writing

Steve’s Update 5/28

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

It’s my weekly Scrum style standup for the audience.  Which is you.

This week saw a lot of stuff with fanime, so let’s get to what’s up?

So what have I done the last week?

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #5:  As usual, writing.
  • Social: Fanime has gone great, seeing people, having fun.  And yes, I budgeted time for it – to make sure I relaxed.
  • Speaking: Spoke at Fanime, it went great!  Think the self-publishing panel needs to be broken up into several panels there’s so much to cover.
  • Cosplay: I was Doctor Oobleck, and it was a lot of fun!
  • Her Eternal Moonlight: The sale is on of course!  Which you probably saw in my announcements!
  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet:” Still a bit behind on this I’m afraid, mostly because I have to keep “extracting” myself from ideas I locked myself into during that failed first plotting.  Imagine it like building the foundation of a house and finding you still had some stones you laid while redesigning it.

What am I going to do this week:

  • Plan New Sprint for June: That gets done Wednesday or so.  Targets for June are releasing the first Minibook, speaking at Hydra-Con, finishing the “Bridge To The Quiet Planet” plot outline and writing the first chapter (again, hopefully).
  • Way With Worlds Minibook #5:  Well, uh . . . writing.  So as you guessed I’m doing a few bits each week or so.
  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet:” I’m going to at least get the character designs fully fleshed out and get the plot outline further along – at least to a few paragraphs if not a few pages.
  • Writing: I’m going to keep doing my Agile blog posts, but I think I’m going to start posting on my findings in writing – that experience of doing a major fiction project again is pretty informative.
  • Newsletter: A new newsletter comes out this Wednesday!  I also have to get all the new signups for my newsletter into the database!

Challenges and blockers:

  • Mostly challenges to do fiction writing again, I don’t quite have a sense of how long things take restored.  But hey live and learn.  This will improve in time – and I get to post my lessons.
  • There may be some challenges with training at work and some changes taking up time, so fair warning things might get delayed.

– Steve

Steve’s Agile Life: Writing Time

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

As I write about my “Agile Life” experiment (where I use the Agile techniques in  Scrum) I hope to get others to think about time management.  Looks like my friend Serdar over at Genji press got himself a thinking about time management.

He gets into his own blogging, how he has to carve out time, and how his cadence for projects differs based on the kind of said projects.  It’s a great insight into what he as a blogger does – but also he talks about his way of blocking out work.

As a great deal of his work is writing, he blocks out a time to write each day, setting a minimum time.  If he’s not up for one thing, he’s up for another.  That’s a smart writing technique, and I wanted to note where something like this can fit into the Agile mindset.

  • First of all, he notes that he sets aside time to write, but doesn’t necessarily choose what he writes until he sits down.  This is a great idea on two counts – he has a block of time, and can make the call as to what’s needed at the time.
  • Secondly, if you use this technique, why not consider breaking your writing work down into hour increments and tasks?  That way if you set aside an hour, you can use it to measure progress on projects.  Also, great practice for work breakdowns.
  • Third, this gets you into the habit of practice.  With writing and certain other creative skills, many people respond well to regularity to both accomplish work and hone skills.  Why not make that Agile, with regular writing, broken down so you can slot it into your writing time?
  • Fourth, this removes roadblocks, which is a big part of why we use Agile techniques (as I heard it put once, the prime focus of any Agile method is to find what’s blocking you).  By having this general time you can go around other writing blockages – but by having a set time to write you keep up the regular work you need.

What’s funny for me is I’ve tried both techniques and tend to lean towards not writing each day.  I tend to like task-based writing, to accomplish “x” goal, be it 30 minutes or 2 hours of writing.  But it’s all about finding what works for you.

(Then there’s people asking if they need a definition of “Ready.  Let’s not get into that.)

– 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