Advice

Make It So: Cosplay And Health

by

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

(Here’s a series I haven’t touched in awhile.)

At Con-Volution I got into a fascinating discussion with a cosplayer on how complicated outfits were.  This led to the usual discussion of “how the hell do you go to the bathroom.”  That, fortunately led to a productive discussion, and one I want to cover.

Conventions should do a panel on Healthy Cosplay.

What do I mean?  Think about all the challenges that cosplay involves – eating food, tightness, maneuverability, going to the bathroom.  I’ve heard many horror stories from cosplayers about their experiences.  You know even experienced ones are surprising themselves.  So I think most any con with a cosplay presence should have a panel on Healthy Cosplay – and if your con is about Cosplay, this should already be there.

I’ve seen a few panels like this, but after our discussion I realized how many subjects there are to cover.  So I want to toss out this idea to encourage you to do this.

Imagine panels covering things like:

  • Well, how to go to the bathroom.  Please include gender differences.
  • Bindings, corsets, and tightness – breathing is important as is circulation.
  • Eating and drinking.  Can you get nutrition and more importantly fluid easily?
  • Visibility.  How do you make something you can see in?
  • Safe mobility.  It’s not easy to maneuver, and in some cases this can be dangerous.
  • Common allergies to materials.
  • Ventilation and temperature.  I’m in California, trust me.

There’s a lot of ways to do this but I would encourage any group that does this to make sure it has:

  • Handouts.
  • Online references.
  • Perhaps a free ebook.

if I can spend ten minutes in a discussion on cosplay and using the bathroom, you know there’s an audience for this.  Maybe we don’t talk about such things as much as we should, but . . . let’s Make It So.

 

– Steve

A Writer’s View: System Thinking

by

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

This Tweet got me thinking:

Neat idea for a creative person, right?  Tracking their creative stages?  It’s a good example of a creative person finding a way to work with their inspiration and habits.  It’s a system.

Good creatives, successful creatives, have systems.  You can hear about the Snowflake Method, or the “X Habits of Whatever,” or endless ideas of how to write novels, or best ways to do art.  You doubtlessly have your own way of organizing your creativity – even if you’re not aware of it.  For all our raging imaginations, it seems we creative people often make ways to organize that fire that burns inside of us.

There are several reasons we do this – reasons we’re not always aware of, but by bringing it into awareness I hope it helps you make your own.

We organize our creativity to ensure things get done.  Being creative is nice, but if there’s no end result, there’s little point unless you’re doing something freeform.

We organize our creativity to provide focus.  So we make sure we don’t loose track, so we can bring projects to completion, so we don’t start anything new.

We organize our creativity to speed time to completion.  We get structure and organization, milestones and ways to track progress – so that creative dream sees the light of day.

We organize our creativity to embody our principles.  We take ideas of what matters, our mad methods, our special tricks and make them formal so we can use them that much easier.

Finally, an an oft missed benefit, is that by organizing our creativity we can find ways to improve.  When you build a system of ideas, of tracking, of documenting you can use that to find new ways to do better.  That organization of imagination can inspire you to think up new ways to get better.

So, go on, take a look at your creativity.  What systems and methods do you have?  What could you build?  How can you provide enough structure to your dreaming to make you dream better?

 

(Remember I do all sorts of books on creativity to help you out!)

– Steve

A Writer’s View: Pitches And Product

by

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

Lately Serdar was commenting on the use of pitches in our writing.  I tend to love making them, and he calls out my current work, “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet” which I summed up as “A sorceress, an engineer, and a priest on a planet-hopping road trip with the owner of a mysterious collection of holy books.”  As amusing as such pitches/summarites seem, they’re actually powerful tools for writing – not just marketing.

The way I use pitches/summaries comes from a mix of my own research into resumes (which are a kind of writing), Agile Product Ownership, the theories of Joel Orr, and the must-read Snowflake method.  They’re not just a way to sell your book – they’re a way to help you write your book.   Stick with me here – let me walk you through an exercise.

Go and take a communications project and sum it up in one sentence.  Such as:

  • Superintelligent whales end up in a religious war over the controversial theory they were created by beings called “humans.”
  • A no-nonsense guide to building your writing career by setting, measuring, and meeting goals.
  • A song parodying internet memes by calling out as many as possible in alphabetical order.

OK, we’ve got three summaries – which are also pitches.  I’m sure at least one might interest you and one might horrify you, but let’s go on.

Now, imagine someone doing any of the above projects takes the summary and then begins to outline the project, figuring what’s really going on in it.  That pitch, summary, acts as a seed and gives you something to aim for – and also an idea of what the boundaries of the project are.  The summary helps you focus (or in some cases, realize the summary is bunk and start over).

But, somewhere in that outline, you may find the summary should change a bit.  The deeper you get in touch with the work, the more you find that one sentence may not communicate it.  So, perhaps you change it.  The summary defined the goal, the work on the project made you rethink it slightly, and so on.

  • Superintelligent whales disagree over the theory they were created by “humans,” which plunges them into a species-threatening religious war with an unsure outcome. (Changed because it gives a better idea of the plot).
  • A practical, step-by-step guide to a writing career with measurable goals and milestones that anyone can use. (Changed as it focuses the goal more)
  • An electronica song that parodies the most enduring internet memes – in alphabetical order. (Describes better, more clear goals).

It’s a dialogue. You have a summary, then an outline, which may influence each other.  Then as you flesh out your work you may change the outline, or the summary, and vice versa.  The ability to write summaries and pitches gives you the ability to create a dialogue among all levels of your work so they stay coherent – because it all comes back to making sure the summary is accurate.

If you can get an idea of what your work is about on all the different levels, from a summary to a scene, from character arc to story arc, you have a much better idea of what’s going on.  In turn, you’ll make a better work because all your work, at all levels, keeps reinforcing what you’re doing.

Plus you get a great sales pitch that’s been well-honed!

 

(Remember I do all sorts of books on creativity to help you out!)

– Steve