Next Noble Pen Meeting

March 15th, 2018 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Dolly Parton talks about her nonprofit organization that sends books to children- now up to 100 million books.  (article)  (interview)

Victories

Randy found a Fisk coffin in a museum that he will photograph for his book.

The Farmers’ Market book selling group got a rejection from their application.  They tried.

Education

Riley recently gave us a good presentation on character arcs, one of many useful ways to analyze a story.  Here’s some more links on characters.

Character development early in a story in an important tool to get readers hooked.  Tom Pawlik’s article lists nine aspects of character development.  How the character talks and thinks, their background, appearance, goals, and defects all shape them and affect how the reader relates to them and cares about them.  Here are more tips.  This information should be shown gradually and not as a summary that holds up the action.

The character will probably show change during the narrative, which is called the character arc.   Change for the better or for the worse usually makes them more interesting.  A “flat arc” can sometimes be interesting, especially if they interact with other characters having more complex arcs.

There are many ways a character can change through the events of the plot.   They may change in personality or motivation.   Nancy Kress discusses character change.   Jeff Gerke explains the development of a character.   Lillie Ammann talks about creating, motivating, and changing a character in an 8-part series:  Part 1     Part 2     Part 3     Part 4 Part 5     Part 6     Part 7     Part 8.

Upcoming Schedule

March 15
Short educational: Randy
Ciuin
Aime
Stacie S.

March 22
Randy
Ciuin
Open slot

March 29
Jeremiah
Open slots

Apr 5
Nick
Randy
Open slot

Apr 12
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill