Next Noble Pen Meeting

May 31st, 2012 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

What is the future of public libraries?  One librarian’s blog doesn’t sound optimistic.

Victories

Dylan finished processing all review session and beta reader feedback on Flight.  He also is getting an autograph from a favorite author, although he won’t be able to attend the Con where the author is presenting.

Shannon re-edited Fangs in one week and has submitted the ultimate last final version for publication.

Education

At the May 24th meeting, we talked about beginning your writing with the ending, using some quotes from random writers who came up in the search engine.  (These quotes are shortened even more than the material at the meeting.)

Jack Riston says:  A successful trip usually starts with a destination … I’m going to suggest that you consider starting your next book with your “destination” … the ending

Denise Hays says:  Once the ending is known, I can back up and figure out the steps my characters need to take to come to that conclusion. Otherwise, I guess I would ramble until eternity.

Donald L. Vasicek says:  How can you create this kind of tension that is so necessary in great drama unless you know where you are going ?

Skye Warren says:  I always know the end.  I am open to it changing, and sometimes it does a little, but never a lot. … The ending is the resolution of the conflict, but what is the conflict?

Our discussion seemed to have a consensus that you need to know the ending, but nobody said they write it first.

– – – – – – – – – – –
Other thoughts:

In the planning stage of a book, don’t plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it. ~Rose Tremain

The opposite of the happy ending is not actually the sad ending–the sad ending is sometimes the happy ending. The opposite of the happy ending is actually the unsatisfying ending. ~Orson Scott Card

Everything has to come to an end, sometime. ~ L. Frank Baum, The Marvelous Land of Oz

There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story. ~ Frank Herbert

Upcoming Schedule

May 31st

Tyree
Shannon
Bill

June 7th

Nick
Bill ?
Open slots

June 14th

Shannon
Bill ?
Open slot

June 21st

Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

May 24th, 2012 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Countering all the publicity about what we can do with electronic communications, a new book called iDisorder  explores what our electronic devices are doing to us.

Publisher’s Weekly is another source of current news in the world of books.

Victories

Tyree finished and submitted a steampunk story that has been on his list to do for a year.

Lynda sold a story that we reviewed a while back to Grain Magazine, the Journal of Eclectic Writing, and will get paid very well at publication.

Dylan got fan mail for his serial story.

Nick finished Part I of a science fiction story.

Education

Some authors find help in writer’s software with more power than a word processor.  Here’s a comparison chart  including PowerWriter,  WriteItNow,  Writer’s DreamKit,  Writer’s Cafe, and others.

These programs, costing $30 to $130 (list price), integrate the functions of outlining or storyboarding, note taking, character sheets, and writing to a much greater degree than word processors like MS Word and WordPerfect.  Some go beyond spelling and thesaurus to offer a full dictionary and even name lists from which to choose characters.  They still do not write the story for you, nor give a reader’s critique.

“A computer, I am told, … will help you write faster, easier, and more…    I have already left behind too much evidence that, writing with a pencil, I have written too fast, too easily, and too much.  I would like to be a better writer, and for that I need help from other humans, not a machine.” ~Wendell Berry

“Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and the Internet is nothing like Shakespeare.” ~(modified from) Blair Houghton

Upcoming Schedule

May 24th

Ciuin
Jean
Bill

May 31st

Tyree
Shannon
Jean

June 7th

Nick
Open slots

June 14th

Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

May 17th, 2012 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The NY Times is a good source of news about the world of literature. You can read 10 stories per month for free (perhaps more if you delete their cookies).  Some recent stories:

Bloggers, there is hope of becoming famous, even though most don’t.  Here’s one who did.

And to encourage all you writers, here’s a first novel that got big time reviews.

Those interested in the history of technology may like this book about the early development of computers, building on WW II technology.

You never know what is lurking around in some library.  They just found something drawn by Paul Revere.

Victories

Ciuin finished her semester.  With two papers and a five-page essay test, finals are done.  An author asked her to “culturally edit” a book, but is afraid there won’t be much left after she gets done taking out the misrepresentations.

Dylan has Casting Call available for Kindle from Amazon, free through Friday, with other formats to be available.  He needs more reviews.  He must have been bored the other day because he calculated his lifetime total writing output, and got 1.7 million words.

Shannon served on panels and did a reading from Minion of Evil at DemiCon, but got the flu.  That’s better than getting attacked like his characters do.

Tyree sold another short story and has one nearly done.

Education

Author Nathan Bransford asks how long it takes to finish writing a draft of a novel and gets a wide variety of answers.  He says it takes him six to eight months, and then three or four to edit it.  People vary a lot on time to finish ediing, too.

We rate ability in men by what they finish, not by what they attempt. ~Donald Kircher or Harry Banks

All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one… characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers.  ~Henry David Thoreau

My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start.  So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M&M’s and a chocolate cake. I feel better already. ~ Dave Barry

Upcoming Schedule

May 17th

Shannon
Tyree
Nick

May 24th

Ciuin
Jean
Open slot

May 31st

Open slots

June 7th
Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

May 10th, 2012 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The collection of previous newsletters is available at http://noblepencr.org.

The paperback version of a newish autobiography of Mark Twain has just come out.  It says AUTObiography.  You wouldn’t think he would have anything new to say, being dead for over 100 years now, but apparently he had some material put away that long for posthumous publication.  Garrison Keillor was interested but found much of the book unexciting.

One author takes the approach of building a museum reflecting his novel while he was writing it.   Don’t get any ideas, Shannon.

Victories

Nick accomplished a notable amount of progress by finishing two chapters and editing fifteen.

Tyree returned after a nice run of five conventions with good sales.  He submitted two stories and started another story.  The merger of Sam’s Dot with White Cat publications will help distribution and leaves Tyree with the title of Editor-In-Chief.

Ciuin finished her 2nd to last paper of the school term and went home after the meeting to tackle the last one.  She had two pieces accepted for a package of anti-racist material that her organization will send to publishers.

Education

At the May 3rd meeting we discussed building tension.  There was agreement with much of this article, but some dissent also.

The Oxford Comma, the one that precedes the “and” in a list, is favored by many but rejected by others.  Now in Centre County, PA, you’d better not leave them out.  Commas can be expensive sometimes, as shown by this court case and this one.

Some people do not favor commas because their ancestors learned to get along without them after they found commas too difficult to transport over the mountains as they moved west.  They chose an extra barrel of flour over a supply of commas when they packed their wagons.   Even today, the cost of shipping a carton of commas restricts their use.

Some people resort to modifying apostrophes, which seem to be in excess supply these days.  However when lowering the apostrophes it is easy to bend them so that the best you can do is cut them down to salvage periods, which are only worth pennies on the dollar.  Few people use semicolons, so if you have an unneeded one you can cut it in two and have both a period and a comma for little effort. [Commentary condensed from a forum discussion.]

I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out.— Oscar Wilde

Upcoming Schedule

May 10th

Dylan
Stacie
Tyree

May 17th

Shannon
Lynda
Nick

May 24th

Ciuin
Tyree
Open slot

May 31st

Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill