Category Archives: Newsletters

This is the weekly newsletters for the Noble Pen Writer’s Group.

The Noble Pen for Feb 14, 2013

Newsletters

Next Noble Pen Meeting

February 14th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The Marion Public Library is having an “Author Fair” on Saturday Feb 16. The schedule includes two hour-long sessions (choice of two each hour) with panels of published authors, including such notables as Ed Gorman. A lunch can be reserved in advance. After lunch there are readings and opportunities to chat with the authors.

Victories

Nick has written through chapter 6 of his SciFi book.

Dylan sold a dinosaur horror story to an anthology.  Flight is still in the running for the Harper Voyager contest.  Two beta readers liked BAM.

Tyree researched tidal waves and found his story to be consistent with what might happen.

Janice likes the improvements she is able to make using some of the suggestions of the writing diagnostic tool.

Ciuin finished another book on her reading list and is editing again on Petty Theft.

Education

Some time back the newsletter mentioned Pro Writing Aid as a free and useful means of identifying things you might consider revising.  It will give you more suggestions than you want.  Janice recently used it and reports that she finds some of its output useful.  A free tool from Writer’s Diet may give another view.  And Edit Minion claims to be a “robotic copy editor.”

—//—

Authors should have some knowledge of copyright law.  You should know that anything you write is immediately copyrighted.  Registration with the government office (with a fee) strengthens your ability to enforce your copyright.  Rights cover several different types of use.  Some uses can be made of your work without infringing on the copyright.

US copyright laws have changed from time to time, mostly to extend the coverage.  Cynics have noted that the length of time a copyright provides protection (with registration and renewals) has usually been a little longer than the age of Mickey Mouse.

A search will turn up many explanations of copyright, and I’ll link a few of them.  The  Writers Write site has a nice summary written by a lawyer in more or less layman’s language.  Here’s another.  The US government Copyright Office gives definitions related to the subject.  Wikipedia has a substantial article.

Of all the creative work produced by humans anywhere, a tiny fraction has continuing commercial value. For that tiny fraction, the copyright is a crucially important legal device. ~Lawrence Lessig

I think that the use of copyright is going to change dramatically. Part of it is economics. There is just going to be so much content out there – there’s a scarcity of attention.  Information consumes attention, and there’s too much information. ~Esther Dyson
Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet. ~Mark Twain

Upcoming Schedule

Feb 14th

Tyree
Janice
Nick

Feb 21st

Shannon (double slot)
Aimee

Feb 28th

Tyree (if no one else)
Janice
Open Slot

Mar 7th

Nick (double if no one else needs slot)
Open slot(s)

Mar 14th

Nick?
Open slots

Mar 21st

Nick ?
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

The Noble Pen for February 7, 2013

Newsletters

Next Noble Pen Meeting

February 7th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The Marion Public Library is having an “Author Fair” on Saturday Feb 16.  The schedule includes two hour-long sessions (choice of two each hour) with panels of published authors, including such notables as Ed Gorman.  A lunch can be reserved in advance.  After lunch there are readings and opportunities to chat with the authors.

Victories

Tyree has written more in January than in the prior year.

Ciuin attended a UN remembrance service and served on a panel afterward, and found a prestigious beta reader for Petty Theft.

Dylan broke a 45-day block and is writing despite being otherwise busy as well.  He finished a commission.  He got feedback on BAM from a beta reader found via his blog.  An internet magazine has asked him to format ebooks for them.

Janice has her computer back up and going so she can write.

Shannon got a comment via Facebook that someone was reading Minion and it brightened their day.

Education

Writer’s Digest offers a good article on planning your novel.

Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.
~Pablo Picasso

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. ~George S. Patton

We can’t plan life. All we can do is be available for it.  ~Lauryn Hill

Upcoming Schedule

Feb 7th

Nick
Tyree
Janice

Feb 14th

Tyree
Janice
Open Slot

Feb 21st

Shannon (double slot)
Aimee

Feb 28th

Tyree (if no one else)
Janice ?
Open Slot

Keep Writing,
Bill

The Noble Pen for January 31, 2013

Newsletters

Next Noble Pen Meeting

January 31st, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

On-line reviews continue to be problematic.  Not only are positive reviews sometimes solicited or even bought by an author, but negative reviews can be used as a weapon.  A recent book about Michael Jackson received a huge number of bad reviews, mostly by people who probably never saw the book but only posted in response to postings on social media.

A potential solution to much of the problem, it seems to me, is to only allow reviews by people who have purchased the book through that site.

Victories

Janice recovered her writing files from a crashed computer.

Shannon has survived plagues and misfortunes to come to our meeting again.

Tyree was asked to submit a vampire poem for an anthology (paying).  He had it written in a half hour and accepted the next day.

Education

Shannon brought up the Hero’s Journey or Monomyth, which describes the structure of a great many stories.  Here are some links:

The Wikipedia overview of the topic.

The Vladimir Propp version of it.

A chart showing how the journey works with Star Wars/ The Matrix.

—//–

We discussed the need for backups.  Flash drives are great.  The cheapest one in the store will hold more writing documents (without audio/picture/video) than all of us together will ever produce.  Another convenient (and free up to 2 GBytes) option is Dropbox, which not only backs up a folder to their servers, but will also synchronize its folders between all of your machines, and will let you send a link for other people to download selected files.

Upcoming Schedule

Jan 31st
Janice
Tyree
Aimee

Feb 7th

Nick (1 or 2)
Tyree (if no one else)
Janice ?

Feb 14th

Open Slots

Feb 21st

Open Slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

The Noble Pen for January 24, 2013

Newsletters

Next Noble Pen Meeting

January 24th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Science Fiction News has the spring 2013 edition out.  They give several major award lists, that might offer good choices for your own reading list.

Victories

Dylan had a well-deserved good week.  He submitted BAM to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest.  He got his laptop computer back after weeks of recovering his wife’s photo files, so he can write again.  And he added up his writing output for 2012 at a total of 610k words.  He says, “Writing’s easy.  Editing is hard.”

Education

If you know where to start and end, how do you get the reader to stay with you through the journey?

It’s been a while since I mentioned this series of articles, so will point you to “The Sagging Middle” Part 1 and Part 2 by Camy Tang, which she based on Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer.

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. ~Ernest Hemingway

As much horror as we have always created, we are a species that keeps moving forward, seeing new sights in new ways, and enjoying the journey. ~Martha Beck

Focus on the journey, not the destination.  Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.  ~Greg Anderson

Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your journey, but strive for the mark set before you. ~George Whitefield

Upcoming Schedule

Jan 24th
Janice
Aimee
Tyree

Jan 31st
Janice
Tyree (if no one else)
Aimee

Feb 7th
Nick (1 or 2)
Tyree (if no one else)
Open slot

Feb 14th
Open Slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

The Noble Pen for Jan 17, 2013

Newsletters

Next Noble Pen Meeting

January 17th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Barnes and Noble had disappointing holiday sales, and Nook sales dropped.

Ebooks aren’t the only category that are being pirated: in India a lot of hard copy books are, too.

See one humorous vision of the future of reading devices.

Victories

Tyree has done more writing since mid November than in the prior year.  Wolf and Nyx4 are each at 13k words.  At the Memphis ShadowCon he was solicited by two publishers for stories.

Nick wrote a chapter of the second book in his planned trilogy and edited corrections to Knight.

Aimee got her computer back so she can write again.

Education

Here’s something on the care and feeding of authors,  for those around you.

Need to find more ideas for your stories? Here are some ways to find them, suggested by Writer’s Digest.

A newly published author tells the story of how she found an agent.  It sounds like she had a very good manuscript but it still took a while to make the right connections.

Upcoming Schedule

Jan 17th

Nick
Tyree
Jed

Jan 24th

Janice
Aimee
Tyree (if no one else)

Jan 31st

Janice
Tyree (if no one else)
Open slot

Feb 7th

Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

The Noble Pen for Jan 10, 2013

Newsletters

Next Noble Pen Meeting

January 10th, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Since I don’t know any writing-related news, consider a stretch of the imagination by that imaginative guy at xkcd.  It helps to look at things differently now and then.  And who knows?  Might the Romulans or the Xorgeins make it happen?

Victories

Nick bought word processing software for a new computer and has vowed to learn how to use its features.  He has started writing with it.

Dylan survived a difficult slice of life.  Despite the tribulations he submitted a story that was rejected for not having the required POV, and submitted another to a new magazine.

Ciuin is done with her school-break job and can write again.

Education

Writer’s Digest offers advice on collecting story ideas , on receiving critiques, and on picking beta readers.

Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a person’s growth without destroying his roots. ~Frank A. Clark

I do think the patriotic thing to do is to critique my country. How else do you make a country better but by pointing out its flaws?  ~Bill Maher

It is easier to be critical than correct. ~Benjamin Disraeli

Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing. ~Aristotle

Upcoming Schedule

Jan 10th

Tyree
Nick
Ciuin

Jan 17th

Nick
Tyree
Jed

Jan 24th

Janice
Aimee
Jed (?)

Jan 31st

Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

The Noble Pen for Jan 3, 2013

Newsletters

Next Noble Pen Meeting

January 3rd, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Welcome to Jed, who found the group.

Victories

Janice is researching steampunk.

Ciuin is proofing a 60-page document for her editor.  And she has made up her 2013 reading list.

Education

What’s in a name?  Writer’s Digest offers some rules for picking the names of your characters.  Cynthia VanRooy give some more advice on names.  Scott Nicholson has more on the subject.  And while we’re thinking of names, consider whether you need all those characters to be named and developed.

Each generation wants new symbols, new people, new names. They want to divorce themselves from their predecessors. ~Jim Morrison

Names are not always what they seem.” ~Mark Twain

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. ~John F. Kennedy

It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to. ~W.C. Fields

I call everyone ‘Darling’ because I can’t remember their names. ~Zsa Zsa Gabor

Upcoming Schedule

Jan 3rd

Nick (double slot)
Ciuin

Jan 10th

Tyree
Nick
Ciuin (?)

Jan 17th

Nick
Tyree
Open slot

Jan 24th

Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

The Noble Pen for Dec 27, 2012

Newsletters

Next Noble Pen Meeting

December 27th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The schedule has been shifted to deal with the missed meeting.  Apologies to Nick for assuming he would miss a 4th Thursday when now I understand that is not the case, but I’m going to stick with my first attempt.  That means you already have Janice and Tyree’s material and only need Ciuin to send hers.

-*-

Small bookstores seem to be holding up despite the attention on e-books, according to this NY Times article.

Ever been confused by all the variations on pasta?  Now there is a book describing over 200 of the shapes, complete with mathematical formulae for the shapes.  Just the gift for the technogeek/foodie in your life?

Victories

We survived a blizzard and the Mayan version of Y2K this past week, and escaped with only a messed-up schedule.

Education

With the hoopla about the end of the Mayan calendar, we’ll have some thoughts on endings.

Writer’s Digest gives some advice on the ending of your novel.

It’s important to get it right.  Remember, Hemingway wrote 39 endings to Farewell to Arms.

Discovering the ‘impossible’ ending to a new book makes me sick with joy and relief. ~Chuck Palahniuk

If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story. ~Orson Welles

It isn’t necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice. There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia. ~Frank Zappa

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 27th

Tyree
Janice
Ciuin

Jan 3rd

Nick
Ciuin
Open slot

Jan 10th

Tyree
Nick
Open slot

Jan 17th

Nick
Open slots

Jan 24th

Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

The Noble Pen for December 20, 2012

Newsletters

Next Noble Pen Meeting

December 20th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The NY Times released their list of 100 Notable Books of 2012.  And at the end of November with 1/12 of the year left to go, even.

Victories

Ciuin is on school break and has lots of time for writing and reading (and movies).  She finished reading a book this week and thereby has met her goal of 10 for the year.

Tyree is turning Sams Dot over to the White Cat people and will have more time for writing.

Education

Jennifer R. Hubbard writes about balancing supporting characters and their subplots against the main plot.  They can make a story more interesting, but can also get in the way.

Mary Lynn Mercer says you shouldn’t have too many subplots, and they should connect to the main story.  She has other good points to make.

Lee Masterson recommends using some subplots, and Kristin Bair O’Keefe gives seven specific things that subplots should do.

I think books with weak or translucent plots can survive if the character being drawn along the path is rich, interesting and multifaceted. The opposite is not true.  ~Michael Connelly

There’s that old adage about how there’s only seven plots in the world and Shakespeare’s done them all before.  ~Terri Windling

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 20th

Tyree
Janice
Nick

Dec 27th

Ciuin
Tyree
Open slot

Jan 3rd

Nick
Ciuin
Open slot

Jan 10th

Open slots

Jan 17th

Nick
Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

The Noble Pen for Dec 13, 2012

Newsletters

Next Noble Pen Meeting

December 13th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Amazon announces their 2013 Breakthrough Novel contest for manuscripts of 50,000 to 150,000 words.  Submissions must be made between January 14 and 27, following detailed rules for the submission process.  Big rewards for the winners.  There are five categories this time, and some of them will fill up fast.

Victories

Dylan got fan mail – someone liked his serial and sent him a water color portrait of one of the characters.  He also got another commission.

Ciuin is getting a good grade for the semester (maybe an A) in Journalism class, and got a nice dedication and autograph from the professor on her copy of his book.

Education

It’s all in how you look at it.  A good writer can describe the same thing in multiple ways to suit the mood.  Heinlein has a famous quote that goes something like, “Which would you rather have? A nice, thick, juicy, tender medium-rare grilled steak-or a scorched piece of bloody muscle tissue from the corpse of an immature castrated bull?’  Restaurant menus are loaded with positive words, often irrelevant ones.  Tom Sawyer was able to favorably describe his fence painting chore.

Writer’s Digest has a series called “Reject a Hit” where successful novels are described in negative terms.  Some of the articles are amusing, but also say something about how literary expectations have changed over time.  A Christmas Carol is rejected, as are Romeo and Juliet (he didn’t even check her pulse), Frankenstein (no tie-in market for dolls),  Harry Potter (too long, and dorky character), and my favorite: Cat in the Hat (kids allow a stranger into house.  The postscript rhyme is great.)

This Wizard of Oz synopsis by Rick Polito of the Marin Independent Journal is famous: “Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again.”

Someone once described Frankenstein as:  Scientific advancement proves unpopular with general public, scientist regrets helping the handicapped.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is: Deformed character is humiliated and exiled, then exploited by old man.

Dr. Who: Homeless eccentric transports young women away in phone booth.

Green Eggs and Ham: Deranged stalker forces unnatural food upon terrified children, brainwashes them into acceptance.

You might want to see if you can recognize these other accurate but warpedviewpoints on famous movies.“Description is what makes the reader a sensory participant in the story. Good description is a learned skill,one of the prime reasons you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot. It’s not just a question of how-to, you see; it’s a question of how much to. Reading will help you answer how much, and only reams of writing will help you with the how. You can learn only by doing.” ~Stephen King, On Writing

“Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.” ~Winston Churchill

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 13th
(Note other large group at restaurant, we squeeze in corner.)

Ciuin
Tyree
Aimee

Dec 20th

Tyree
Janice
Nick

Dec 27th

Ciuin
Open slots

Jan 3rd

Open slots

Jan 10th

Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill