Next Noble Pen Meeting

June 18th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The European Union is now looking into Amazon’s ebook business practices.

Victories

Mark submitted another commissioned article.

Cassie wrote 5,000 words last week.  She got an email from an editor at Avon asking about her work in progress and inviting her to submit it when finished.  They like her writer’s voice as seen in the contest submissions.

Jo pulled out old material and improved it. Her husband likes the humor.

Education

You want your characters to seem real, so they need motivations, a little description, and individual characteristics.  Anne Leigh Parrish discusses  making characters plausible.  Characters need both good characteristics and flaws to seem real. Perfect saints are boring and not believable.  A “tough” character has appeal because they are able to handle what comes at them, but as Angela Ackerman points out, don’t go too far in making them insensitive, cynical, or otherwise nasty.   Even the old “hard boiled” detective usually had a soft spot to make them more relatable.  In another article, she categorizes character flaws.

Syndney Katt offers advice on creating flawed heroes and villains with redeeming characteristics and Anne Tyler talks about writing strong yet flawed characters.

I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions. ~Augusten Burroughs

Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without. ~Confucius

You see someone on the street, and essentially what you notice about them is the flaw. ~Diane Arbus

Upcoming Schedule

Jun 18
Eugenia
Jo

Jun 25
Tyree (?)
Aimee

Jul 2
Jo
Open slot

Jul 9
Open slots

Jul 16
Nick
Open slot

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

June 11th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Stephen King talks about what he reads and has liked in an interview.

Victories

Dylan gave a reading at WisCon.  He got a commission for a story.  His Sand and Blood got a review.

Nick wrote trip reports on his travels for the railfan mailing list.

Laura’s 2nd chapter in the Avon contest got comments from a well-known author and an Avon editor.

Jo found the group.  She has been reviewing much writing she had put on the shelf.

Ciuin sold a project for series of articles to City Revealed, and two stories for a small publisher.

Education

If you self-publish, you are responsible for the “cover” art, which you hope will have entice people to buy.  This site picks out ebook covers that they think don’t do a good job of selling.  Some of the titles could be improved, too.  See what you think.  And here’s another collection of questionable book covers.

Upcoming Schedule

Jun 11
Eugenia
Cassie

Jun 18
Eugenia
Jo

Jun 25
Tyree (?)
Aimee

Jul 2
Open slots

Jul 9
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

June 4th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

In a group discussion, most agreed that when the author wants to ask specific questions about voice, plot, character development, etc. putting those questions in the submission file rather than the email will probably produce a better response.

Also, it would be advantageous for submissions on stories that haven’t been up recently to contain a brief summary of where we are in the story before the actual submission, just to get readers back on track.

Victories

Mark’s second commissioned article on gaming was submitted, edited, and quickly published.

Cassie wrote 1800 words toward Chapter 2 of the Avon contest.

Laura submitted her Chapter 2.

Ciuin wrote nearly 2K words on Vampire House, rewrote 4 chapters of Stories of Paris, and worked on cleanups and a plot hole in Petty Theft.  She was tempted to write another school paper just out of habit, but since the semester is over, it wouldn’t get her another A.

Education

A surprising number of stories fit well into the structure of The Hero’s Journey (wikipedia) and they aren’t all epic fantasies.   Vladimir Propp was one of the pioneers of the idea as applied to folk tales.  Elizabeth Sims discusses the structure and how a Sherlock Holmes story fits it.   Here’s another comparison using Star Wars and The Matrix.

Upcoming Schedule

Jun 4
Dylan
Ciuin

Jun 11
Eugenia
Cassie

Jun 18
Open slots

Jun 25
Tyree (?)
Aimee

Jul 2
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

May 28th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Simon Pegg claims that much entertainment, especially the SF/F he stars in, is ruining our collective minds and taking the focus from real-world issues.  Others disagree.

Victories

Cassie’s chapter entry in the Avon contest was 4th in popular vote out of 80 entries and she received some comments including from Avon editors.  Laura’s entry was also in the top 10 and received 4 comments.  Voting is, thankfully, only part of the selection process because some of the competition appear to be recruiting everybody on Facebook to vote for them without reading the stories.

Ciuin got A’s on two more papers and has finished the semester.

We hear that Eugenia has been writing while on vacation.

Education

How long should a chapter be?  The answer seems to be “how long is a piece of string?” Various writers use widely varying chapter lengths.   The general advice is to make each chapter serve a distinct purpose and tell a distinct piece of the story, whether that is 1,000 or 15,000 words.  If you are worried about people with short intervals for reading, then a good rule of thumb is under 5,000.  Some claim the average novel chapter is under 3,000.

The first chapter is special, since it must hook the reader into continuing through the book.  Anne R. Allen offers a checklist for things the first chapter needs to do.

Upcoming Schedule

May 28
Aimee
Tyree (already distributed)

Jun 4
Dylan
Cassie

Jun 11
Open slots

Jun 18
Open slots

Jun 25
Open slots

Jul 2
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

May 21st, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

Victories

Cassie wrote on a chapter for the Avon contest.

Laura started a chapter for that contest.

Mark’s commissioned article on role playing games appeared on line, and he was asked to do a followup article.

Ciuin started a new story, and has partnered with Eugenia to co-author a karma story.

Education

If you base your fiction on true events, you don’t want to offend anyone who may recognize themselves in the story.  Lorie Ann Grover offers some advice to stay out of trouble.     If you use real people you should have permission (casual mentions of celebrities excepted).  Be familiar with libel laws.

Even if you are inspired by true events, unless you are writing historical fiction you don’t have to stick to the facts if you can make it more interesting as well as avoiding trouble.  Sometimes it is hard to classify a work as fiction or non-fiction.

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

Upcoming Schedule

May 21
Cassie
Ciuin

May 28
Aimee
Tyree (already distributed)

Jun 4
Dylan
Cassie

Jun 11
Open slots

Jun 18
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

May 14th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Cassie points out a writing contest for Historical Romance by Harper Collins/Avon.  They give you a prompt for each of 5 chapters of a novella.  Chapter winners receive signed books.  Grand prize winner gets an opportunity to publish.  Deadline for the first chapter is May 17.  The contest runs through July.

–//–

Be careful where you get the images for your cover.  A lawsuit claims a couple’s picture was used without their permission for a book they would have nothing to do with.  There are legal questions about whether Amazon and Apple have any responsibility.

Victories

Ciuin has an article in the current City Revealed magazine (pen name Lillian H. Grace).

Dylan has a story in Bloodbond magazine.

Bill spun his gears but didn’t figure out how to fix a plot discrepancy.

Education

There are several types of editing,  (and another discussion of differences) with a little overlap.  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.

Of course, if it is the traditional publishing route the company will do the final edits, but the writer may use an editor to get the manuscript in very good shape in order to improve the chances for acceptance.  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, and hold interest?  Is the dialog ok, 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?  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 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

May 14
Ciuin
exercise

May 21
Cassie
Ciuin

May 28
Aimee
Tyree

Jun 4
Dylan
Open slot

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

May 7th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

Victories

Tyree’s move is done, he added three chapters to Yoelin, is writing on Nyx 4, and is writing a teen story set in space.  Sales at MiniCon were the second best of any convention.

Dylan has planned out his panels to present at WisCon.  (Wikipedia)

Cassie added 2K words to Until Death Do Us Part, and 5K to a sequel.

Ciuin aced another paper and wrote a 14-page paper in one day.

Eugenia received an ad from a vanity publisher, so her name must be out there as a writer.

Education

Many successful writers got there by using the services of an agent.   Wikipedia nicely summarizes their function, and this FAQ may be helpful.

Agents may differ from each other in their approach, attitudes, and the genres they represent to publishers.  Many directories, like Writer’s Market and this one, list agents to help aspiring authors query the ones best suited for their work.  Preditors and Editors can help you avoid some problems.  You can search for agents and learn a lot more from the examples posted on Query Tracker.  Here an agent answers less common questions.

Upcoming Schedule

May 7
Laura
Dylan

May 14
Ciuin
Tyree ?

May 21
Cassie
Open slot

May 28
Aimee
Open slot

Jun 4
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

April 30th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

A debate is going on about the Hugo Awards (Wikipedia) for science fiction and fantasy.  Some claim that the awards are being given on the basis of stories pushing a social viewpoint or the author’s ethnicity or politics, rather than on being good stories.  Factions have formed with claims going both ways.  See typical arguments here.

Victories

Cassie had a good trip to a book festival.  She did some rewrite on a novella, made a dent in the first draft of a new novella, and did plotting for another.

Ciuin is writing an article on Noble Pen for City Revealed magazine and will be doing reviews of local authors’ books.

Bill tried to do outlining and organization for his SF novel idea.

Education

How do you pick the title of your novel?  If you go through a traditional publishing house, you probably don’t.  The marketing department will pick the title, replacing your working title.  If you use a smaller house you may have some say in it, and if you are independent it is all up to you.

Here’s some advice on ways to come up with a title.  This post suggests brainstorming methods.  Here is more advice.  You probably should have alternative titles and ask as many people as possible which ones are most likely to catch their interest.

Your title should be distinctive but not distracting and somehow connected to your story and genre.  You should search for similar titles and avoid any that will get confused with a classic or appear to be riding the the tails of a currently popular book, movie, or song.  It is not smart to name your book The Games of Hunger.  On the other hand, it is permissible to use a title that already exists, and this happens frequently.  Titles have little legal protection, and if the other book(s) is/are relatively unknown and not similar you are probably okay.

Upcoming Schedule

Apr 30
Cassie
Aimee

May 7
Laura
Open slot

May 14
Ciuin
Open slot

May 21
Open slots

May 28
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

April 23rd, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The summer (Northern Hemisphere) edition of Science Fiction News is out.

Victories

Dylan got a good review of Sand and Blood in the Mark Lawrence competition (see March 26th victories) among 260 submissions, and goes to the second round.  He got a fan mail for a work under a pseudonym.

Ciuin wrote a few pages that, for a change, were not academic papers.

Education

Writing dialog is unnatural, because good dialog is different from ordinary speech and different from formal writing, and the punctuation rules are not obvious.

Here’s a good overview that also has some punctuation rules for special situations: Part 1 and Part 2 and another summary.

People don’t talk in complete sentences and with precision like they would write a report, so your dialog needs to reflect that while maintaining clarity.  Practice listening to nearby conversations with the purpose of thinking about what it would look like written down.  It may not read very well if written verbatim.  Write it, and then clean it up only to the point that it reads smoothly enough readers won’t get lost — not to the point of becoming report-style English.

Dialog tags (“Hi,” Joan said.) should be used often enough to remove all doubt who is speaking.  Each speaker must have their own paragraph.  Tags can, however, be omitted from many paragraphs in a two-person conversation, especially if the characters’ voices and message are distinct enough that the reader can easily keep them straight with only an occasional tag.

Do not try too hard to put variety in dialog tags.  Said and asked will carry most of the load and their repetition will go unnoticed like “the”.  Others such as shouted or whispered can be useful when they impart information not obvious from the dialog.  Trying to make every tag different  results in undue attention to the tags instead of the dialog.  Demanded, wheedled, complained, offered, opined, etc. should be obvious from the character’s words and not need the tag to explain the intent.

Another trap is adding an adverb after said.  If you need to write that the character said it sadly, angrily, or forcefully then you probably need to use stronger dialog instead of an adverb to pump it up.

An alternative to a dialog tag is an action that also tells whose paragraph it is, like picking up their coffee cup, looking around the room, laughing, or tightening their finger on the trigger.  Note that the action should be a separate sentence, because it is NOT a dialog tag.  You don’t laugh, smile, or sigh your words.

Upcoming Schedule

Apr 23
Ciuin
Eugenia

Apr 30
Cassie
Aimee

May 7
Laura
Open slot

May 14
Open slots

May 21
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

April 16th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

With many people feeling time pressures, we have had less demand for review slots.  We will plan to only schedule two reviews a week for a while, so people will find it easier to keep up with the reading.  If this leaves us time in the meetings, we may have the dreaded educational exercise on verb tenses.

Victories

Cassie got her author web page and Facebook page up, with the first blog post.

Dylan’s lyrics are on a friend’s Death Metal CD, just released.  His are all the English words.  The other two-thirds are in Russian.

Laura revised her story with a reduction in use of “was” and other cleanups.

Ciuin got another A on a paper.  We expect her to continue the winning streak.

Education

The standard advice for a new writer is to write a stand-alone book, and don’t put more than a hint into your query that there is series potential.  Agents or publishers may think it will be an incomplete story without the rest of the series, and they certainly aren’t going to invest in a series until the first one sells well.

A self-published author, however, may want to have a series of books out there so that every book sold is an advertisement for the rest of their books.

Kurtis Scaletta talks about a middle ground – a stand alone book with series potential.  Another blog takes a similar view, saying that the settings and characters from one stand-alone book can be re-used by giving them a new problem in a companion book.

The key, in any case, is to avoid a serial plot.  Make sure each book contains a complete story arc, so that the reader doesn’t feel like they’ve been tricked into reading the whole series to find resolution.  No cliff hanger books.  If your book is so long it needs to be a trilogy, maybe you’d better find the essential story and trim it down to one satisfying book.  Then see if you have enough story material left for more books.

Upcoming Schedule

Apr 16
Aimee
Dylan

Apr 23
Open slots

Apr 30
Open slots

May 7
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill