Next Noble Pen Meeting

August 23rd, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Signup for upcoming review slots has been light, I suppose due to everyone’s summer activities.  Here’s a good chance to dust off some of your work and see what people think of it.

Victories

Tyree sold another interplanetary adventure story for 13-14 year old boys.

Ciuin wrote a friendly protest letter for sending to groups about portrayal of Romany, and it was endorsed by two of the top Romany leaders.  She will be going to Austin to meet with them about writing history curriculum.

Dylan received a response to his submission of a romance after 8 months saying they still plan to evaluate it.  This is his fourth response on submissions.

Education

Charlie Jane Anders discusses seven types of story opening.

An interesting blog contrasts ACTION openings with ACTIVE openings.

“Arathald” uses the terms differently but shares a similar idea in a forum:

Note that “action” doesn’t mean a fight scene or a car chase, it just means that something is happening. Maybe your character’s mother is crying, or his boss tells him he’s fired, or her credit card is declined at the fashion mall.

When I start like this, it makes it really easy to get into a story, instead of trying to figure out how to set it all up. This is also a great way to draw your readers in. Why is his mother crying? Did he really deserve to get fired, or is his boss just a jerk? How is she going to respond to her card getting declined, and how is she going to pay for that dress that she needs for the party? As mundane as these situations sound, they have a strong element of conflict, and that’s what you need to have a compelling opening and story.

Upcoming Schedule

Aug 23rd

Jean
Tyree
Dylan – Education on Style Sheets for Formatting

Aug 30th

Tyree?
Open slots

Sept 6th

Nick
Open slots

Sept 13th

Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill