Update

Steve’s Update 6/5/2017

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

It’s my weekly Scrum style standup for the audience – and you’ll notice it’s now Monday.  This is because yes, the week starts Sunday but those updates kind of invited me to move more week stuff into my weekend.  So now updates are Monday..

And now on to what’s up!

What’s Up For The June Sprint?

  • First, Way With Worlds Minibook #1 will drop eom.
  • Speaking at Hydra Comic Con.
  • Finishing the full plot outline and writing the first chapter of “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet” hopefully.
  • Donating some books to libraries.
  • A few social events.

So what have I done the last week?

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #5:  Got behind on this, trying to get back to it.  I think I’m kinda of tired writing these, so maybe book #6 just needs to be done in one go.
  • Social: Finished up Fanime.
  • Her Eternal Moonlight: The sale completed!
  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet:” I think I’m back on track.  I’ve got an expanded plot outline done more or less on time.

What am I going to do this week:

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #5:  Try to, well . . . write for it.
  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet:” I’m going to finish up the full plot outline – scene for scene – this weekend.  This is the big one.  If I can get this to work I’m ready to write.  Not 100% sure I’ll do it, but let’s give it a shot!
  • Writing: More blog posts – now alternating my agile findings and my writing experiences.

Challenges and blockers:

  • My allergies are back, so we’ll see how bad that hits me.
  • I realized I’ve not done any new generators – I might shift some priorities to do a fun one.

– Steve

Steve’s Update 5/28

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

It’s my weekly Scrum style standup for the audience.  Which is you.

This week saw a lot of stuff with fanime, so let’s get to what’s up?

So what have I done the last week?

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #5:  As usual, writing.
  • Social: Fanime has gone great, seeing people, having fun.  And yes, I budgeted time for it – to make sure I relaxed.
  • Speaking: Spoke at Fanime, it went great!  Think the self-publishing panel needs to be broken up into several panels there’s so much to cover.
  • Cosplay: I was Doctor Oobleck, and it was a lot of fun!
  • Her Eternal Moonlight: The sale is on of course!  Which you probably saw in my announcements!
  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet:” Still a bit behind on this I’m afraid, mostly because I have to keep “extracting” myself from ideas I locked myself into during that failed first plotting.  Imagine it like building the foundation of a house and finding you still had some stones you laid while redesigning it.

What am I going to do this week:

  • Plan New Sprint for June: That gets done Wednesday or so.  Targets for June are releasing the first Minibook, speaking at Hydra-Con, finishing the “Bridge To The Quiet Planet” plot outline and writing the first chapter (again, hopefully).
  • Way With Worlds Minibook #5:  Well, uh . . . writing.  So as you guessed I’m doing a few bits each week or so.
  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet:” I’m going to at least get the character designs fully fleshed out and get the plot outline further along – at least to a few paragraphs if not a few pages.
  • Writing: I’m going to keep doing my Agile blog posts, but I think I’m going to start posting on my findings in writing – that experience of doing a major fiction project again is pretty informative.
  • Newsletter: A new newsletter comes out this Wednesday!  I also have to get all the new signups for my newsletter into the database!

Challenges and blockers:

  • Mostly challenges to do fiction writing again, I don’t quite have a sense of how long things take restored.  But hey live and learn.  This will improve in time – and I get to post my lessons.
  • There may be some challenges with training at work and some changes taking up time, so fair warning things might get delayed.

– Steve

Steve’s Update 5/14/2017

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

And it’s time for another  Scrum style standup!  What am I up to?

Well bluntly this week also was nuts, with assorted work events, a friend having health concerns (resolved) and of course occasional allergies.  It’s not been the greatest week – but Agile method are about adapting.  So where are we?

So what have I done the last week?

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #1: Back from the editor, looks good, she kicked butt.  I’ll probably go into it sometime in the near future – but I’m not scheduled to until next month.
  • Way With Worlds Minibook #5: Still writing, and on schedule here.  Not much more to say.
  • Seventh Sanctum Spotlight: This keeps just being interrupted, and I’ve not had that great a response.  I’m going to try and get back to it, but may just delay until next month.
  • Marketing: I’m trying Amazon Marketing Services ads and have a bunch set up.  I think they might be working but it’s hard to tell.  I have no direct sales but had a spike in sales anyway.  I also am placing flyers around town in various locations, but am not 100% sure what’s working and what isn’t.
  • Seventh Sanctum General: Figured what to do with the Tumblr and planned that out.  And yes, you’ll have to wait!
  • Professional: Yet another professional meetup which was great.
  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet:” You’ll probably see an entire post about this, but I ended up having to stop plotting it – it wasn’t coming together well.  Short form was it was a mix of being rusty, of mis-applying techniques, and not breaking down the work.  I restarted plotting it and it’s coming along great once I applied a bit more planning to the whole affair.  You’ll probably see a post on it – but short form is that I won’t work on Chapter #1 until next month.

What am I going to do this week:

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #5:  Write more of course.
  • Professional: One professional event this week.
  • Social: My girlfriend’s birthday and a book club this week.
  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet:” I’ll be finishing up some plot outlining and going over character story arcs.
  • Newsletter: Get my newsletter out this week.
  • General: I’ll may do some fanime preparation

Challenges and blockers:

  • Continuing allergies and various interruptions have me a bit concerned.  I might strip down some plans.

 

This week taught me a lot about adapting.  I cancelled writing a chapter to have time to actually develop the book outline.  I was willing to cancel a marketing idea because, simply, I needed the proper “mood” to do it.  I also caught a few missing things and got on top of them fast.  It’s likely I overplanned this month a bit, but hey live and learn!

– Steve