Next Noble Pen Meeting

August 25th, 2016 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Although it is generally a good idea for writers to understand the country and people they write about, this article says Mark Twain did not understand Germany when he wrote A Tramp Abroad.

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J. K. Rowling will release three small collections of Harry Potter short stories.

Victories

Ciuin got UNICEF to fix the grammar and another problem on their web site.

Dylan wrote 17,000 words this week.  His editor is working on Sand and Bone, and likes it.

Education

An editor is an editor, right?  No, there are several types of editing, with a little overlap  (another discussion of differences).  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.

If the author is attempting the traditional publishing route, they may use an editor to get the manuscript in very good shape to improve the chances for acceptance.  The company will do, or work with the author on, the final edits.  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, hold interest, and appeal to a market?  Is the dialog okay, 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? Are the verbs strong? Too many references to time (then, after a moment, later, etc.)  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, although slightly old, 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

August 25
Dylan
Shannon
Stacy H.

Sept 1
Stacie S.
Nick
Randy

Sept 8
Laura
Stacy H.
Open slot

Sept 15
Open slots

Sept 22
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill