Next Noble Pen Meeting

April 3rd, 2014 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Some editors have selected what they think are the 10 best sentences in literature, and tell you why.

Victories

Tyree’s story for the Tauren anthology was accepted.

Barbara learned that a teacher is using her article on homonyms in class.

Rachel added to a collaborative piece.

Dylan got more fan mail, including art inspired by his writing.

Ciuin’s hectic life has finally allowed her to write again and she has several ideas.  She has received all the expected feedback on Petty Theft and is beginning to work on re-edits.

Education

The “fourth wall” is the imaginary wall at the front of a stage through which the audience views the action.  Breaking the fourth wall means that the author, narrator, or characters speak to the audience, rather than the characters speaking only to each other.  The same can be said of a film or book.

This can happen in several ways.  Most obviously, some older writing may say “Dear reader, you will find that …”, but a comment using “you” not directed to a character must also be taken as directed to the reader.

If a narrator or the characters realize that they have an audience, or are just characters and not real, or the characters talk with the narrator, they are breaking the fourth wall, and this is sometimes done for comedic effect.

Writers are generally advised to not break the fourth wall casually by addressing remarks to the reader.  It should be a deliberate stylistic choice, used only when needed for effect.  It tends to be more acceptable in first-person narratives than for third person, but can problematic there also.

It can be jarring as it tends to “pull the reader out” of the story.  It takes away from the realism they may feel for the world of the story in the same manner it would in a movie if the camera pulled back to show the crew working around the set.

Having hit a wall, the next logical step is not to bang our heads against it. ~Stephen Harper

Upcoming Schedule

Apr 3rd
Nick
Ciuin

Apr 10th
Tyree
Cassie
Barbara

Apr 17th
Laura
Janice
Open slot

Apr 24th
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

March 27th, 2014 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Coe College will have a guest professor speaking about copyrights on Monday March 24.  The event is free and open to the public.  Although this lecture is tailored for a music class, writers might also learn something about copyright issues.

Victories

Dylan got multiple fan mails.  He received the final print of a book.  Sand and Ash has gone to an editor.

Education

Where do you write?  There is no agreement among authors on the best place.  Here’s another list of places to consider. It’s more about getting in the right frame of mind rather than the place, other than avoiding whatever is prone to distract you.  But sometimes the distractions can provide inspiration, too, if they suggest characters or ideas for your writing.

Do you take advantage of all the opportunities to write, or at least come up with ideas?  How about in the dentist’s waiting room? While your car is being serviced?  You can take your mind off your worries by dreaming up ideas for your book.  Maybe you should carry your note pad or tablet computer to record them.  Here are some tips for writers who have ideas after going to bed.

Write drunk; edit sober. ~Ernest Hemingway

Upcoming Schedule

Mar 27th
Janice
Tyree
Dylan

Apr 3rd
Nick
Open slots

Apr 10th
Tyree
Open slots

Apr 17th
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

March 20th, 2014 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones is writing … get this … a children’s book.

Victories

Nick got his railfan newsletter out on time.

Dylan got another commission.  He started Sand III (Sand and Bone).

Tyree finished his story for the anthology.

Education

How long should a novel be?  There’s a tired maxim that says as long as it needs to be to tell the story.

But that’s not good enough, because a little-known author needs to fit the norms of the publishing industry.  Agents are looking for any excuse to reject submissions and thin their pile, so even a great novel could get rejected simply on length.  This is less of a problem for e-publishing than for print.

Chuck Sambuchino offers a detailed guide that says 80-100 k words for most novels and memoirs, with sci-fi running slightly longer.  Westerns and books for younger readers tend to be shorter.  Here’s another guide , and a third, that mostly agree, and define lengths for other formats.

What do you do if your story is well-told in a different length?  If you want to get it published, you probably first need to edit down a long story as tight as possible, or make sure a short one has adequately described things (without padding it).  If this doesn’t put you in the desired length range, you will have to modify the events of the story so that it is well-told in a different length.

Humor (maybe)

A discussion at the last meeting reminded me of this attempt at humor from a newsletter of a couple years ago.  It is part of a longer exchange on a forum.

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.

People may resort to modifying apostrophes, which seem to be in excess supply these days.  However when lowering the apostrophes it is easy to drop and 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.

Upcoming Schedule

Mar 20th
Nick
Dylan
Barbara

Mar 27th
Janice
Tyree
Dylan (?)

Apr 3rd
Open slots

Apr 10th
Tyree
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

March 13th, 2014 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The spring (northern hemisphere) edition of Science Fiction News is available.

Victories

Tyree has done a lot of writing, including preparing a submission to an anthology.

Dylan finished the first draft of a short story for that same anthology.

These are both invited submissions.

Cassie planned and researched a short story.  Her recent publication has received good comments, including some that say it was the best story in the issue.

Education

Characters need both good characteristics and flaws to seem real. Perfect saints are boring and not believable.  A “tough” character has appeal because they are able to handle what comes at them, but as Angela Ackerman points out, don’t go too far in making them insensitive, cynical, or otherwise nasty.   Even the old “hard boiled” detective usually had a soft spot to make them more relatable.  In another article, she categorizes character flaws.

Syndney Katt offers advice on creating flawed heroes and villains with redeeming characteristics and Anne Tyler talks about writing strong yet flawed characters.

This thing about you that you think is your flaw – it’s the reason I’m falling in love with you. ~Colleen Hoover, Slammed

I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions. ~Augusten Burroughs

One difference between film noir and more straightforward crime pictures is that noir is more open to human flaws and likes to embed them in twisty plot lines. ~Roger Ebert

Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without. ~Confucius

You see someone on the street, and essentially what you notice about them is the flaw. ~Diane Arbus

Upcoming Schedule

Mar 13th
Dylan
Tyree
Cassie

Mar 20th
Nick
Dylan(?)
Open slot

Mar 27th
Janice
Open slots

Mar 34th
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

March 6th, 2014 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Should a publisher require credibility from an author who claims to be revealing truth?  Simon and Schuster has given an author a book contract after he became well known for revealing tidbits of inside information from a brokerage he worked at.  The problem, critics say, is that he never worked there, and still has the book contract.

Victories

Dylan packaged a book and got it out, complete with a bar code.

Tyree started serious work on a pulp novella he was asked to do.

Cassie got contributor copies of the book she contributed to, so is now a published and paid author, who even was asked for autographs.

Education

Vampire lore (wikipedia) (another source) is not necessarily consistent.  Vampires or similar evil creatures have been feared in many cultures since long before Dracula and have accumulated a lot of folklore.  Archaeologists have found skeletons with stakes in them (another article), which some people interpret as early fear of vampires.  Recent authors and movies have modified and added to that lore.

In various cultures wood or metal stakes have been used to disable a vampire, and have been driven into the heart, the mouth, and other parts of the body.  Ash was preferred in Russia and Latvia.  Oak was more favored in eastern Europe.  Hawthorn was popular in Serbia and Slavic cultures.  In some traditions, the kind of wood was chosen because of mystical properties or the spirits that lived in that tree.  In others, the important thing was that wood had been alive and was now dead.  A practical reason for wood is that early cultures had few choices.

Usually, stakes did not kill a vampire; if the stake was removed a vampire could return.  The stake probably originated before coffins were common, as a method to pin the vampire to the ground so it would not return.   This is why in certain cultures, removing the head was the only sure way to kill a vampire.

Originally, vampires were not damaged by sunlight, although it might weaken them.  Total intolerance for the sun came later.  Some authors have vampires that can tolerate sunlight after they have grown powerful enough.

And if you search on line, you will find people advertising hand-made stakes for vampire hunters (another source).  Sort of a niche market, but they are made with more care than the ones at the local lumber yard.

Upcoming Schedule

Mar 6th
Nick
Tyree
Cassie

Mar 13th
Dylan
Open slots

Mar 20th
Open slots

Mar 27th
Janice
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill