Writing

Meet My Next Book: (Not Quite) The Same As The Old Book

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FTPV2WebAnd my next book is out.

Introducing Fan To Pro’s second edition: “Fan To Pro: Leveling Up Your Career Through Your Hobbies.”

This is a huge update of the original book (which, yes, is going out of print). Huge chunks were rewritten or expanded. A lot of new information gained over the four (!) years since I wrote it were included. Resources were updated. Chapters were newly organized and categories, and helpful checklists were added. Bigger, more focused, and going into more depth than it’s predecessor, it’s my way to help you in your geek careers.

Frankly, I think it’s one of the best things I’ve written. I really had to think it over, restructure my advice, apply knowledge, and question myself. I’m glad it’s done so people can use it to advance their careers – especially in this not-so-hot economy.

(Come to think of it, it was not-so-hot when I wrote the first book. Which is one reason some of my current writing focuses on Geek Citizenship since we got bigger problems).

The best part of it, in my opinion, is how the book is organized. Each chapter sums up what you’re going to learn, follows that rough pattern, then gives you a list of takeaways and resources/next steps. Each chapter is almost standalone, and I think it’ll let people take away the right lessons and apply them. I’m very curious how these lessons can be applied in other writing – and some of it has found its way into my current blogging.

So go on, take a look, spread the word, pester me for a review copy, and enjoy. I hope it helps you and yours in the years to come.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Way With Worlds: Finding Inspiration

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Viewing Device

[Way With Worlds appears at Seventh Sanctum, MuseHack, and Ongoing Worlds]

We’ve all had those moments where we’re just not inspired to build our world – or in writing in general. Other times we’re inspired but it’s actually not coming together, which is somehow worse. I imagine many a writer feels they exist inside a permanent form of writer’s block from which they escape only momentarily until their lack of creative forces drag them back to their prison.

With “World Blockage” it’s exceptionally daunting because worldbuilding is a complex process. A single idea or clever exercise may not spawn new continents or languages. An hour of effort may yield little results because the parts just won’t come together. It’s just as maddening as writer’s block, and you need something to jumpstart it.

You need inspiration – inspiration to build worlds.

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Way With Worlds: Pyramids of Power

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Classic Pyramids

[Way With Worlds appears at Seventh Sanctum and at MuseHack]

Have you ever read a story and things just seemed to work . . . wrong?

  • The hero defeats one guy and then the world is safe, the Evil Army is destroyed, he gets the girl, and his chin is still awesome?
  • The superpowered alien who somehow manages to release massive, colorful, well-animated attacks that just well . . . have no side effects, no source, and no real explanation?  I mean how do you release a “gravity buster” without messing up everything but the guy you aimed it at?
  • The villain who’s massive, connected, complex plot works perfectly while in the real world you aren’t even sure the game you’re working on will ship without a day one patch and an apology?

You know that feeling. Things happen easily in stories and games – too easily. Cause and effect apparently are having a trial separation and you worry they’re going to get a divorce before the book ends.. Simple actions have massive and unwarranted repercussions. We snicker, we laugh, we roll our eyes – and we’re out of the world because things just work wrong.

A lot of world building is about Power, in the non-Machiavellian sense.  It is about how something gets a result, and when you don’t make it work right in your world, then your world is no longer “real.”

Power, from super attacks to a clever cutting comment, done wrong makes a world unbelievable. If you’re building a setting, writing in a setting, you want to make sure that you don’t trip people up so they stumble out of your world. In building your world, you have to get the power of things, of people and weapons and comments and plans, right or the world is back to being words on paper or pixels in a game.

Fortunately I have a rule for getting it right. I call it the Pyramid Of Power. Which is a useful rule, and not the place Kephr-Ra, The Never-Dying, hid the Staff of Omens to keep it from Man-Cat and the Silvermasters.

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