Steve’s Update 5/14/2017

(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