a bridge to the quiet planet

A Bridge To The Quiet Planet Is Out!

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

It’s out – A Bridge To The Quiet Planet, my somewhat sarcastic techno-fantasy tale of people living in a post-post-apocalyptic world of magic, gods, and technology.  With the world stable, the worst thing you could do is mess it up . . .

. . . and our protagonists manage to put themselves into deep danger of doing that.

You can find the eBook at Amazon right now, and I’m planning to do other formats later.  Print will probably come in a month to month and a half (experimenting with proper formatting and the holidays keep me busy)

So hang on, and join over-organized sorceress Marigold Rel-Domau, enthusiastic field technic Scintilla Ferr-Orbil, and the Reverend Beacon Rindle on their adventures.

Steven Savage

Steve’s Update 12/2/2018

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

Hey gang, hope you’re well.  So let’s see where we are!

So what have I done the last week(s)?

  • A Bridge To The Quiet Planet: EDITING IS DONE!  So next up is formatting and publishing, which should happen in about a week!  Hang in there, it’s coming!
  • Way With Worlds: I’ve gone through some of the edits on the Organization book, and there’s actually not a lot of problems (I think working on the novel helped).
  • Seventh Sanctum: I started a new generator!  It’s very topical.  Hang in there . . .
  • Other: Mostly catching up with stuff.

What’s next?

  • A Bridge To The Quiet Planet: Publishing!  It’s all ready to go, so it’s just a matter of converting, loading, a bit of social media, and then  . . . well, then it’s print formatting.
  • Way With Worlds: Not sure here, depending on how things go I can run some edits, but I want the novel and new generator out.  But it looks quite promising this’ll drop in December.
  • Seventh Sanctum: I’ll be dropping the new generator!  Stay tuned as I get back into the swing!  I may even update the resources!
  • General Stuff: Right now focusing on the above.  I want to clear my plate for the holidays!

Steven Savage

The Editing Challenge Of Forever

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

I’ve been busy editing A Bridge To The Quiet Planet lately.  And it struck me that editing is a strange thing as it’s never truly done.

First, you have mistakes you may want to catch.  Those are easy to find with modern tools, but finding all of them takes a great deal of effort.  You can worry over and over you may have missed something.

Secondly, you have those non-mistakes but choices you question.  This word or that?  This style or that?  Is this take a bit archaic?  These aren’t mistakes, but are questions of best choices.

Third, you just have all those things you could tweak.  Cut this scene?  Different opening? Is this still timely?

Editing is never done.  Ever, because you can always find new ways to do things, find new problems, miss something and look for it.  Worse, if you make some edits, you might have made new mistakes to worry about!

It’s a lot like coding, only your book runs in the brains of your readers, and each reader is different.

At some point you just have to stop editing.  At some point you have to declare done.  At some point you have to move on, or you’ll go crazy.  You have to stop editing.

I found the best way to do this is to set a standard for yourself.  Do X readthroughs.  Run a grammar/spell check at particular times.  Then, go on.

Go on, edit, but give yourself a break.

BONUS: An idea I got from Serdar is that, when you’re done, do a bounty on mistakes in your book.  Not only is that a great idea to get people to participate, it gives you a way to relax a bit . . .

 

Steven Savage