a bridge to the quiet planet

Steve’s Update 11/13/2017

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

It’s my weekly Scrum style standup for my audience, so what’s up?

So what have I done the last weeks?

  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet”: I am now into Chapter 12 and am planning to blitz on this to try and get the draft done by EOY.  Frankly I think I have to ram through it.  Chapter 11 did not get deployed yet, just got busy.
  • Way With Worlds Minibook #6: Is done and off to editor this week!
  • Giveaway: Food, Culture, and Worldbuilding is free this week to celebrate NaNoWriMo
  • Other Stuff: Mostly just chores and some career planning.

What am I going to do this week:

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #6: Get it to the editor!
  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet:” Deploy Chapter 11 – which will be the last one to go out before I buckle down.  Then i buckle down.
  • Other Stuff: Lots of book, professional and speaking events.  Also planning Thanksgiving!

General

  • The attempt to write more is working really well – if I keep this pace up I’ll have written nearly 50K words.  Which is good for uh . . . not doing NaNoWriMo.

– Steve

A Writer’s Life: Space

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

This month I’m trying to write at least 24,000 words, preferably 30,000.  This isn’t due to any NaNoWriMo thing, it’s a personal challenge to up my productivity.  In setting this goal, I ran into a problem.

I’d set aside time to write, but it felt constrained.  A punishment, a forced duty.

Yet when I’d get writing, I’d often enjoy it.  I find that even when you don’t want to write, doing it for five minutes usually unblocks you.  Besides, even if you hate it, you’re going to edit it later, so might as well enjoy half-baked crap as you make it.

At this point I knew my “ugh, time to write” reaction was irrational.  So I set about thinking of how I could “re-imagine” that writing time to make me see it in a positive light.  Not so much tricking myself, but more how to take a better attitude.

At the same time, I was also discussing the concept of “Pull” in Kanban, and Agile methodology.  So you can guess this is another one of my Agile/Writing posts.

Anyway, the idea in Kanban is you only work on something when you have space to do it – then you “Pull.”  It’s the opposite of “Pushing” work.  If you’re blocked up, you don’t Pull in new work, you focus on getting things moving.  If you can’t get anything moving because of other people, go do something else like take a class or get a coffee once you’re done yelling at them

It sounds weird, but then you realize that Kanban gives you “space” to work.  “Space” to take tasks on when you’re ready.  It’s very much like my earlier thoughts on the subject.

That’s when I realized that setting aside writing time was not making myself write – it was setting aside Space to write.  That 30 minutes or 60 minutes where I’m clear to write.

This changed my mindset (for the most part).  It felt less constrained, less forced, less trapped.  Sometimes it even felt amazing – “a whole hour to write, wow!”  Oh sure I still get those moments of feeling I’m forcing myself, but they’re diminished – and I can rethink that time as “space” and reduce the feelings.

Let’s see if this gets even better over time, but it’s certainly helped already.

– Steve

Steve’s Update 11/5/2017

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

It’s my weekly Scrum style standup for my audience, so what’s up?

So what have I done the last weeks?

  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet”: Chapter 11 is done.
  • Way With Worlds Minibook #6: is just under 80% done, though it also will need a good edit.
  • Sales: To celebrate NaNoWriMo coming up Way With Worlds Book 2 is on sale this week!
  • Other Stuff: Mostly chores and other things.  Months end and month’s start and all.

What am I going to do this week:

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #6: Get it done and hopefully give it a good edit.
  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet:” Edit chapter 11 and keep writing.  I want to try to up my writing speed on this.
  • Blog Posts: I’ve got some blogging I want to get done, new insights to share!
  • Other: I’m planning my holidays and may do a Rifftrax event.  Also need to work on some blog posts.

General

  • One thing I am working on is to up my writing (note, not for NaNo, I have so much going on I don’t participate). The goal was at least 24K a month on “works”, but 30K if I can make it.  That doesn’t count blog posts (unless they’re going in a larger work).  So far I’m managing about 1.7K a day!

– Steve