Next Noble Pen Meeting

May 14th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Cassie points out a writing contest for Historical Romance by Harper Collins/Avon.  They give you a prompt for each of 5 chapters of a novella.  Chapter winners receive signed books.  Grand prize winner gets an opportunity to publish.  Deadline for the first chapter is May 17.  The contest runs through July.

–//–

Be careful where you get the images for your cover.  A lawsuit claims a couple’s picture was used without their permission for a book they would have nothing to do with.  There are legal questions about whether Amazon and Apple have any responsibility.

Victories

Ciuin has an article in the current City Revealed magazine (pen name Lillian H. Grace).

Dylan has a story in Bloodbond magazine.

Bill spun his gears but didn’t figure out how to fix a plot discrepancy.

Education

There are several types of editing,  (and another discussion of differences) with a little overlap.  When a writer starts looking for an editor to prepare their work for submitting to an agent, traditional publisher, or for self-publishing, they need to consider which kinds of help they need.

Of course, if it is the traditional publishing route the company will do the final edits, but the writer may use an editor to get the manuscript in very good shape in order to improve the chances for acceptance.  If you self-publish, it’s all up to you.

A content, developmental (see wikipedia), or substantive editor looks at the big picture – does the story hang together, read easily, and hold interest?  Is the dialog ok, the POV consistent, the characters developed, the plot logical?  This is what we mostly concentrate on in Noble Pen reviews.

A line editor takes the middle ground – are the sentences well constructed and varied enough?  Is the vocabulary effective and not repetitive?  This is also a reasonable area for our comments if there is a pattern of problems, or markups if there is an occasional problem.

A copy editor looks at the details of punctuation, spelling, and grammar, and may offer suggestions to smooth out the last rough edges in sentence flow.  This is usually what Noble Pen readers should leave on the markup page and not spend time discussing.

This site offers some estimates of typical cost for professional editing services, and discusses the pros and cons.  You might conclude that in our group we are providing very valuable services for each other.

Upcoming Schedule

May 14
Ciuin
exercise

May 21
Cassie
Ciuin

May 28
Aimee
Tyree

Jun 4
Dylan
Open slot

Keep Writing,
Bill