Next Noble Pen Meeting

January 15th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

NPR offers their “best books of 2014″ list sorted by category.  They also have links for prior years.

Victories

Tyree finished Bombay Sapphire II and started III.  He also wrote another chapter of a different story.

Dylan’s article on magical resonance was accepted for the Alban Lake magazine Outposts of Beyond, and Victim of Love for Trysts of Fate.

Jed’s Castalia is being published at the beginning of February.

Barb (welcome back) sent a story to beta readers.

Cassie made a breakthrough on a scene that was giving her trouble for too long.

Ciuin wrote 2000 words on a story and continues to make progress editing Petty Theft.

Education

Writing isn’t easy.  This tutorial discusses some hurdles that frequently trip beginners.  Here’s a list of most common mistakes that lead to rejection.

The Immerse or Die critic (who reviewed Dylan’s Sand and Blood last fall) believes a good story doesn’t have anything that breaks the reader’s immersion.  He published a list of the things that most often took him out of stories.  Topping his list was weak mechanics, followed closely by unnatural actions by the characters and too-frequent repetition of words or phrases.  Those, along with illogical worlds and info dumps, accounted for half of the problems.  He found the issues fell about equally among world-building, storytelling, and editing problems.

Upcoming Schedule

Jan 15
Tyree
Greg
Nick

Jan 22
Aimee
Ciuin
Open slot

Jan 29
Tyree
Greg
Open slot

Feb 5
Open slots

Feb 12
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill