Next Noble Pen Meeting

February 8th, 2018 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Cracked Walnut is a traveling literary group based in Minneapolis. They will be doing a prose and p**try reading in Cedar Rapids, 7 pm Saturday Feb 3 at Peoples Church, 4980 Gordon Ave NW (a block west of Jacolyn Park). See link for information.

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Prolific author Ursula K. Le Guin died recently at age 88.  She first submitted to a science fiction magazine in 1940 at age 11 and got her first rejection .  She was published several years later and over a long career turned out over a hundred pieces: short stories, collections, poems, novels in several genres, and non-fiction books.  One of her non-fiction works was recently released.

Victories

Aime wrote two speeches and a draft of an editorial.

Ciuin finshed reading a book.

Education

Word repetition, or “echo word” is a too-common, although not major, flaw in most people’s first drafts.  A little attention to substitutions can quickly make improvements.  This article offers some examples of rephrasing.  Repetition can also be a useful tool  when done carefully.

A search will find many tools to point out repetition, for example this one.

Do not fall into the trap of simply choosing the next word in a thesaurus, because synonyms all have nuances of meaning and using a poor choice will convey the wrong meaning.

If you re-read your work, you can find on re-reading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by re-reading and editing. ~William Safire

Upcoming Schedule

February 8
Randy
Stacie S
Riley

February 15
10-minute educational – anyone?
Aime
Stacie S
Ciuin

February 22
Randy
Ciuin
Open slot

March 1
Riley 10-minute educational
Nick
Jeremiah
Open slot

March 8
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill