Next Noble Pen Meeting

January 2nd, 2014 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

We will not be meeting the day after Christmas.  Use some of that time off to work on your writing.  We will meet on January 2nd, on the theory that people should be recovered from the party days by then.

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Although I have some requests for review slots, I plan to wait until the next meeting to assign them for Jan 16th.  I think we should give some weight to how long it has been since someone got a slot, and negative weight to how many slots a person has used recently, rather than giving them to the first who speaks up.  Your comments?

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At this time of year, everyone seems to do lists.  Here are lists of the best books of 2013 from NPR’s book department, The New Yorker, and Amazon.

Victories

Jed set a goal to produce a 2nd draft of Castalia and spent several hours working toward it.

Tyree found 15 old story beginnings in his files that need to be finished and worked on one.

Ciuin is making good progress on her (almost) final cleanup of Petty Theft.

Education

Belonging to a writers critique group is perhaps the best thing a person can do to improve their writing (wide reading is another), and has several benefits.

Giving good critiques tends to improve one’s own writing as you learn to identify what it is you don’t like in a piece of writing.  Listening to or reading good critique also helps.  How should you critique?  Here are some ideas and a source or another.

1. Critique the writing, not the writer.  Even if you disagree with their opinion and attitude, you should be able to concentrate objectively on what they did and did not do to present an understandable, engaging piece of writing.

2. Find something positive to say, as well as negatives.  The writer needs confirmation of what is working well.

3. If the author gave an indication of what they want comments on, please focus on those aspects.  Also, if they have a target audience, make your comments appropriate to improving the piece for that audience, even if that wouldn’t be the way you would want it yourself.

4. Be as specific as you can about what needs improvement.  Offer suggestions, don’t just say you don’t like it.

5. Don’t into a long discussion or try to get the author to concede your point.  Just make the point and move on.

6. Don’t belabor points that others have made.  A ditto is sufficient.

7. Unless there is a major trend, don’t discuss simple grammar, punctuation, and spelling when speaking at a meeting.  Just mark the copy editing stuff on the paper you give the author.

8. Remember that often you will be reviewing a portion of a work, and things that you think are missing could be in other chapters.

9. Remember that your work may be critiqued by this group and make your comments in a manner you would like to receive.

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 I critique myself way harder than anybody else could critique me. ~Wiz Khalifa

I’m honest about expressing my opinions. At the same time, I’m diplomatic in how I do critique things if I have a negative response. ~Tim Gunn

One of the hardest things for me, now that I’m famous, is finding people who can read my stuff and give me an honest critique. ~Ken Follett

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 26th
No meeting.

Jan 2nd
Cassie
Nick
Jed

Jan 9th
More about commas
Ciuin
Jed
Riley

Jan 16th
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

December 19th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

We are considering a weekly posting to Facebook.  Would it be worthwhile, and if we do, what content should be posted?  Someone suggested it be a “summary” and link to the full text.  How would we summarize the disjointed sections of a typical newsletter?

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A survey finds that Americans still love their public libraries.

Victories

Dylan got a rejection on a short story.  He has, however, qualified for the final round of an unrelated short story contest and his current submission is up for voting.

Tyree wrote 7,000 words on Aoife’s Kiss.

Barbara’s homonym article has been accepted for publication in FrostFire Worlds magazine.

Ciuin wrote a nine page story about her broken arm.  She has promised to spend the next week getting Petty Theft ready for beta readers.

Aimee started co-writing anew story.

Cassie’s story has been accepted, subject to corrections, for the new paranormal romance magazine Trysts of Fate.

Education

Emma Coats assembled a list of 22 rules of storytelling as applied to Pixar movies.  The ideas are widely applicable to much writing, not just kids’ movies, and many others have discussed her list such as here,  or here.  Not everyone is enthralled with the list – see this analysis to see if you agree that slavish application leads to formulaic stories.

Storytelling is about two things; it’s about character and plot. ~George Lucas

Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it. ~Hannah Arendt

The fact of storytelling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection there is no story to tell. ~Ben Okri

There’s no formula. ~J. K. Rowling

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 19th
Nick
Jed
Tyree

Dec 26th
No meeting.

Jan 2nd
Cassie
Nick
Jed

Jan 9th
More about commas
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

December 12th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Some very old and rare books and manuscripts at Oxford and the Vatican are being digitized and will be available free for scholars.

Three stories by J.D. Salinger that were never published have been leaked to the world.

Victories

Dylan wrote a 65k word pulp scifi novel in two weeks.

Janice is meeting with a writing mentor at the U of I Writing Center.

Cassie has almost finished a short story at 4k words.

Education

Past perfect tense sometimes confuses writers.  Basically, it is used to show that something happened before another past event or a particular time, as in “Joe said he had called home.”  In this example, “said” is past tense and we need to show that the call was prior to his statement.  The word “perfect” refers to something completed or as in older usage “perfected”.

The use of past perfect is optional in cases where some other word shows the time relationship: “Joe [had] called home before he left work.”

Here’s a tutorial, some examples, and another version of the explanation.

As soon as you have a language that has a past tense and a future tense you’re going to say, ‘Where did we come from, what happens next?’ The ability to remember the past helps us plan the future. ~Margaret Atwood

Next Noble Pen Meeting

December 5th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The 2013 National Book Award winners were announced recently.

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Nobel winning author Doris Lessing  (or see wikipedia)(pen name Jane Somers) died at age 94.

Education

If you didn’t read the linked articles last week, you might want to see what they say about commas as a supplement to the lessons at the meetings.

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It’s always hard to accept a critique that tells you it wasn’t as good as you thought.  Here’s some advice on dealing with it, and more.  Many articles on the subject say similar things:
–Every critic will consciously or unconsciously try to give it their own styling, which may not be right for you.
–They are criticizing the written piece, not you.  Don’t get offended by someone who is trying to help.  You DID offer it for critique.
–If some people don’t “get it” then you may need to clarify it to broaden the appeal to more readers.
–It may help to restate a criticism in a positive way.  “Your stories are boring because they’re always about the same things” can be turned into “I can generate more reader interest by writing about my other related interests.”
–Even if their suggestions don’t seem right, don’t defend the piece.   Think about it again later.  Their comment may indicate that you need to polish that part.  Readers often find spots that don’t feel right, even if they don’t know how to fix it.
–The more people who say something needs to be improved, the greater chance that an editor or other readers will also think so.
–You’re the artist.  It’s your vision.  It’s okay to sometimes say to yourself “they’re not my target audience.”  Just not too often.

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. ~Elbert Hubbard

The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism. ~Norman Vincent Peale

Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots. ~Frank A. Clark

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 5th
More about commas
Barbara
Tyree
Dylan

Dec 12th
Cassie
Nick
Riley

Dec 19th
Nick
Jed
Tyree (?)

Dec 26th
Does anyone think we should meet?

Jan 2nd
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill