Next Noble Pen Meeting

March 30th, 2017 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Mark Lawrence has updated the ratings count for his very interesting older look at sales versus ratings.  In summary, he says ratings matter, but runaway successes are off the charts.  Another analysis says the relationship isn’t clear-cut.

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Jim C. Hines (blog) has added to his series of posts on author income, and collected the series into one pdf file.

Victories

Riley’s short story was accepted for an anthology of Gates of Antares stories, and he was invited to write an entire book for the series.

Cassie got teasers to go on the cover of her next book and updated her author site.

Education

It’s time for an update of the dialog discussion.   Dialog makes up a large part of most fiction writing.  Jenna Kernan gives us eight reasons dialog is useful in a narrative.

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

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.  Chuck Wendig (caution: serious vulgarity) gives 25 tips on dialog. Here are some more tips.

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 30
Randy
Cassie
Ian

Apr 6
Nick
Laura
Uriah

Apr 13
Open slots

Apr 20
Open slots

Apr 27
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

March 23rd, 2017 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Cory Doctorow wants to launch a new model for ebook distribution. (longer article)  Some people are not excited about it.

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These writers think that man and machine will become more intertwined, with some aspects of what used to be science fiction becoming reality.  This author has a gloomy outlook on man’s future use of technology.

Victories

Bill worked on reorganizing his history paper.

Cassie solved plot issues, wrote 10 k words, and did a blurb for her latest book.

Dylan is in the last steps for publication of Sand and Bone with a target June 13 release date.

Education

Fiction gets sliced into narrow genre and subgenre compartments.  Is it science fiction or fantasy?  Is it Mystery or Thriller? [sarcasm]Believe it or not, the boundaries are subject to various interpretations [/sarcasm]. Wikipedia lists many genres, and the AgentQuery site describes several.

Here’s a good look at the Mystery/Suspense/Thriller categories, another, and the Wikipedia discussion of Crime fiction categories.

To oversimplify, a Mystery is expected to start with a crime and the story is the process of solution by a motivated investigator. There are several subgenres.

Crime is sometimes the overall category above Mystery, but may also describe a subcategory of Mystery where the story is usually not so mysterious, but is more about the struggle between the good guys and bad guys, and may ponder issues of morality. Noir is a subgenre of Crime that emphasizes the psychology of the characters.

A Thriller is about how the hero(es) deal with a terrible danger, and tries to drag the reader’s emotions into the struggle. There are subgenres, principally the Epic Catastrophe and its avoidance, Psychological/Suspense where focus is on how it affects the main character, and Supernatural.

It helps an author to market their story to know how it fits (or not) relative to the expectations most have for the genre. Perhaps you don’t want to be pigeonholed, but in a bind, you may need to pick the genre that best describes the story.

Upcoming Schedule

March 23
Dakota
Riley
Ian

March 30
Randy
Cassie
Open slot

Apr 6
Nick
Laura
Uriah

Apr 13
Open slots

Apr 20
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

March 16th, 2017 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Writers need to understand psychology to effectively portray characters’ behavior. Malcolm Gladwell has an interesting take on choices and Dan Areily dscusses how we make decisions.

Victories

Dylan got a rejection from an anthology submission.

Dakota participated in a signing in Kansas City.  She sold some books and made contacts, but was disappointed in the planning and conduct of the organizers.

Education

Sentences, even when properly constructed, can become too long for easy reading.   Some call these “stringy” sentences, where many related (we hope) thoughts are strung together.  Often this involves multiple conjunctions, such as “and” or “but.”

For example, “Joe was driving across town and his car sputtered and stopped and he looked it over for problems but eventually discovered he was out of gas.”  This is grammatically correct (I hope) but poor writing.

It could be improved as “While driving across town, Joe heard his engine sputter to a stop.  He looked it all over for problems before discovering he was out of gas.  The re-write here avoids “and” by breaking it into two sentences, moving part of the thought into a leading clause, and using the  conjunction “before.”

Sometimes the “and” repetition can be eliminated by simply making a comma-separated list (with the Oxford serial comma, by my preference).  “She realized this was the night she had invited Jim for dinner so then she dropped her book and looked in the refrigerator and pulled out the thawed steak and turned on the stove and began cooking it.”  How about “When she realized this was the night she had invited Jim for dinner she dropped her book, looked in the refrigerator, pulled out the thawed steak, turned on the stove, and began cooking it.”  Still not great prose, but probably easier to read.

Often, a sentence can be shortened without losing any of the thought.  Phrases can be replaced with a better word or redundant words deleted.  “I was somewhat late this time due to the fact that my very rusty car that is unreliable had yet another mechanical breakdown again.”  We don’t learn much from “somewhat.”  Either skip it or tell how late.   “Due to the fact” can become “because.” “Very” is imprecise and adds little.  The rust did not cause this breakdown.   Aren’t all breakdowns mechanical?  This can be “Today I was an hour late because my decrepit car broke again,” and we have lost nothing important.

On the other hand, shortening sentences can be overdone, making a choppy read, except perhaps where fast-paced action is occurring.  “Pam decided to take a walk.  She put on her hiking shoes and jacket.  She left the apartment shortly after noon.  She spent a long time circling the pond in the park.”  These choppy sentences do not convey a relaxed feeling that a leisurely walk should evoke.  Maybe “Pam decided to take a walk.  Wearing her hiking shoes and a jacket she left the apartment shortly after noon and spent a long time circling the pond in the park.”  Using a longer but smooth sentence helps convey the proper feeling.

The goal is to use a variety of sentence constructions, that are easy to read, and are chosen to fit the pace of the story.

Upcoming Schedule

March 16
Uriah
Laura
Ian

March 23
Dakota
Riley
Open slot

March 30
Open slots

Apr 6
Nick
Open slots

Apr 13
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

March 9th, 2017 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Mainstream publishers have always had control over a writer’s plot, editing, cover, etc. Now some of them are running manuscripts past “sensitivity” readers who specialize in making sure no group is inaccurately portrayed or offended by the writing.

Victories

Dylan wrote 10k words to meet a Patreon goal.

Randy researched book covers and looked at 3000 of them.  His sent his book for publication.

Education

Dylan introduced us to the concept of the Uncanny Valley.  This refers to a minimum in a graph of acceptability of a figure versus the degree it resembles a real live human.  You can have space aliens that are unlike humans (Star Wars bar scene) and people like them.  You can have real humans and people like them.  But if you have a bipedal figure that looks almost but not quite like an average human it spooks the viewer.  See some examples.   Remember this when creating your aliens, androids, or monsters.

Upcoming Schedule

March 9
Riley
Nick
Dylan

March 16
Uriah
Laura
Open slot

March 23
Open slots

March 30
Open slots

Apr 6
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill