Next Noble Pen Meeting

July 12th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Do people judge a book by its cover?  A publisher is hoping so on the new editions of classic works.

Victories

Tyree’s first steampunk story has been accepted for publication.

Dylan received apologies from two people who had sent complaints on his serial, finding them resolved by the newest chapter.

Chila writes that a book her Port Yonder Press put out for author Ron Miller has won a prestigious Spur Award from the Western Writers of America.

Education

A variety of topics this week.

Rachelle Gardner has advice on picking a title for your book.

Matthew Salesses has some advice on writing and revising that is similar, yet different, from many other lists.

In a forum post “fersnerfer” said:  When people tell you that something bothers them [about your writing], they are almost always right. When they tell you how they think you should fix it, they are almost always wrong.

Here’s a list of places to promote your ebook.

Upcoming Schedule

July 12th

Bill
Ciuin
Jean

July 19th

Shannon
Tyree
Bill

July 26th

Dylan
Ciuin (double if no one desperately needs 3rd slot)

Aug 2nd

Nick
Open slots.

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

July 5th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Are some genres “better” literature than others?  Read Gary Gutting’s opinion.

Fans of Philip K. Dick may appreciate the story of a lost android with his face and a computer programmed to talk like him.

Werewolf and vampire aficionados may like this interview with the author of The Last Werewolf.

By the way, if you exceed your quota of free articles on the NY Times (or other sites), try deleting the six or eight cookies your browser has saved that are associated with that site.

Victories

One of Ian’s students took second place in the national finals of Skills USA.  Ian must write good course material.

Dylan got lots of comments on his serial story.  He got paid for a commission and has another one to write.

Ciuin was asked to write an article for the American Association of Museums on portrayal of Romani, and will present it at the national meeting in November.

Education

It’s time to mention again this good resource on how to begin or advance a writing career.   A large collection of essays deal with the craft, finding ideas, queries, and marketing.

One of those essays tells you why you shouldn’t depend on your spell checker, as useful as it may be at calling your attention to possible problems.   Here’s another such essay.

I don’t know who to credit this to, as it has circulated a lot:

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plain lea marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong or write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose before two long
And eye can put the error rite
It’s rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
am sure your pleased two no
It’s letter prefect all the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

Upcoming Schedule

July 5th

Nick
Ian
Tyree

July 12th

Bill
Ciuin
Jean

July 19th

Shannon
Tyree
Bill

July 26th

Dylan
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

June 28th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Bookstores in France are not feeling as much ressure from ebooks as in other countries.

Penguin Books has agreed to make its ebooks available in NYC public libraries, reversing an earlier stance.

Victories

Tyree is doing more writing lately, as the demands of travel are over for a while.

Kris’s mockup of a book cover was approved, with the restriction that she can’t use real blood like the artist in her novel.

Nick writes that he is in Texas at a rail fan convention.  On a recent day he skipped an uninteresting tour to visit Sommerville, an important junction on the Santa Fe Railroad at one time.  He photographed at least seven trains around that and neighboring towns, and got the numbers of about twenty locomotives by early afternoon.  That counts as a productive day of train spotting.  We hope he finds some time to write while waiting for trains.

Education

To use “that” or not to use “that ?”  That is the question, “which” often bothers us.   Or that is the question that often bothers us.  Journalism professor Malcom Gibson offers these and other editing topics.

He also has one that I’ve never heard discussed: “because of” versus “due to.”  Like I often say, you learn something every day (if you aren’t careful).

“Mike spends at least half an hour every day just sitting there thinking about nothing but the whichness of what.” ~ Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land (and similar quotes in his older stories.)

Upcoming Schedule

June 28th

Bill
Ciuin
Dylan

July 5th

Nick
Ian
Tyree

July 12th

Bill
Tyree?
Open slot

July 19th

Shannon
Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

June 21st, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Google reached an agreement to settle a dispute over their digitization of books in France.

Victories

Dylan finished a 15k word commission at 30k words.  That’s closer than the last one.  He also got another commission.  Unfortunately, Flight was rejected by the big publisher he had hoped would buy it.

Kris gave out beta copies of Oblivion to several readers.  She got paid for cover art for a book.

Ciuin is busily reworking Petty Theft, applying the advice of her teacher.

Education

Writers who get signed to a publisher have a lot of contract terms to understand.  Joe Konrath blogs about some of the gotcha clauses in contracts.

While we’re on legal topics, here’s some discussion for anyone who considers writing fan fiction.

“I wish to be cremated. One tenth of my ashes shall be given to my agent, as written in our contract.” Groucho Marx

Upcoming Schedule

June 21st

Tyree
Bill (double, since no one asked for 3rd slot)

June 28th

Bill
Ciuin
Open slot

July 5th

Nick
Ian
Bill ?

July 12th

Bill
Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

June 14th, 2012 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Some people are finding they don’t have time to prepare for reviews of multiple large submissions.  Recently, we have considered 5,000 to 10,000 words per submission to be normal.  If two or three of those push the maximum, it becomes a chore to read and comment on 25,000 to 30,000 words.  More so if the material isn’t distributed on the weekend.

After some email feedback and a discussion at the meeting, the consensus seems to be that we should lower that to “about 6000” maximum.  If someone has a 7 to 12k story that really needs to be read all at once, or if we need to fill slots, they can request a double slot on one night for a total of not more than 12,500 words.

– – –

Some people have commented “I didn’t go to the meeting because I couldn’t get all the material read.”  Please don’t let that hold you back.  If you can contribute something, the group has benefited and you may have benefited also.  We don’t give failing grades for not doing everything.

 – – –

Author Ray Bradbury died June 5 at age 91.  He wrote The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, and many other stories.  His writing career began in 1938 and continued for decades, with his material being made into films through the last few years.

Victories

Tyree got a glowing review for Nyx 1 on the Amazon site.  He has worked up a plan for Nyx 4.

Education

For homework this week (held over due to low attendance June 7) read Tyree’s article on What Editors Want and, if possible, watch the movie Medicine Man.   Apply these questions from his list to that movie.

-What are the two main characters’ goals (major or minor) and the obstacles?  For example:
Goal: Crane wants a place to sleep when she arrives
Obstacles: Campbell is intoxicated and doesn’t know her or why she is there

-What are the characteristics (foibles) that make them seem human?
Example: Campbell plays with the children

This kind of analysis can show how to make your story much more interesting for readers.

–  –  –

More about commas (Thanks, Shannon).

Fanfare for the Comma Man  discusses historical usage, modern trends, and how even the fussiest style guides disagree.

The Most Comma Mistakes shows us what is definitely wrong, no matter which style guide you prefer.

And finally, a slightly risque cartoon, the Comma Sutra.

Upcoming Schedule

June 14th

Bill
Ciuin
Educational – see above for homework

June 21st

Tyree
Bill
Open slot

June 28th

Open slots

July 5th

Nick (double slot)
Open slot

Keep Writing,

Bill

– – –

Next Noble Pen Meeting

June 7th, 2012 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The controversy over ebook pricing continues.

Victories

Lynda survived a frustrating week in her new publishing job without killing anyone.  That’s her story and she’s sticking to it.  Her rebuttal to Stephen Bloom was published by the Atlantic Monthly and is available from their archive.  (Sorry we weren’t timely in linking that.)

Ciuin already has her next submission done.  Her academic writing has had its ups and downs.  She suspects the down may be from writing more than the instructor wanted.

Tyree has a new story published in Sam’s Dot electronic magazine, Fifth Di.

Education

For homework this week, read Tyree’s article on What Editors Want and if possible, watch the movie Medicine Man.  He is going to relate them as an educational exercise this week and wants us to see the movie first.  Please bring to the meeting a list of the conflicts between the two main characters and a list of the characteristics (foibles) that make them human.

–  –  –

A couple weeks ago we featured tools to help you develop the story.  This week, I have been using Pro Writing Aid, a free on-line proofreading tool.  It will identify over-used words, sentences of monotonously same length or excessive length, cliches, repeated phrases, alliteration, and other things you may want to consider changing.  It also highlights dialog tags so you can see at a glance what you used.

It helped me a lot, but became tedious after I changed the major offenses.  My biggest complaint is that it reports too much.  I even tried a better writer’s material with the same result.  The highlighting of repeated common 2-word phrases, 2-word alliterations, etc. (like “to town” or “an apple”) results in clutter that hides the things I want to find and change.  The homonym finder is a nice idea but appears to have no context sensitivity so you see ALL of them.

Does anyone have comments on similar tools?

–  –  –

“It’s commonplace to nitpick on minor faults. But to actually improve on those minor faults – that’s just tedious.”  ~Benson Bruno

Yesterday Mr. Hall wrote that the printer’s proof-reader was improving my punctuation for me, & I telegraphed orders to have him shot without giving him time to pray. ~Mark Twain 1889

Upcoming Schedule

June 7th

Nick
Tyree (rescheduled material from last week)
Educational: see above for homework

June 14th

Shannon
Bill
Ciuin

June 21st

Tyree
Bill
Open slot

June 28th

Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

May 31st, 2012 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

What is the future of public libraries?  One librarian’s blog doesn’t sound optimistic.

Victories

Dylan finished processing all review session and beta reader feedback on Flight.  He also is getting an autograph from a favorite author, although he won’t be able to attend the Con where the author is presenting.

Shannon re-edited Fangs in one week and has submitted the ultimate last final version for publication.

Education

At the May 24th meeting, we talked about beginning your writing with the ending, using some quotes from random writers who came up in the search engine.  (These quotes are shortened even more than the material at the meeting.)

Jack Riston says:  A successful trip usually starts with a destination … I’m going to suggest that you consider starting your next book with your “destination” … the ending

Denise Hays says:  Once the ending is known, I can back up and figure out the steps my characters need to take to come to that conclusion. Otherwise, I guess I would ramble until eternity.

Donald L. Vasicek says:  How can you create this kind of tension that is so necessary in great drama unless you know where you are going ?

Skye Warren says:  I always know the end.  I am open to it changing, and sometimes it does a little, but never a lot. … The ending is the resolution of the conflict, but what is the conflict?

Our discussion seemed to have a consensus that you need to know the ending, but nobody said they write it first.

– – – – – – – – – – –
Other thoughts:

In the planning stage of a book, don’t plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it. ~Rose Tremain

The opposite of the happy ending is not actually the sad ending–the sad ending is sometimes the happy ending. The opposite of the happy ending is actually the unsatisfying ending. ~Orson Scott Card

Everything has to come to an end, sometime. ~ L. Frank Baum, The Marvelous Land of Oz

There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story. ~ Frank Herbert

Upcoming Schedule

May 31st

Tyree
Shannon
Bill

June 7th

Nick
Bill ?
Open slots

June 14th

Shannon
Bill ?
Open slot

June 21st

Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

May 24th, 2012 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Countering all the publicity about what we can do with electronic communications, a new book called iDisorder  explores what our electronic devices are doing to us.

Publisher’s Weekly is another source of current news in the world of books.

Victories

Tyree finished and submitted a steampunk story that has been on his list to do for a year.

Lynda sold a story that we reviewed a while back to Grain Magazine, the Journal of Eclectic Writing, and will get paid very well at publication.

Dylan got fan mail for his serial story.

Nick finished Part I of a science fiction story.

Education

Some authors find help in writer’s software with more power than a word processor.  Here’s a comparison chart  including PowerWriter,  WriteItNow,  Writer’s DreamKit,  Writer’s Cafe, and others.

These programs, costing $30 to $130 (list price), integrate the functions of outlining or storyboarding, note taking, character sheets, and writing to a much greater degree than word processors like MS Word and WordPerfect.  Some go beyond spelling and thesaurus to offer a full dictionary and even name lists from which to choose characters.  They still do not write the story for you, nor give a reader’s critique.

“A computer, I am told, … will help you write faster, easier, and more…    I have already left behind too much evidence that, writing with a pencil, I have written too fast, too easily, and too much.  I would like to be a better writer, and for that I need help from other humans, not a machine.” ~Wendell Berry

“Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and the Internet is nothing like Shakespeare.” ~(modified from) Blair Houghton

Upcoming Schedule

May 24th

Ciuin
Jean
Bill

May 31st

Tyree
Shannon
Jean

June 7th

Nick
Open slots

June 14th

Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

May 17th, 2012 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

The NY Times is a good source of news about the world of literature. You can read 10 stories per month for free (perhaps more if you delete their cookies).  Some recent stories:

Bloggers, there is hope of becoming famous, even though most don’t.  Here’s one who did.

And to encourage all you writers, here’s a first novel that got big time reviews.

Those interested in the history of technology may like this book about the early development of computers, building on WW II technology.

You never know what is lurking around in some library.  They just found something drawn by Paul Revere.

Victories

Ciuin finished her semester.  With two papers and a five-page essay test, finals are done.  An author asked her to “culturally edit” a book, but is afraid there won’t be much left after she gets done taking out the misrepresentations.

Dylan has Casting Call available for Kindle from Amazon, free through Friday, with other formats to be available.  He needs more reviews.  He must have been bored the other day because he calculated his lifetime total writing output, and got 1.7 million words.

Shannon served on panels and did a reading from Minion of Evil at DemiCon, but got the flu.  That’s better than getting attacked like his characters do.

Tyree sold another short story and has one nearly done.

Education

Author Nathan Bransford asks how long it takes to finish writing a draft of a novel and gets a wide variety of answers.  He says it takes him six to eight months, and then three or four to edit it.  People vary a lot on time to finish ediing, too.

We rate ability in men by what they finish, not by what they attempt. ~Donald Kircher or Harry Banks

All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one… characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers.  ~Henry David Thoreau

My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start.  So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M&M’s and a chocolate cake. I feel better already. ~ Dave Barry

Upcoming Schedule

May 17th

Shannon
Tyree
Nick

May 24th

Ciuin
Jean
Open slot

May 31st

Open slots

June 7th
Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill