writing

Steve’s Update 12/23/2018

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

We’re all heading for the holidays, so let’s catch up! Also you may note this is appearing all over – I’m diversifying my posting base.

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

  • A Bridge To The Quiet Planet: Is selling in ebook format!  So print is next. I’ve got the document print-formatted now – which thanks to some Open Office tools and formatting choices was easier than I thought. There’s some lessons here.
  • Way With Worlds: I’ve got another book out! This one is on Organizations!
  • Seventh Sanctum: Steady as she goes here, but the next generator or three are being outlined.
  • Other: Lots of relaxing now that the holiday season is here.

What’s next?

  • A Bridge To The Quiet Planet: Getting print format out and getting a draft. The text is done, the real worry I have is the cover. Covers are the hardest part of POD.
  • Way With Worlds: I’m outlining the next book, but am also pacing myself.
  • Seventh Sanctum: Want to try to update the Nexus and maybe get a new generator out.
  • General Stuff: The holidays, of course! I am also working on some productivity techniques I may be sharing soon!

Steven Savage



Writing Plans For Next Year

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

As the Holidays approach and the year ends, I wanted to round up what I’m doing writing-wise for everyone.  So let’s go – in what may be some kind of order.

First, the next Way With Worlds Minibook is up and will be out soon – it’s on Organizations!  That one really just needs formatting, so it’s definitely out in December.

Secondly, somewhere in all of this is the print copy of A Bridge To The Quiet Planet.  This is unpredictable because it’s a mix of formatting, checking, giving up and running a print, and finding out the mistakes you made.  It could be out in as early as start of January or late as February depending on how much I screw it up.

Third, there’s a world guide to the setting of the novel.  I plan to get that out around the same time as the print copy.

Fourth, there’s a new creativity guide, my guide to Brainstorm Books.  That one is in weird shape, as I found the original draft, based on my columns, was lacking.  I’ll be tackling that once I get other stuff out of the way, so expect to see it in January to February.

All of THIS clears my plate for the next round of work.

RANDOMIZED CREATIVITY BOOK: In February I’m going to begin work on my next big book, a guide to randomized creativity and procedural generation.  This will compile all of my theories into one guide to assist people making random generators, games, etc.  I’m going to try to power it out as a draft as fast as I can because I want to experiment with some writing techniques.  Note that even at the best, this thing won’t be out until August or so.

MORE WAY WITH WORLDS MINIBOOKS: I have a ton of these I want to write (try more than 20), so I’m pretty much going to do them for years at this rate.  I need to find a workable pace, but expect to see them intermittently – I’d like to do at least four a year.

So past about  May or June I will have A) caught up, and B) have the randomized creativity book in editing.  Then I’ll consider larger steps – there’s a sequel to A Bridge To The Quiet planet in my mind so I’ll almost inevitably do that, but I want to try to do it faster this time (but still even at best it won’t be out until 2020 while I do minibooks)

So there you go, lots to look forward to!

Steven Savage



A Bridge To The Quiet Planet: A Few Thoughts On The Final Run

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

All right, A Bridge To The Quiet Planet is out.  Done.  So it was a bit later than I expected, and the final run on it gave me food for thought.

WATCH SWITCHING BETWEEN SOFTWARE: I found some annoying artifacts from moving from one piece of software to another – there can be subtle differences.   I had to do some annoying search and replaces.

THINK OVER STYLISTIC CHOICES EARLY AND FOLLOW UP: You may make certain formatting choices – like bolding certain things (business cards or telepathy), certain uses of quotes, etc.  Make sure you’re consistent.  I found ONE case of not following my own formatting, and I nearly missed it.

DO A SERIOUS READ-THROUGH AND CORRECTION EARLY: I wish I did this.  Take, say, an early draft, and edit it as if it’s for print.  This will help you find your mistakes, issues, common problems, and get plenty of distracting tiny errors out of the way – so you can edit.

KEEP A LIST OF ERRORS YOU FIND OR WORRY ABOUT: This helped me a lot.  As I did my final readthroughs, I kept a list of suspicious things or choices I want to review.  This let me do some amazing fine editing easy because then I could globally search.

SEARCH AND REPLACE IS YOUR FRIEND IF YOU DO IT STEP BY STEP: Global search and replace can mess up your document (as we all know).  However going slow, reviewing EACH possible replacement (or doing it by hand for each found) let’s you avoid problems.  Also it acts as a second review!

YOU CAN ONLY DO SO MUCH: At some point you can’t edit forever.  So don’t.  Learn your limits.  In fact . . .

GO EBOOK FIRST: This is a trick I evolved from a friend.  Do an ebook first, and distribute it.  It gives you immediate feedback, then you can update the ebook quickly.  Go print a bit later (like I’m doing it 4-6 weeks later).

KEEP A “LIVE” DOCUMENT: A big advantage of going ebook first is feedback.  So I keep a “Live” document I’m always editing as a core, representative document.  That will become the print book – but if I find errors I modify all 3 documents (ebook, Print, Live) for later.

So lots of lessons to share.  I’m certain I’ll have more to share – I think I need to make a kind of writing checklist sometime!

Steven Savage