Seventh Sanctum Update 12/11/2013: Poll Results!

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First of all thanks to everyone who participated in the poll!. I have to do these more often!

And the results? Well the results surprised me but also point in a clear direction.

First of all, only a bit over 20% of people wanted no social or content features on Seventh Sanctum – but the rest was near-evenly split over “yes” or “not sure” with a slight lean to yes. What was amazingly clear from the comments was that people were worried social media, forums, blogs, and so on would take over the site.

That at first surprised me, because the focus of the site is on generators – until I thought about it and agree, yes, social media and features can change sites and not always for the better. Buttons for social media end up everywhere. Forums can consume a site. A blog can become a giant mess of irrelevant articles.

So your voices were heard. Don’t worry I never intended the site to get like that anyway, but I now understand how people feel even better.

Now when it came to what people wanted to see content and feature-wise, it was very big on two things – tips and info, and user contributions. Message boards came in behind that and other features were more distant, with mailing lists losing out – but more on that later.

So people want information and useful stuff, and maybe some things about what’s going on with the users.

On top of this some people had other generator suggestions, so I may need to run polls like this regularly to get new ideas. Two things to get out of the way:

  • Those of you wanting a way to subscribe to generators by email or RSS feed, I’ve actually experimented with it . . . no promises, but there’s a few fun things I’ve done lately that point at interesting directions.
  • It seems people want the number options back on the generators. I’m considering some ideas (like having the HIGHEST be the default then you can choose less). The biggest challenge ironically is putting them in the new layout.

Now, this all gives me a direction. The site is fine, but more content would be great as long as it’s part of the site and doesn’t predominate, and social tools and interactions are good only in limited ways or when they don’t take over.

So here’s my plan.

  1. The site pretty much stays as is. That’s a given, though obviously I’ll tweak things and add stuff, and of course occasionally redesign it.
  2. I’ll add a subdomain like “zine.seventhsanctum.com” or “stuff.seventhsanctum.com” or something that will be sort of The Library. This will be part of the site that contains archives, information, and so forth. To do this I can probably wrap the Sanctum Bootstrap template around a blog or CMS system and make an ez-to-post archive (if I can’t then we’re back to square one – and my first goal is to keep the site stable).
  3. The “Library” (or whatever I call it) will be where updates, advice, regular columns (like Way With Worlds), and so on are posted. It will allow discussion (via Disqus of course). The feed will display on the front page where the old blog is now.
  4. The “Library” will be specifically for advice, updates, and discussing creativity in the comments. I will also invite other people to contribute so all of you can share your ideas and help each other out. We may also have “open discussions” for people to share sanctum-based works, and so on – so you can see what people are up to.
  5. I may actually implement a mailing list at some point for tighter social discussion – in a nice, unbounded, but not-on-the-site manner. The mailing list was the least popular idea, but I think it’s bounded nature may be worth it for people who want to get social, but I don’t want to radically change the sites.

So I think this fills all requests. The site stays the same. There’s a subdomain for posting advice and guides and discussing creativity – and you out there can get involved. We may have a mailing list for socializing, for people who know each other and want to chat.

What do you think?  Go take the poll!

- Steven Savage

Way With Worlds: Views, Lenses, and Your True Main Character

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Viewpoint Telescope

[Way With Worlds appears at Seventh Sanctum at at MuseHack]

Writing your world up is one thing. You can take notes, document everything, draw up timelines, and so forth. That’s a matter of technique, imagination and, frankly, your ability to write everything down. Getting yourself to use all those notes? That’s another challenge.

How do you actually bring all this worldbuilding to life?  How do you get the details to live and not sit forgotten on pieces of paper, wikis, and documents?  How do you keep this information in mind?  How do you avoid breaking your own carefully-crafted continuity without turning every bit of writing into a chore of review?

Perspective is my answer, though that now deserves an explanation. Continue reading →

Steve’s Update 12/9/2013

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Steve Temporary Image

Morning everyone!  Here’s what’s going on – going to keep it short as I’m busy.

  • First, I got my editor notes back on my latest book and am knee-deep in editing.  So if you don’t see me doing quite as much, or I seem busy it’s because I really AM busy.
  • Secondly, had a big poll on what’s next for Seventh Sanctum and got some great feedback!  More of that to come, but I think I have some clear plans for 2014.
  • Third, sorry that there haven’t been as many posts on Cooking lately.  I’ve been busy ordering my work, getting a web project in order, and in general getting stuff done before the holidays – and the holidays have meant less organized cooking.  Though my latest lentil salad experiment is promising.
  • Fourth, I am revisiting, updating, and rewriting my old Way With Worlds column.  This lets me revive the series and reach people anew with all the things I learned since then.  And, yes, this has influenced some of my publishing columns in the Geek Citizen series at Muse Hack.

So expect me to be a bit more heads down into the Christmas season.  Oh, and of course it didn’t help that the Starbound beta dropped and it’s EXCELLENT.  With my luck I’ll get into the Wildstar one . . .

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Seventh Sanctum Update 12/5/2013

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Another update?  Actually, yes.

  • First, now that the redesign is done, I’ve actually gotten back to tweaking generators.  I actually wanted to expand the Mage Maker, because frankly the Spellslinger of Wildstar Online sounded really cool name-wise, so I wanted more names like that – the kind of “magic-manipulator” name like Spellslinger, Airbender, etc.  That led me down other paths . . . and you can see the results.  Frankly it also helps me get my mojo back after the redesign.
  • I removed the affiliate bar with my sites as it got pointed out . . . it’s a bit tacky let’s be honest here.
  • Ironically that affiliate bar WAS also part of a prototype for something else very cool that’s coming, so stay tuned . . .
  • Still getting real mixed feedback on the idea on the site AND off of the site.  So I wanted to know what you thought – because I actually have several options for what I can do.  So go and take this poll!

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

Seventh Sanctum Update 12/4/2013

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Hello everyone!  So let’s see how we’re doing at Seventh Sanctum!

  • I’ve got some rough plans for the next few months, we’ll see how they work out after a little polishing and planning.  I’m not planning anything as big as the rewrite for the next year because that took a lot out of me.
  • As you saw, Way With Worlds is back!  I plan to revisit the entire column line to rewrite, expand, or in a few cases just leave some old ones alone.  Think of it as Way With Worlds updated – as I have a lot to add from my experiences!
  • Didn’t see a lot of enthusiasm for a blog, but let me note that it will be basically running as part of the site but not take over the site – I don’t want to turn the site into a blog, so much as have one that belongs to the site if you get my drift.  The purpose is the tools first and foremost – but it’d be nice to have content and people commenting on it and interacting.  I’m still assuming adding a blog in Q1 or so – and a little feedback would help (even if it’s “really, don’t”).
  • Do have a few more formatting tweaks I may try, so stay tuned!

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

 

Way With Worlds: Why Worldbuild?

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ConstructionScene

 

Years ago at the end of the 20th century and the start of the 21st I began writing a column on worldbuilding and fiction – Way With Worlds. This was the age when people were suddenly able to get their works on the internet, via websites and journals and email. There was a slow simmer of amateur writers, should-be-pros, would-be-pros, fanficcers, and more. A column on worldbuilding seemed in order.

I’ve always had ambitions to write fiction, had worked on shared-universe newsletters, played RPGs, and more. Worlds were part of what I liked to do, and a good setting, a good living world/universe made things come alive. So I expressed my theories in hope of helping people, to use my knowledge gained over the years, and of course because I’m not overly good at shutting up.

The columns sat online for years when I decided not to continue them, and every now and then someone will read one or mention them to me. Over the years I do less fictional work directly, yet am still involved in worldbuilding when I help friends with games, edit books, and when I run the inspiration site Seventh Sanctum. Of course, I still have plenty of opinions.

Now even more people are writing, and making videos, and self-publishing. So I decided to revisit the columns and rewrite them, expand them, and use what I learned in over a decade.

And the first question is still as burningly relevant as ever? Why Worldbuild? Continue reading →

Steve’s Update 12/2/2013

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Steve Temporary Image

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving.  Had a rather relaxing one, but sadly didn’t cook as much as I wanted because there was so much food already planned – got to plan ahead earlier.

So let’s get to what’s going on!

  • My next book is getting more editor feedback now – waiting for the main editor to get back to me with the full work-up and then I can dive on in.  So far it’s looking good, though I do have a few formatting and related issues – 100 new pages is a lot.  The cover art also is in progress!
  • As you saw, Seventh Sanctum is now back to the blue a lot of people liked.  I may continue to tweak it in the holidays, but anything major is going to wait.  As for what’s major, I’m going to look at installing a blog, the only reason I’m cautious is making sure it doesn’t interfere with the site proper.
  • Sorry there aren’t any cooking posts lately – been a bit busy as you may guess.  I plan to get back to them – and my backlog of recipes, though many of those are still experimental.
  • If you visit the Informotron you’ll see I’ve got a great new resource from the Convention Career Connection book, a guide to Geeky Professional Associations.  Give it a check!

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Randomizing and RPGs

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(This was originally posted at Ongoing Worlds.  And yes, it’s a Seventh Sanctum column that’s not an update.  A trend?  We’ll see!)

Look Back In Randomness . . .

In 1999 at a gathering of anime and Mystery Science Theater Fans, I commented how some anime attacks sounded randomly generated by computer.  Suddenly it struck me that it would be easy to write a program to do that, as I’d written code to do superhero names and names in the vein of Elfquest characters.  A few notes later I had enough ideas to try and I made an Anime Power Generator.

Then I began thinking of other options.  And more random generators emerged.  Then I put them on my web site.  Then they took over the website.

Then what is known today as Seventh Sanctum was born.  Eventually it encompassed over 150 generators.  I just kept making these things for 14 years.

So in 2013 I realized that perhaps I had to update the years old design, and go modern.  Fortunately Bootstrap provided me the framework I needed, and I proudly updated it in a mobile, adaptable, and honestly easier to read and simpler design.

This is when Dave contacted me.  He and I knew each other from when I interviewed him at MuseHack.  He noted that I had many random generators for people to use in writing, art, and of course RPGs.  But what is the role of randomizers in RPGs anyway?

I’d never thought of it.  I just sort of assumed it was obvious or instinctive.

Dave had challenged me, in short, to put into words what was rarely expressed.  I was up for the challenge – frankly I wanted to see my own thoughts in more solid form.

So, you run an RPG or play one, or are starting one.  How can randomness help you in something that’s so often the result of planning, phrasing, and writing?  Many, many ways . . . Continue reading →

Seventh Sanctum Update 11/22/2013

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Thanks for the continuous feedback folks.  So a few updates

  • First, you may notice a color change at Seventh Sanctum – the Blue Is Back.  Frankly, a lot of people sort of missed it.  So hey, if it’s part of the brand, there you go.
  • Several people would like options to choose results back.  I’m considering a few possibilities and debating if it’s worth restoring.  But the feedback is appreciated.
  • I’m considering a slight layout change with the comments to leave less blank space – but it actually makes the layouts trickier in some cases.  Live and learn.
  • Finally – and I really would like feedback on this – I’m considering how to add more content and interactive features.  A message board seems a bit excessive and basic, the Disqus comments are nice, a mailing list may be fun, but I’ve wondered what about some direct content with a blog/posting element?  It doesn’t even have to be me writing for it but could give a place for a lot of us to post ideas, creativity, theories, advice, and more.  I’ve got a rough idea of how I can embed a blog into the site without overstraining it, but it’s pretty basic right now.

Let me know!

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Reporting, Roundup, And the Eighth Stage Of Seven

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Steve Temporary Image

So we’re at the end of my discussion on the seven stages of reporting. Which, in a way leads us to Stage 8.

Stage 8? Well that’s really Stage 1 – Reporting. because you do it all again.

No matter how much work you do, how well the reports run, you’ll be fixing, updating, and revising them again and again as long as you handle them. That’s just the way it is.

This is fine. A Reporting system should be a living system because things change, new data comes in, new mistakes are found, features are added. That always happens.

In fact if things don’t change, worry. You’re missing something.

So, go back and run the reports again. Keep on sending out that data. Keep making sure people are informed.

And when something appears to be wrong . . . get ready to do this all again.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.