The Noble Pen for Mar 26, 2015

Next Noble Pen Meeting

March 26th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Some worried that Harper Lee was being manipulated, but a state agency says she was aware and approved of the publication of her tucked-away novel.

Victories

Dylan finished his Fictionary (see last week) and wrote backstory for every character in Sand and Blood. He is moving S&B from Lulu to a new publisher which will improve his chances of getting into Barnes and Noble.

He also submitted it to Mark Lawrence, who has organized a group of reviewers to read self-published SFF books and select the best over the next few months.

We hear that Cassie is done editing Dreams in Red.

Education

Last week we saw opinions on how to create unique characters. But after you get to know them, how do you describe your characters so that the reader can picture them?

Marg McAlister offers some hints on how to make the descriptions more effective. Here are some sample descriptions from successful books. Some descriptors are too general to be useful.

Les Edgerton says that you should give very minimal descriptions, including any characteristics that are important to the story and perhaps some suggestive facts that give them individuality, but leaving out unnecessary detail. Their actions can often better characterize them than pages of description.

For an author, the nice characters aren’t much fun. What you want are the screwed up characters. You know, the characters that are constantly wondering if what they are doing is the right thing, characters that are not only screwed up but are self-tapping screws. They’re doing it for themselves. ~Terry Pratchett

Upcoming Schedule

Mar 26
Laura
Dylan
Eugenia

Apr 2
Stacy Green, author talk
If extra time, educational exercise.

Apr 9
Laura
Open slots

Apr 16
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill