Monthly Archives: December 2012

The Noble Pen for Jan 3, 2013

Next Noble Pen Meeting

January 3rd, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Welcome to Jed, who found the group.

Victories

Janice is researching steampunk.

Ciuin is proofing a 60-page document for her editor.  And she has made up her 2013 reading list.

Education

What’s in a name?  Writer’s Digest offers some rules for picking the names of your characters.  Cynthia VanRooy give some more advice on names.  Scott Nicholson has more on the subject.  And while we’re thinking of names, consider whether you need all those characters to be named and developed.

Each generation wants new symbols, new people, new names. They want to divorce themselves from their predecessors. ~Jim Morrison

Names are not always what they seem.” ~Mark Twain

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. ~John F. Kennedy

It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to. ~W.C. Fields

I call everyone ‘Darling’ because I can’t remember their names. ~Zsa Zsa Gabor

Upcoming Schedule

Jan 3rd

Nick (double slot)
Ciuin

Jan 10th

Tyree
Nick
Ciuin (?)

Jan 17th

Nick
Tyree
Open slot

Jan 24th

Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

The Noble Pen for Dec 27, 2012

Next Noble Pen Meeting

December 27th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The schedule has been shifted to deal with the missed meeting.  Apologies to Nick for assuming he would miss a 4th Thursday when now I understand that is not the case, but I’m going to stick with my first attempt.  That means you already have Janice and Tyree’s material and only need Ciuin to send hers.

-*-

Small bookstores seem to be holding up despite the attention on e-books, according to this NY Times article.

Ever been confused by all the variations on pasta?  Now there is a book describing over 200 of the shapes, complete with mathematical formulae for the shapes.  Just the gift for the technogeek/foodie in your life?

Victories

We survived a blizzard and the Mayan version of Y2K this past week, and escaped with only a messed-up schedule.

Education

With the hoopla about the end of the Mayan calendar, we’ll have some thoughts on endings.

Writer’s Digest gives some advice on the ending of your novel.

It’s important to get it right.  Remember, Hemingway wrote 39 endings to Farewell to Arms.

Discovering the ‘impossible’ ending to a new book makes me sick with joy and relief. ~Chuck Palahniuk

If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story. ~Orson Welles

It isn’t necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice. There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia. ~Frank Zappa

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 27th

Tyree
Janice
Ciuin

Jan 3rd

Nick
Ciuin
Open slot

Jan 10th

Tyree
Nick
Open slot

Jan 17th

Nick
Open slots

Jan 24th

Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

The Noble Pen for December 20, 2012

Next Noble Pen Meeting

December 20th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The NY Times released their list of 100 Notable Books of 2012.  And at the end of November with 1/12 of the year left to go, even.

Victories

Ciuin is on school break and has lots of time for writing and reading (and movies).  She finished reading a book this week and thereby has met her goal of 10 for the year.

Tyree is turning Sams Dot over to the White Cat people and will have more time for writing.

Education

Jennifer R. Hubbard writes about balancing supporting characters and their subplots against the main plot.  They can make a story more interesting, but can also get in the way.

Mary Lynn Mercer says you shouldn’t have too many subplots, and they should connect to the main story.  She has other good points to make.

Lee Masterson recommends using some subplots, and Kristin Bair O’Keefe gives seven specific things that subplots should do.

I think books with weak or translucent plots can survive if the character being drawn along the path is rich, interesting and multifaceted. The opposite is not true.  ~Michael Connelly

There’s that old adage about how there’s only seven plots in the world and Shakespeare’s done them all before.  ~Terri Windling

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 20th

Tyree
Janice
Nick

Dec 27th

Ciuin
Tyree
Open slot

Jan 3rd

Nick
Ciuin
Open slot

Jan 10th

Open slots

Jan 17th

Nick
Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

The Noble Pen for Dec 13, 2012

Next Noble Pen Meeting

December 13th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Amazon announces their 2013 Breakthrough Novel contest for manuscripts of 50,000 to 150,000 words.  Submissions must be made between January 14 and 27, following detailed rules for the submission process.  Big rewards for the winners.  There are five categories this time, and some of them will fill up fast.

Victories

Dylan got fan mail – someone liked his serial and sent him a water color portrait of one of the characters.  He also got another commission.

Ciuin is getting a good grade for the semester (maybe an A) in Journalism class, and got a nice dedication and autograph from the professor on her copy of his book.

Education

It’s all in how you look at it.  A good writer can describe the same thing in multiple ways to suit the mood.  Heinlein has a famous quote that goes something like, “Which would you rather have? A nice, thick, juicy, tender medium-rare grilled steak-or a scorched piece of bloody muscle tissue from the corpse of an immature castrated bull?’  Restaurant menus are loaded with positive words, often irrelevant ones.  Tom Sawyer was able to favorably describe his fence painting chore.

Writer’s Digest has a series called “Reject a Hit” where successful novels are described in negative terms.  Some of the articles are amusing, but also say something about how literary expectations have changed over time.  A Christmas Carol is rejected, as are Romeo and Juliet (he didn’t even check her pulse), Frankenstein (no tie-in market for dolls),  Harry Potter (too long, and dorky character), and my favorite: Cat in the Hat (kids allow a stranger into house.  The postscript rhyme is great.)

This Wizard of Oz synopsis by Rick Polito of the Marin Independent Journal is famous: “Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again.”

Someone once described Frankenstein as:  Scientific advancement proves unpopular with general public, scientist regrets helping the handicapped.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is: Deformed character is humiliated and exiled, then exploited by old man.

Dr. Who: Homeless eccentric transports young women away in phone booth.

Green Eggs and Ham: Deranged stalker forces unnatural food upon terrified children, brainwashes them into acceptance.

You might want to see if you can recognize these other accurate but warpedviewpoints on famous movies.“Description is what makes the reader a sensory participant in the story. Good description is a learned skill,one of the prime reasons you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot. It’s not just a question of how-to, you see; it’s a question of how much to. Reading will help you answer how much, and only reams of writing will help you with the how. You can learn only by doing.” ~Stephen King, On Writing

“Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.” ~Winston Churchill

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 13th
(Note other large group at restaurant, we squeeze in corner.)

Ciuin
Tyree
Aimee

Dec 20th

Tyree
Janice
Nick

Dec 27th

Ciuin
Open slots

Jan 3rd

Open slots

Jan 10th

Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

The Noble Pen for Dec 6, 2012

Next Noble Pen Meeting

December 6th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Tyree points out an opportunity for submitting to a self-styled pulp publisher named Pro Se Press. (Pro Se, prose, get it?)  They publish stories about otherwise unknown superheroes, explorers, werewolves, Men’s Men and Femme Fatales.  Go to their blog page and scroll down to Nov 18 for details of a current opening, and here for other openings.

Victories

Tyree reports his Sams Dot division of White Cat Publications has five titles out as ebooks and sales are good, with WC asking them to get more out in e-formats.

Education

Do you understand the usage of raise and riseSince and becauseInsure or ensure?  Several other pairs of confusing words are linked in the first article.

Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it.  ~Winston Churchill

The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments.  ~Gustave Flaubert

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 6th

Nick
Ciuin
Janice

Dec 13th
(Note other large group at restaurant, we squeeze in corner.)
Tyree
Ciuin
Aimee

Dec20th

Tyree?
Open slots

Dec27th

Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill