Next Noble Pen Meeting

Jan 21st, 2016 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Some people who we haven’t seen in a while have been dropped from the email list, which was getting rather long.  If you didn’t get an email but plan to attend a meeting, let us know so we can forward the submissions.

Victories

Cassie got a four-star review of her book on Goodreads.  She made headway on the end of her next novel.

Bill H. reviewed all the (very) old critiques of his short novel and made some edits.

Ciuin rewrote and submitted her personal statement for the graduate school application.  She got a compliment from a former teacher who reviewed it.  Her tutoring of her grandsons on English is showing progress.

Education

Action and fight scenes are an important part of many stories.  There needs to be more to the story than the action, of course, with motivations, personalities, emotional conflict, interpersonal relations, and change in the characters often making important contributions to the story.

But when the action goes down, how do you set it up and describe it?  Action usually is carried best by short sentences to imply a fast pace. This is not the time to give setting or character background.  Simple sensory detail without over-describing, no passive voice, few adverbs, and selected action verbs will convey the excitement.

Make the battle(s) important to the plot, with high stakes, and not just the script of a video game with one unrelated fight after another.   Can you make the hero’s fate in doubt or does the reader know he will emerge unscathed?

Robert Wood tells how he approaches action scenes.  Fonda Lee gives some good advice.  Linda Adams gives her take on it.

Upcoming Schedule

Jan 21
Cassie
Dylan

Jan 28
Bill W.
Ciuin

Feb 4
Nick
Bill H.

Feb 11
Open slots

Feb 18
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Jan 14th, 2016 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

WorldCon is now accepting registrations for the August 2016 event in Kansas City.  Supporting members can get all of the Hugo nominated works as ebooks and vote on the awards.

Victories

Cassie has 7 people with her forthcoming book on their Goodreads bookshelf.  She has signed up for her third event to promote the book, this one the Romance Rendezvous in Cedar Falls on April 9.

Dylan now has a quarter million words on his Fedran world wiki site.

Education

Authors often want to have a series of books that share characters and settings.  However, new authors are advised to never try to sell a series until they have success with one book.  Still, a stand-alone book can leave hooks for a series without a too-obvious cliffhanger leading into a sequel.  Kurtis Scaletta offers advice on how to do this.  Karen Wiesner has more.

Upcoming Schedule

Jan 14
Bill W.
Aime W.

Jan 21
Cassie
Dylan (will cede)

Jan 28
Open slots

Feb 4
Open slots

Feb 11
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Jan 7th, 2016 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

No news is good news.

Victories

We all made it into a new year.  We’ll have to wait until the meeting to find out what literary victories everyone had.

Education

As our culture changes, so do the words.  Gender neutral language has been slowly gaining usage since the introduction of Ms for a female with unspecified marital status and flight attendant instead of stewardess.

English has an easier path to gender neutrality than languages such as Spanish where even inanimate objects have gender and use “el” and “la” instead of “the.”  As such, English may be considered genderless.

Yet English is short on neutral pronouns and nouns.  We can say “person” instead of “man” or “woman”, or “server” instead of “waiter,” but traditionally we were stuck with “him” and “her.”  A recent trend is to substitute “they” as a reference to one man or woman, which would have been considered poor grammar in past times. New pronouns have been proposed.

Here’s the Wikipedia summary of the topic, another discussion, and a guide from a college.

Upcoming Schedule

Jan 7
Randy
Nick

Jan 14
Bill W.
Aime W.

Jan 21
Open slots

Jan 28
Open slots

Feb 4
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Jan 7th, 2016 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

With two holidays coming up, we won’t meet again until January 7th.  Best wishes to all.

–//–

A while back we heard that Tyree was (involuntarily) doing research for a medical novel.  He reports that two surgeries to implant and correct an automatic atrial defibrillator didn’t seem to help right away, but now he is feeling more energetic and capable.  He also managed to move to a different residence during that time.  Despite all this he has some literary victories.  He sends his regards and hopes to drop in again sometime.

Victories

Dylan finished a commission.  Surprisingly, it was within the target word count.

Charlie got his submission for review out despite some obstacles.

Tyree sold a short story in October and a poem in November.  Nomadic Delirium published a collection of his short stories.  The Yoelin story we reviewed is being considered by a publisher.  Despite originally liking the apocalyptic story we reviewed, a larger publisher has taken no action on it, so he is moving it to a different publication route.

Education

How do you know if your story is finished?  Well, actually, nothing is ever as nearly perfect as it could be, but when you think it’s close you need to stop and examine it dispassionately.  Chris Robley offers a checklist to help you decide if it is good enough.  And here’s another list.  Stephanie Gayle talks about what her novel needed after she thought it was finished.

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 24
Christmas Eve – no meeting

Dec 31
New Year’s Eve – no meeting

Jan 7
Randy
Nick

Jan 14
Bill W.
Aime W.

Jan 21
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Dec 17th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Barnes and Noble is looking to increase revenue by broadening their offerings beyond books to include games and toys.

–//–

A new book discusses Cedar Rapids native Carl Van Vechten, who is best remembered for his photographs of authors, artists, and entertainers.  You can also see some of his photos at CSPS hall.

Victories

Cassie has the final proof of her book.  It is available for pre-order on line, she signed up for a PR blitz, and has scheduled a launch party.  She has drafted a third of the next story in the series.

Dylan has a subscriber and started serializing a second novel.

Daniel’s book on role playing game is in stores.

Education (?)

Commas can make a big difference.  The classic example is “Let’s eat Grandpa,” which was probably meant to read “Let’s eat, Grandpa.”

The Oxford Comma, the one that precedes the “and” in a list, is favored by many but rejected by others.  Commas or their lack can be expensive sometimes, as shown by this court case and this one.

A discussion at the last meeting about a bag of commas reminded me to reprint this attempt at humor from an older newsletter.

Some people do not favor commas because their ancestors learned to get along without them, after they found commas too difficult to transport over the mountains as they moved west.  They chose an extra barrel of flour over a supply of commas when they packed their wagons.   Even today, the cost of shipping a carton of commas restricts their use.

People may resort to modifying apostrophes, which seem to be in excess supply these days.  However when lowering the apostrophes it is easy to drop and bend them so that the best you can do is cut them down to salvage periods, which are only worth pennies on the dollar.  Few people use semicolons, so if you have an unneeded one you can cut it in two and have both a period and a comma for little effort.

I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out.— Oscar Wilde

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 17
Dylan
Charlie

Dec 24
Christmas Eve – no meeting

Dec 31
New Year’s Eve – no meeting

Jan 7
Randy
Nick

Jan 14
Bill W.
Open slot

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Dec 10th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

An article argues that many real-world events would  be rejected as implausible in fiction.

There is nothing so powerful as truth – and often nothing so strange. ~ Daniel Webster

–//–

You don’t always need complicated words.  Randall Munroe, creator of the XKCD comic, has a book coming out that explains a lot of things using a 1,000-word vocabulary.

Victories

Dylan has a subscriber on Patreon.  He finished a draft of his commissioned piece, and AMAZINGLY it is within the target word count for once.

Kelsey outlined a story.  She started using Scrivener.

Education

Interesting characters can be critical to a book’s success.  They need to be developed, but not necessarily all at once.  This article suggests giving each character some distinctive characteristic for people to remember them by, and has links to further explore the subject.  David Corbett offers some advice on developing characters as the story progresses.

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 10
Randy
Aime W.

Dec 17
Dylan
Charlie

Dec 24
Christmas Eve – no meeting

Dec 31
New Year’s Eve – no meeting

Jan 7
Randy
Nick

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Dec 3rd, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

You never know what will make a book have a resurgence of popularity.  After the recent Paris attacks, the mention  in a popular interview of a 1964 Hemingway book about celebrating life in Paris has caused the French edition to sell out.

Victories

As there was no meeting last week, we won’t have a full list of victories until Thursday, but both authors have already delivered their submissions for review and that’s a victory on a holiday week.

Education

How do you clean up a draft of a story?  I’m sure there are many approaches, but this article discusses some of the considerations.    Here’s another view of the process.  And yet another.

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 3
Nick
Robyn

Dec 10
Randy
Aime W.

Dec 17
Dylan
Charlie

Dec 24
Christmas Eve – no meeting

Dec 31
New Year’s Eve – no meeting

Jan 7
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Nov 26, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

As many employers, including our restaurant, are giving people the day off to work on their writing, we will not meet on Nov 26.  The next submissions will be due on November 30th for the December 3rd meeting.

Victories

Cassie’s book is in proof print.

Benjamin completed two freelance projects that led to more jobs.

Dylan got a story commission.

Erin’s blog is on line, with a revision of her recent submission to the group.

Education

Homophones that are heterographs are a recurring problem for many writers.  That’s what we get for using a language that has borrowed from many others and adapts readily to new usages. This article explains the difference between homophones, homonyms, and homographs.

You have to learn each and every set of homophones, as theiyr’re is no general rule to help.  Here’s  a guide to some common ones.

Upcoming Schedule

Nov 26
Thanksgiving – no meeting

Dec 3
Nick
Robyn

Dec 10
Randy
Aime W.

Dec 17
Dylan
Charlie

Dec 24
Christmas Eve – no meeting

Dec 31
New Year’s Eve – no meeting

Jan 7
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

November 19th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

A poem and a snippet of prose discovered on a paper stuck in an old book have been identified as being from Charlotte Bronte, and are being sold for $300,000.  How much is that per word?  If you get famous, your descendants will want you to have passed on every scrap of writing you have done.

Victories

Erin wrote her first blog entry.

Charlie started a story.

Robyn had a flash story accepted by a magazine.

Kelsey finished the draft of a short story.

Ciuin got a thank you and a fan mail from her City Revealed article.

Education

Every story needs to keep the reader wondering what will come next — why else would they finish reading it? In some stories that will be just uncertainty of the outcome, and in others it will be nerve-tingling suspense.  This blog discusses how to get and hold the reader’s attention.

A series of events that are logical but not everyday, ordinary occurrences can make a plot interesting. Lee Masterson offers some advice on arranging your plot to hold the reader.

After you get the reader wondering, suspense can be heightened by giving more detail to slow down the events in a creepy scene.

Upcoming Schedule

Nov 19
Erin
Kelsey

Nov 26
Thanksgiving – no meeting

Dec 3
Nick
Robyn

Dec 10
Randy
Aime W.

Dec 17
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

November 12th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

A judge for a writing award talks about the process.

Victories

Robyn wrote the draft of a flash fiction and revised another.

Dylan found an editor for a piece among his fans.

Education

Every writer needs to find methods that work for them, and those may differ from those of other successful writers.  You need to try lots of advice and see what helps you.  Jan Ellison offers some tips.  I particularly like her point that you need to get to the end of the story before you polish parts of it.  That approach is consistent with the Snowflake Method.  It’s hard to bring yourself to tear up a beautiful chapter when you find later that the plot needed to go a different direction.  There are many ways or levels of detail to outline, from a strict structure to a loose summary of the story.

Other people aren’t plotters, but write by the “seat of their pants”, to use a metaphor that came from pilots who stay oriented by their senses instead of by instruments.  They let the story develop as it seems to need to go.  Which are you, or can you take a middle road? John Irving says he always knows where he’s headed, though it would appear from this interview that he doesn’t necessarily know how he will get there.

Upcoming Schedule

Nov 12
Ciuin
Aime W. (2nd part)

Nov 19
Erin
Kelsey

Nov 26
Thanksgiving – no meeting

Dec 3
Nick
Robyn

Dec 10
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill