Next Noble Pen Meeting

November 21st, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

A court ruled in favor of Google, saying that their book scanning project is a fair use.  The Writers Guild will appeal. (Longer version of story)

–//–

The 2013 autumn (northern hemisphere) edition of the Science Fiction News is available.

Victories

Dylan submitted three short stories and finished a fourth.

Tyree’s steampunk story received a nomination for an award, its second such recognition.

Ciuin Convinced the U of Iowa library to quadruple the size of its Romany-related collection and they asked her to give them a list of recommendations.

Education

It’s about time. Not necessarily time travel. All stories happen over time, and the author must decide whether to present events in chronological order, start at an attention-grabbing point and fill in the background later (in medias res) but not necessarily the most action-packed moment – or any of several other arrangements.

Michael Rabiger explains timelines in terms of film, but novelists should gain insights as well.

The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order: the continuous thread of revelation. ~Eudora Welty

A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order. ~Jean-Luc Godard

And now the sequence of events in no particular order. ~Dan Rather

Upcoming Schedule

Nov 21st
Lesson about commas
Tyree
Nick
Laura

Nov 28th
Thanksgiving – no meeting

Dec 5th
Tyree
Barbara
Dylan

Dec 12th
Cassie
Nick
Riley

Dec 19th
Nick
Jed
Tyree (?)

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

November 14th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Tyree presented some educational material at the last meeting.  We have been shirking that aspect of our charter lately.  However, it is difficult to squeeze that in with three reviews and still end the meeting at a normal time.  The moderator would appreciate feedback on how much time people want to devote to education.
-Do we want to postpone such sessions while we have stiff competition for review slots?
-Do we want to stay later to do it all?
-Do we want to cut to two reviews some nights to make more time for education?
-Would people be interested in additional educational meetings at some other time?

–//–

The departure of an Amazon executive may hint that their success in the publishing world, as opposed to selling other publishers’ books, is less than expected.

Victories

Tyree finished the draft of two more scenes of Aoife’s Kiss.

Education

Nancy Kress, in her book Beginnings, Middles, and Ends, says in order to hook an editor or reader the first three paragraphs of a story (in a novel perhaps more) should accomplish several things: establish a character, at least hint of conflict, anchor the story in a setting, and demonstrate clear writing with good mechanics.  Others echo the general sentiments. While some may not agree these are hard requirements, few would call them bad attributes for an opening.

At the next meeting we will have a brief discussion of how these criteria are or are not met in a couple samples (not the ones  handed out at last meeting).

The beginning is the most important part of the work. ~Plato

In my beginning is my end. ~T. S. Eliot

A good beginning makes a good end. ~Louis L’Amour

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop. ~Lewis Carroll

Upcoming Schedule

Nov 14th
Tyree’s 10-minute lesson
Cassie
Dylan
Jed

Nov 21st
Tyree
Nick
Laura

Nov 28th
Thanksgiving – no meeting

Dec 5th
Tyree
Barbara
Dylan

Dec 12th
Cassie
Nick
Riley

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

November 7th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Iowa authors Max Allan Collins and Ed Gorman will be speaking at 7 pm on Wednesday Nov 6th at Mystery Cat Books, 112 32nd St Dr SE, Cedar Rapids.  Ed’s latest is called Flashpoint, in the Dev Conrad series of mysteries.  Max will discuss Ask Not, his most recent novel, third in a series wherein Detective Nathan Heller investigates a thwarted assassination attempt on John Kennedy.  This is historical fiction about a true event, shortly before JFK was killed Dallas.  This is timely, of course because we are approaching the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s death.

Victories

Dylan got 2nd place in a writing contest and moves to the next round.

Jed wrote 6,000 words on Castalia II and finished reading Peer Gynt.

Aimee has nearly finished part 1 of her novel.

Education

Characters are more interesting if they change internally during the course of the story.  Many  consider this an essential attribute of a good story.  The change may be for the better or in some cases for the worse.   Jeff Gerke explains the development of a character.  Here’s more advice on writing unforgettable characters.

Lillie Ammann has an 8-part series on writing characters:  Part 1     Part 2     Part 3     Part 4 Part 5     Part 6     Part 7     Part 8.

Character development is what I value most as a reader of fiction. If an author can manage to create the sort of characters who feel fully real, who I find myself worrying about while I’m walking through the grocery store aisles a week later, that to me is as close to perfection as it gets. ~J. Courtney Sullivan

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. ~Abraham Lincoln

There is something intensely interesting to me about characters getting swept into unexpected appetites, of not knowing they were going to do these things. ~Joan Silber

Upcoming Schedule

Nov 7th
Tyree’s 5-minute lesson
Riley
Tyree
Nick

Nov 14th
Cassie
Dylan
Jed

Nov 21st
Tyree
Nick
Laura

Nov 28th
Thanksgiving – no meeting

Dec 5th
Tyree
Barbara
Dylan

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

October 31st, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) begins on November 1st.  If you want a challenge, now is the time to register and prepare.  Some people go so far as to make up a month’s worth of meals so they don’t have to spend time in the kitchen.  You can also think about your plot, but no writing on it until then.

Victories

Cassie had a “eureka” moment about her plot and then completed the outline and 3,000Cassie had a “eureka” moment about her plot and then completed the outline and 3,000 words of her novel.

Tyree is making progress on Aoife’s Kiss.

Barbara wrote a non-fiction article.

Riley got an idea for a scene and likes how it came out in the first draft.

Jed has plotted out Castalia II.

Education

Subplots can add greatly to the interest of a novel.  Brian Klems offers some thoughts about subplots.  Here, he gives techniques for weaving in subplots.   AJ Humpage says the subplot(s) must be related to the main plot and “should happen because of the main story” and are best when they add to the conflict for the main character.   Kristin Bair O’Keeffe gives seven requirements for a subplot to fulfill.

Upcoming Schedule

Oct 31st
Barbara
Tina
Aimee

Nov 7th
Riley
Tyree
Nick

Nov 14th
Cassie
Dylan
Jed

Nov 21st
Tyree
Nick
Laura

Nov 28th
Thanksgiving – no meeting

Dec 5th
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

October 24th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

Victories

Rachel’s article in Outposts of Beyond is now in print.

A story by an Australian author that Tyree published has placed high in an awards list.  Tyree’s Breathless Stars has been nominated for a Darrell award, and his steampunk story for Best Short Story.

Jed finished his first draft of Castalia by writing 15k words in the last week.

Shannon has been busy writing.

Education

Alicia Rasley lists the top 10 plot problems.  Perhaps they aren’t all strictly about plotting, but they are good advice.  Elizabeth Sims offers fixes for 10 problems. Courtney Carpenter lists just three top plot problems.  Laura Whitcomb finds 11 plot problems.

Plot is character revealed by action. ~Aristotle  paraphrased

A story to me means a plot where there is some surprise. Because that is how life is – full of surprises. ~Isaac Bashevis Singer

If life is just a stage, then we are all running around ad-libbing, with absolutely no clue what the plot is. Maybe that’s why we don’t know whether it’s a comedy or tragedy. ~Bill Watterson

Upcoming Schedule

Oct 24th
Riley
Tyree
Jed

Oct 31st
Barbara
Tina
Aimee

Nov 7th
Riley
Tyree
Nick

Nov 14th
Cassie
Dylan
Jed

Nov 21st
Tyree
Nick
Laura

Nov 28th
Thanksgiving – no meeting

Keep Writing,

Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

October 17th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Canadian writer Alice Munro wins the Nobel prize in literature.

–//–

McDonalds is going to put books in kids’ happy meals for two weeks.

Victories

Cassie is writing a blog entry every day this month.  She had people from India and Israel checking it out.

Dylan was asked to write a monthly column about writing.

Jed now has 40k words on the Castalia story.

Education

In honor of the recent passing of Tom Clancy, Writers Digest reprinted a 2001 interview.  He seems to have an intuitive grasp of how to tell a story, and doesn’t give how-to advice, but some of his big principles are interesting.  One quote about what he learned from Hitchcock: “Suspense is achieved by information control.  What   you know.  What the reader knows.  What the characters know.  You balance that properly, and you can really get the reader wound up.”

–//–

J. A. Konrath blogged a guest post by author Tom Keller, then added his ten rules for writers, and finished off with disclosure of how much money he has received from ebook sales.   He is a strong proponent of ebooks, and by being a strong writer he has made $1.5 million in five years.

Upcoming Schedule

Oct 17th
Nick
Rachel
Tyree

Oct 24th
Riley
Tyree
Jed

Oct 31st
Barbara
Tina
Aimee

Nov 7th
Riley
Tyree
Nick

Nov 14th
Cassie
Dylan
Jed

Nov 21st
Open slots

Nov 28th
Thanksgiving – no meeting

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

October 10th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Welcome to Cassie, our newest attendee.

Because of continuing problems with the editor’s email service, this week we’ll try just sending an announcement with no other content when the newsletter has been posted to the web site.

Prolific and always well-researched author Tom Clancy died on Oct 1st.

Victories

Tyree incorporated all of the critiques he has received into Aoife’s Kiss.

Nick wrote up his train spotting observations for fellow railfans.

Aime is back with us.

Riley wrote on his piece to present to the group, and is preparing for NaNoWriMo.

Barbara is experimenting with differnt forms of writing.

Jed got expert advice for his story about police procedures.

Education

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is an annual free event that encourages people to write 50,000 words of a novel in the month of November.  They push “get an idea and start writing” with editing and polishing postponed until you have a lot of raw material to work with.  See also the Education post here for August 8, 2013 for more thoughts on this philosophy.

There’s no shortage of people interested in writing the great American novel.  Some years, 250,000 people start NaNoWriMo, and about 1 in 7 write 50,000 words.  Yes, that’s 35,000 new novels in one month.  With competition like that, you gotta be good to get anywhere.  Keep improving.

You can’t revise it if you haven’t written it. ~Justin Cronin

Upcoming Schedule

Oct 10th
Laura
Dylan
Jed

Oct 17th
Nick
Rachel
Tyree

Oct 24th
Riley
Tyree
Jed

Oct 31st
Barbara
Tina
Aimee

Nov 7th
Riley
Tyree
Nick

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

October 3rd, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

Victories

Dylan finally heard back from his editor, who said she was not done.  His next edit will be free because of the delay.

Tyree did more writing on Aoife’s Kiss.

Rachel submitted a drabble for the current contest.

Education

Protagonists are very important, but to make an interesting story they need to work against interesting and believable antagonists who have their own motivations , personalities, and even redeeming qualities. Here are some things to ponder when you write your bad guys.

You might benefit from filling out a character sheet (such as what Tyree discussed at the last meeting) for your antagonists, to see that you have made them three-dimensional.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. ~Edmund Burke

This is the heart of my argument: We can put more pressure on the antagonist for whom we show human concern. ~Barbara Deming

I don’t want to play a bad guy who doesn’t have a bit of good in him. ~Jeremy Renner

It’s cool to play a sinister bad guy who also has a human side. ~Lukas Haas

Upcoming Schedule

Oct 3rd
Tyree
Nick
Rachel

Oct 10th
Laura
Dylan
Jed

Oct 17th
Nick
Rachel
Tyree

Oct 24th
Riley
Tyree
Open slot

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

September 26th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Welcome to Riley, who found the group.

A new public library has opened with many ebooks  for checkout, and not a single paper book.  It isn’t the first to try going all electronic, but the first one was too early and the idea did not fly then.

Victories

Rachel’s play review has been accepted for magazine publication.

Dylan got a fan letter.  He has finished the first draft of Sand and Love.

Jed has reached fifty pages on his Castalia story.

Education

Dialog makes up a large part of most fiction writing.  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 good points about dialog.  Another article illustrates the difference  as does this one.  Here are 25 tips on dialog.   Jenna Kernan gives us 8 reasons dialog is useful in a narrative.  Here are some more tips.

I do love to eavesdrop. It’s inspirational, not only for subject matter but for actual dialogue, the way people talk. ~Lynda Barry

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’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

Sept 26th
Jed
Dylan
Tina

Oct 3rd
Tyree
Nick
Rachel

Oct 10th
Laura
Dylan
Open slot

Oct 17th
Nick
Rachel
Tyree?

Oct 24th
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

September 19th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The court gives Apple some restrictions on its agreements with book publishers, but not the more serious consequences orginally sought against it in a case begun a year and a half ago.  Another version of the story here.

Victories

Tyree is doing a lot of writing.

Nick edited using review comments.

Dylan got feedback from someone who doesn’t read much fiction and was totally new to fantasy, but still read all of Sand and Blood.   Dylan found out he was sixth out of seven entries in a writing contest.

Rachel worked on development of characters for the Nikki story, and revised Harper.

Jed wrote instead of studying for an economics test.

Education

A book, whether it is a memoir or a thriller, needs a hook.  Stating a succinct hook is important in a query letter.  Here’s some suggestions for looking at your hook in different ways.  A hook should be supported by the rest of the story, or else some my call it a gimmick and dismiss the book.

Upcoming Schedule

Sept 19th

Nick
Barbara
Tyree

Sept 26th

Jed
Dylan
Tina

Oct 3rd

Tyree
Nick
Rachel

Oct 10th

Tyree ?
Laura
Dylan

Oct 17th

Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill