Steven Savage's Blog, page 72

Civic Geek: Grinding On

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

Keeping up on the Civic Geekery here – or what I’m doing to be more of a citizen.  Posting this, of course, to inspire people.

One thing I found is that you can get “Samey” with what you do – I noted last time I got a bit disconnected.  So what I’ve done here is take a look at one group I’m helping and say “we’re kinda in a rut, what can I do?”  To get a meeting together.  Remember when being active, you can engage and improve...

A Writer’s View: Cover Me

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr – and hey, think this should go on the Sanctum too?)

I’ve been talking about some pretty deep subjects lately, so let’s mind back to a simple, practical one.  Covers.

No, really.

I always feel book covers are a weird subject to discuss because they are A) Important, B) Transitory, and C) Sometimes done horribly.  You need a cover to get attention, that someone will look at for five seconds, yet if you do it wrong it’ll really k...

My Agile Life: That Glorious Flow

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s LinkedIn, and Steve’s Tumblr)

(My continuing “Agile Life” column, where I use Scrum for a more balanced and productive life continues).

I’m using Scrum to help order my own life. It’s going pretty well, and one of the things that helps is ease of communication, because most of my communication is with me. That’s the Agile ideal of regular, personal communications among team members made easier by me being pretty much the team.  Communica...

Steve’s Update 7/17/2017

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

It’s my weekly Scrum style standup for my audience, so where am I?

So what have I done the last week? Way With Worlds Minibook #2: Edited and ready for publication.  Had a bit of a delay, did a screwy search-and-replace I had to fix.  ugh. Way With Worlds Minibooks (General): Sent them to the editor! “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet”: Chapters #3 is in beta and needs to be edited.  Debating if I do that...

A Writer’s View: The Best Is Both

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr – and hey, think this should go on the Sanctum too?)

In our semi-dialogue on writing, Serdar notes this over at Genjipress:

I’ve long felt that the best stories stood out not because they had the cleverest plots, but because they made the most compelling and thoughtful use of their material . . .

This brought me back to my concerns about complexity and simplicity in stories.  This is something I’ve wrestled with in my own ficti...

My Agile Life: Agile Relaxation Your Relaxation

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s LinkedIn, and Steve’s Tumblr)

(My continuing “Agile Life” column, where I use Scrum for a more balanced and productive life continues).

I’ve put a lot of time here discussing agile techniques and mindsets for productivity.  But, let’s discuss relaxing and how it applies to an Agile Life.

Relaxing?  Having fun?  Yes, these are part of your life, so you’re going to have to figure how to handle them.  If you don’t, then you’ll either be les...

Steve’s Update 7/10/2017

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

It’s my weekly Scrum style standup for my audience – and I forgot last weeks with the holiday.  It got a bit crazy, but in a good way.  So let’s get back to it!

First of all goals for this sprint, July:

Publish Way With Worlds Minibook #2: This’ll be on Magic and Technology. Write more of “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet:” I’m starting to pace myself by writing scenes, with so many scenes (8-9) roughly e...

A Writer’s View: Complexity And Convolution

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr – and hey, think this should go on the Sanctum too?)

Working on “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet” is interesting as in some ways it’s very complex, a tale of a world of science and sorcery that survived a world-shaking war, and the lives of those centuries after the trauma.  In other way’s its simple – it’s a heist/chase story that goes Cohen Brothers, just with a sarcastic sorceress and a disreputable used bookseller.

Complexity...

My Agile Life: A Quick Review

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s LinkedIn, and Steve’s Tumblr)

(My continuing “Agile Life” column, where I use Scrum for a more balanced and productive life continues).

I’ve been using Agile to have a more productive life, and it’s been pretty great. So to help you out (and help me organize my thoughts) here’s what I currently do. I think I’ll do these roundups every few months, so you can try the latest iteration of my system, and I get better at sharing.

First out, wh...

A Writer’s View: Snowflaking, Agile, Philosophy

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr – and hey, think this should go on the Sanctum too?)

As mentioned earlier, The Snowflake Method really jumpstarted my return to writing with my new novel “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet.” It was a smart, mature take on writing that gelled both with my techniques and with Agile.

The basic idea is iteratively detailing your work. A story starts as a sentence, becomes a paragraph, becomes several paragraphs, and eventually becomes a...