update

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

Steve’s Update 5/7/2017

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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!  OK it’s weekly, and I prefer them daily but that’s a bit much.

First a note – I had a nasty allergy attack around Thursday which held a few things up.  I’m overall on time/ahead of my plans but it was annoying

So what have I done the last week?

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #1: Editor had a bit of a delay, so I expect to get things in a few days.
  • Way With Worlds Minibook #5: Got actually 10 questions written.  I find more and more these are best written in large amounts.
  • Way With Worlds Marketing: The bookmarks came.  They are awesome.  Let me strongly recommend Club Flyers.
  • Seventh Sanctum Spotlight: I held off on this when some allergies hit.  I’ll probably start them off in a week or so.
  • Professional: Two professional meetups, they were awesome.  I really enjoy the “Agile Crowd” here in the valley.
  • Social: Bad movie event was great.  We saw “Mac And Me” which was hideous, but before that watched “Misfits” which was good.
  • “A Bridge To The Silent Planet:” A bit harder than I expected.  It’s about 1/4 plotted with some outlines out to the end.  It’s becoming a bit more of a small novel – neither a doorstop nor a novella.  Which I realized is what I want.  However it’s a bit hard to shake the rust off so its’ slower than I wanted – and the allergies didn’t help.

What am I going to do this week:

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #5:  Write more of course.
  • Seventh Sanctum Spotlight: May or may not do this.
  • Professional: One professional event this week.
  • Social: Got a barbecue and otherwise will work on creative projects.
  • “A Bridge To The Silent Planet:” I plan to finish the plot outline this week.
  • General: Some basic chores and such.

Challenges and blockers:

  • The allergies hit hard.  I might delay a few things unless these clear up in the next day two.  Expect a possible “revised sprint.”

– Steve

Steve’s Update 4/30/2017

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

Let’s get to my weekly  Scrum style standups – and this is a pretty big milestone!

So for a month I’ve been using a lot more Scrum/Agile techniques, and that includes these weekly reports.  Now I can assess how it went!

The answer?  Pretty damn good.

More done, less stress, better sense of what I’m doing, more adaptability.  There’s a lot of blog posts about to come on this (which is also good as my blogging is erratic and I want to fix that).  These posts should also help you get up to speed as well, and after I tweak my methods I’ll probably do a roundup.

Major goals of this month:

  • Get Way With Worlds Minibook #1 back from editor.
  • Write at least 30 more questions for Minibook #5 and/or #6.
  • Start and write first chapter of my fiction piece “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet.”
  • Attend Fanime and speak (probably one day as Professor Oobleck)
  • Some general writing.
  • Experiment with Amazon Ads.

But hey it’s the end of one Sprint and the start of a new, so let’s get to status!

So what have I done the last week?

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #1: This is not late exactly as I had no deadline, but clearly have to check with my editor.
  • Way With Worlds Marketing: The newly printed bookmarks come today.  So yay!
  • Publicity: I’ve wanted to reach out to comic shops to speak at.  So far it’s kind of 50/50 on possible results – one not interested, one interested but noncommittal, two interested.
  • Seventh Sanctum Spotlight: Got people responding so I will probably start that this week!
  • General: A few social events here and there, nothing much out of the ordinary.

What am I going to do this week:

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #5:  Write at least five more questions.  I may need to accelerate these.
  • Seventh Sanctum Spotlight: Post my first entry.
  • Professional: I have two professional events coming up,this week.
  • Social: I also have a Bad Movie Event with some friends and my girlfriend.  Thinking this week might not be the most productive.
  • “A Bridge To The Silent Planet:” I’m going to plot this in one go or so over the weekend.  It’ll actually involve an experiment in writing organization.

Challenges and blockers:

  • Fanime may or may not have me do a third panel.  If they do, then I have to spend time to polish it.  I’ve budgeted time.

– Steve