of this interview but if not, allow me to introduce myself:

My name is Karlan-Lawson Kelley-Williams, a not-so-young twenty-five year old born and raised in Houston, Texas, though currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia. I’ve always had a love for telling stories growing up, delighting in the smiles and laughs I would get. My love of writing started when I realized I could translate those stories to paper and get much of the same reactions, but it wasn’t until 2020 – 2021 that I decided to pursue writing professionally.

The pandemic hit and like many other Texans at time, I was furloughed from my job. Though living with my parents at the time, I was without money and a means of pay. Desperate to change that, I turned to the internet, using Twitter, Linkedin, Fiverr, and a number of other websites to try and shop myself for writing and photography. It was there that I found my first customer, someone who was impressed with the short stories I had linked and contracted me to write a romance-smut novel for them.

Because of how well that novel did, and because my then-employer was gracious enough to vouch for me with future clients, I was able to do it again, and again, on top of pursuing my personal works. That in combination with the plethora of free time I had in the pandemic led me to writing and self-publishing my first two novels, “The Trials of Sabaku” and “The Corruption of Paradise” back in September of 2021.

I’m immensely proud of them both. Though I’ve since made the decision to rewrite and combine them into a single “special edition” that I’ll release later this year, they’re proof to myself that I can create *for myself*, by myself, without needing someone else’s outline to guide me.

In regard to the main thing I want others to know about me… well, I want them to know that I appreciate their time. Time spent reading my works, time spent considering my works, and time spent discussing my works. Time is the most valuable commodity that people have to offer anyone or anything, limited as it is, never obtainable again.

Any time spent on my creations is a blessing, and I thank y’all for every second of it.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the emotion you can bring out of your audience, and the heightened sense of connection you feel to them in those moments.

A lot of times when I write scenes, especially the more emotionally tense ones, I like to put myself in my characters’ shoes. I quite literally replace my perspective with their own, with the lives they’ve lived and the experiences they’ve had that led them to ‘that’ moment in those scene, and let the emotion they inspire overtake me as the scene progresses, doing my best to reflect those feelings as I write.

Seeing those same emotions inspired in others during those scenes is cathartic, both in the fact that I was able to reliably capture what I felt with words, and that the reader(s) empathize or understand those emotions.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Moving to Atlanta, Georgia caused a huge pivot with my life. Before, in Texas, I had the blessing of parents who not only supported and believed in my work, but also let me stay with them rent free. I worked, but all that I made could be dedicated entirely to my art, because I didn’t have other financial responsibilities to worry about.

Atlanta was a whole different ballgame – one that I severely underestimated. It was a huge jump living on my own, going from no bills to all the bills, in entirely new state where I had no friends or family to lean on. I had to pause freelance work (ghostwriting and photography) and cut the time spent working on my third novel when I did, planning to pick them all back up once I got my feet back under me.

That didn’t happen.

Before I knew it, a year had gone by without serious progress on any of those things. I was at a bad place, dissatisfied, and increasingly resentful of the state of my life and how far I gotten from the arts I wanted to pursue. So I changed directions, committing first to getting my life together. A got new job that I moved closer to, and started to learn more about the city I was in and the people there. I made new friends, got out more, and tried to enjoy life in spite of my circumstances.

Now, things are in a better place and are continuing to improve. I was able to get back to doing what I loved, wiser from experiences I had, and more committed than ever to making it so that I can do it full-time.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: karlankwilliams
• Twitter: karlankwilliams

Image Credits
Jazz The Visionary