Next Noble Pen Meeting

October 2nd, 2014 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Eugenia found the group.  She has a finished novel she wants to submit for critique.

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QuarterReads , to launch in October, will offer a new market for writers to sell their short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.   Subscribers can browse the beginning of each piece, and pay $0.25 to read all of it, of which the author gets $0.22, plus tips if the reader is impressed enough to be generous.

Victories

Dylan’s Sand and Blood is being read and considered for publication by a medium size press, which would improve distribution for him.  He finished his submission for Blackguards.

Tyree’s earlier novel The Dog at the Foot of the Bed will be reprinted by that same press, and they are interested in a collection of his short stories.  Bombay Sapphire is getting popular; the publisher and readers want more.

Cassie wrote 3500 words this week.

Ciuin’s first paper of the school term got a 100% grade.

Education

Character development is very important to get readers involved in your story.  Tom Pawlik’s article lists nine aspects of character development.  How the character talks and thinks, their background, appearance, goals, and defects all shape them and affect how the reader relates to them and cares about them.  Here are more tips.  This information should be shown gradually and not as a summary that holds up the action.  The character will probably change during the narrative, which is called the character arc.

Upcoming Schedule

Oct 2
Dylan
Ciuin
Tyree

Oct 9
Ciuin
Eugenia
Dylan

Oct 16
Tyree
Dylan?
Aimee

Oct 23
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

September 25th, 2014 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The ICON sci-fi convention will be held at the Cedar Rapids Marriott on Oct 31^st through Nov 2^nd. Dylan is on 2 panels.

Victories

Dylan got a preorder for Sand and Ash.  He has copy edits for Sand and Blood merged and updated.

Cassie had a volunteer for a beta reader.

Education

Here are some thoughts from famous writers. Stephen King has more, as do Elmore Leonard and George Orwell.

Upcoming Schedule

Sept 25
Tyree
Ciuin
Cassie

Oct 2
Dylan
Ciuin
Tyree

Oct 9
Ciuin?
Open slots

Oct 9
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

September 18th, 2014 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The Taurin Tales anthology is available for pre-order.  It contains work by Tyree and Dylan.

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Submissions are being taken until October 11 for 3-6k word stories for a new publication with a theme of “grimdark, sword & sorcery, alternate history, etc. Must include either an assassin, mercenary, or rogue (i.e., thief, cutthroat, brigand, highwayman, etc.).”  It pays.

Victories

Dylan finished writing the 3rd novel in his series, titled Sand and Bone, with a 54,000 word push in 10 days.  He received the copy edit results on Sand and Blood.

Nick performed a 30-page “exorcism” edit on his western.

Tyree wrote a 6700 word story for the steampunk publisher, submitted it, and had it accepted.

Cassie recovered from a crashed flash drive, but it was painful as it required combing through old submissions, re-editing them, and re-writing the most recent chapter from scratch.  You can never have too many backups.

Education

Adverbs have a bad reputation because there is often (but not always) a more effective way to word the thought.   A majority of adverbs end in -ly,  but not all, nor are all such words adverbs.  “Very” is an adverb that rarely adds anything to a sentence.

Instead of using an adverb, see if there is a clearer or more forceful way to say the same thing.   Be sure you have the best nouns, verbs, and adjectives you can find before resorting to adverbs. “She ran quickly” is not as effective as “she sprinted.”  Be sure any adverb you use adds something that isn’t obvious already (hey, no -ly).  “She sprinted quickly” is annoyingly redundant (hmm).

Sometimes, after those considerations, they are the right word to use.  She entered silently.   “I’ll help you,” the teacher said gently.  He had many headaches recently.

A summary sheet was passed out at a meeting last year.
Basic explanation of adjectives and adverbs
A list of 3732 adverbs (just in case you didn’t think they were numerous)
Use Carefully
What’s so Bad about Adverbs?

The road to Hell is paved with adverbs. ~Stephen King

Upcoming Schedule

Sept 18
Dylan
Cassie
Aimee

Sept 25
Tyree
Ciuin
Cassie

Oct 2
Dylan
Ciuin
Tyree

Oct 9
Ciuin?
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

September 11th, 2014 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

Victories

Dylan’s Sand and Blood lasted 31 minutes for the Immerse or Die reviewer who rarely gets to his 40-minute reading goal.  Everything about it was praised except the minor editing issues that accumulated to annoy this very picky reviewer.

Barbara finished her review of Sand and Blood and posted it to several web sites.  It will also be in Tyre”s magazines.  She and Matt started reworking their joint novel.

Cassie has been writing every day of her week off, and got a lot of editing, research, and writing done.

Tyree has 2,000 words on his 3rd superhero story.

Ciuin worked hard on an essay for a class and was disappointed that everyone got back identical comments regardless of what they turned in.

Education

Sometimes you may try to write and nothing happens.  Writer’s block.  Here are some tips for getting around it.  The key is to get around it, not through it.  Don’t just stare at the page or re-write the same sentence hoping it will get better.  Do something different, whether it is method, location, subject, or incentive.  Also, don’t demand that your output be perfect.  Just write something and know you can improve it later.  Charlie Jane Anders discusses several types of block and how to deal with them in an article that also has some cool pictures.

It’s hard to find words to describe writer’s block. ~unknown

Writer’s block – when your imaginary friends won’t talk to you. ~unknown

If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word. ~Margaret Atwood

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A young man professed his desire become a great writer.  When asked to define “great” he said, “I want to write words the whole world will read, that people will react to on a truly emotional level, that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!” He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages.

Upcoming Schedule

Sept 11
Tyree
Dylan
Ciuin

Sept 18
Dylan
Cassie
Aimee

Sept 25
Tyree
Open slots

Oct 2
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill