Monthly Archives: February 2016

The Noble Pen for March 3, 2016

Next Noble Pen Meeting

March 3, 2016 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Nelle Harper Lee, who has been much in the news this past year, died at age 89.

Victories

Ciuin finished two school papers, which the professor liked.

Bill found a reader to critique his book.

Aime W. spoke to a school and was pictured in the Muscatine Journal.

Cassie cleaned up the first 10,000 words of her sequel, added two new chapters, and got it to her editor, all in one intensive day of writing.  She has sold 89 copies of her first book in its first three weeks of release.

Education

Dialog makes up a large part of most fiction writing.  Jenna Kernan gives us eight reasons dialog is useful in a narrative.

Writing effective dialog doesn’t always come naturally, in part because good dialog is not a transcript of a conversation.  Have you ever read a verbatim transcript?  It probably sounded very awkward.  Conversations usually ramble, are full of social niceties, have many sentence fragments, and uhh, you know, pause fillers.  We tend to forget most of that and only remember the important points.  Dialog should be condensed to make the points that advance the plot, and only sprinkled with enough conversational traits to read like we remember the conversation, but not sound like a transcript.

Maxwell Alexander Drake makes this and other points about dialog. The tips before the exercises are good.  Another article illustrates the difference  as does this one.  Here are 25 tips on dialog (caution: serious vulgarity). Here are some more tips.

Here are some guidelines for choosing dialog tags and proper punctuation.

Always get to the dialogue as soon as possible. I always feel the thing to go for is speed. Nothing puts the reader off more than a big slab of prose at the start.  ~P.G. Wodehouse

I do love to eavesdrop. It’s inspirational, not only for subject matter but for actual dialogue, the way people talk. ~Lynda Barry

I’ve found that good dialogue tells you not only what people are saying or how they’re communicating but it tells you a great deal – by dialect and tone, content and circumstance – about the quality of the character. ~E. O. Wilson

Upcoming Schedule

March 3
Nick
Stacie

March 10
Cassie
Aime W.

March 17
Randy
Ciuin

March 24
Aime W.
Bill H.

March 31
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

The Noble Pen for Feb 25, 2016

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Feb 25, 2016 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Author Martha Hodes won a $50,000 prize for “the finest scholarly work in English on Abraham Lincoln.”

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Read an interview with author Danielle Steele.

Victories

Ciuin started a blog to promote her service of nagging authors who ask for it.

Aime is on day 8 of Facebook withdrawal and is getting more done.

Education

A story needs to “hook” the reader right away.  The opening sentence and paragraph should arouse their curiosity so they keep reading.  Someone said the first sentence needs to make the reader finish the paragraph, the first paragraph the first page, the first page the first chapter, and the first chapter the whole book.

A long setting to introduce characters and places was popular a century ago, but now readers expect to get into the action sooner.  Likewise, a long dialog between characters who have not been well introduced will lose interest.  Suzannah Windsor Freeman lists things to avoid at the beginning.

Paula Berinstein offers elements to hook the reader early.  Janice Hardy lists different types of hook.

Upcoming Schedule

Feb 25
Erin
Laura

March 3
Nick
Stacie

March 10
Cassie
Aime W.

March 17
Randy
Open slot

March 24
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

The Noble Pen for Feb 18, 2016

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Feb 18, 2016 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

A rumor that Amazon will open hundreds of storefronts has been circulating but is not believed by industry analysts.

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Harper Lee, who has been much in the news in recent months, has granted rights for a Broadway play of To Kill A Mockingbird.

Victories

Cassie had a good book release party, with over 45 attendees.  Between that and other sales, she has found homes for her initial order of 60 books.

Dylan received his 10th review on Sand and Blood.  He received another commission.

Aime has given up Facebook and has more time for other things.

Bill went through the critiques from last week and made changes.

Education

What makes a thriller thrilling? A mystery mysterious?  David Morrell offers ideas, beginning with an assessment of why you are writing this story, and emphasizing research to make it realistic.  Elizabeth Craig has several tips for mysteries.

Matt Rees offers a generic diagram that you can fill in with your plot to help organize it.  Sometimes drawing parallel timelines for all the important characters can help you keep the events in proper sequence.  Draw lines from one character to the other to show critical interactions or put their actions in parallel columns of a table.

James Scott Bell has some advice that includes making your characters comples (good and bad attributes in both heros and villains), having confrontations that reveal those attributes (can the villains justify themselves?), and communicating lessons about life.

Upcoming Schedule

Feb 18
Randy
Ciuin

Feb 25
Erin
Laura

March 3
Nick
Stacie

March 10
Cassie
Aime W.

March 17
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

The Noble Pen for Feb. 11, 2016

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Feb 11, 2016 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

Victories

Cassie’s ebook is live on Amazon, B&N, etc. and she has 10 good reviews on Goodreads.

Dylan got a new commission.  He is working on covers for his books.

Ciuin was asked to write a fan fiction story.

Education

Writers need to research their stories in many ways.  Of course, a specific information on medical, historical, scientific, or political topics might be required.  But all stories need settings, people, and situations that are easily envisioned by the reader.   A writer can be alert as they go through their day to notice details of the workplace, restaurant, traffic, customers, and bits of overheard conversations and think of how they would describe those in a story.

Chuck Sambuchino has says you need to experience as much as practical of what you are writing, and research the rest so you get the right sensory details and the right terminology.  If your character sleeps on the ground, it might be a good idea to try taking a nap in the back yard to feel what it would be like.  If you can’t visit the location, find pictures of it and visit a place that reminds you of it.  Tyree said he keeps a set of the Time-Life books on places in the world for this purpose.

The terminology is important, too.  Try to find words that the locals would use.  If it is an imaginary place, give the characters a few unique words that the reader can learn from context.

There’s more than Google out there. Here’s a collection of links that may help in research.  And another.   Still another.

Of course, research can be overdone.  Joseph Finder blogs about keeping research in perspective.

Upcoming Schedule

Feb 11
Aime W.
Dylan

Feb 18
Randy
Ciuin

Feb 25
Erin
Laura

March 3
Nick
Cassie

March 10
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill