Avatar photoSteven Savage

Writer’s Lean Coffee

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

At one of my writer’s groups I tried something out you may want to try – a Lean Coffee. Here’s a quick rundown and what happens. You can read up on it above, but I’ll sum up my experiences here.

At its heart, Lean Coffees are self-organizing ways for teams of people to pool knowledge, get advice, and discuss important subjects. It comes from lean business practices, but you can re-purpose it for just about anything.

First, how you run a Lean Coffee (for writers, but you can do it for all sorts of things)

  1. Get a group of people interested in the same subject.
  2. Give them notecards or some other equivalent (or even an online spreadsheet). Have them write down 1-3 things they want to discuss.
  3. Once the questions to discuss are done, everyone gets three votes and votes on what they want to discuss. In my experience, people don’t vote for just their questions, because people bring up topics they hadn’t thought of.
  4. Rank the subjects in order of votes and pick the top one. If there’s more than one top subject by votes, pick one randomly.
  5. Discuss the subject as a group for five minutes. At the end, vote if people want to go on another five minutes. I usually go by majority vote unless it’s close.
  6. Take the next subject by vote count and continue.

Encourage people to take notes or have a designated note-taker if the group is part of a larger team.

I’ve run this a number of times for Agile groups, and it’s always been successful – though sometimes you have to do it two or three times in a row for a team to gel. So how did it go for a random group of writers?

Really good.

First, we had a number of good subjects of discussion. I think that’s because the group had a history of good discussions, often focused on specific subjects-of-the-month. We were primed for this.

Secondly, because we had a diverse group of people, the discussions covered a lot of ground. Different viewpoints created more valuable results – and more valuable questions.

Third, it really got people talking. The Lean Coffee encourages people to talk, and the “bite-sized” discussions made it easy to prompt people who might go silent, and if someone had nothing to say one subject they may the next.

Fourth, the Lean Coffee method encourages solid discussions. People bring up things that matter to them, then vote as a team on what’s important to everyone, and discussion follows. Real quickly you focus on high-value issues, while having a bit of surprise to shake you up and keep you from getting into a rut.

Fifth, it created real team bonding. We shared our concerns and our insights, we got to know each other, we figured solutions to shared problems. I felt like we all left as more of a team.

I am going to repeat this with my writers group, probably every few moths, and may try it in other groups. I also wonder if it’ll work at conventions . . .

So give it a try, and let me know what you find!

Steven Savage

Worldbuilding: The Ecstasy, The Agony, The Stupidity

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

I love worldbuilding, and yet I meet people who hate doing, even resent it. That’s because we forget what worldbuilding is for – our audience and their experiences.

Let me note upfront my obvious biases about worldbuilding, from stories to games. I love doing it, and have for years. I love looking at other worlds people created. I believe there’s psychological value in it. I also have and am writing a ton of books on the subject.

But other people I’ve met resent it. I’ve found they fit into a few categories.

  1. “I want to get to my story” – People don’t want to figure out the exact value of the Frbillian gold ducat of Slenderhome. They have an epic drama to write and none of their characters give a damn.
  2. “I don’t want to get lost” – You can easily got lost in worldbuilding, something I do joyously. You may be good at it and like it a bit too much if you get my drift.
  3. “I’m doing this for my audience” – You’re worldbuilding for the sake of the audience first, not to deliver something, but based on the assumption they expect “X” amount of worldbuilding or hate Y or something. Worldbuilding is part of a larger product.
  4. “I want to be like this person” – Which 90% of the time seems to mean JRR Tolkein. We’re busy trying to emulate other worldbuilders as opposed to asking what we need to do and want to do.

I’m sure some of these apply to you as a whole or in part. Worldbuilding can get onerous – even for someone like myself who loves it. I’ve experienced all of them.

Now how do we address them? Much to the surprise of absolutely no one, I’d like to discuss Agile Methodology. No, stay, this won’t take long.

Anyway, a big thing about Agile is focusing on value of something. You have an audience. They need something, and you figure it out and how to deliver it. Worldbuilding is the same way.

Your audience wants a story or a game – so Worldbuild enough to get the story or the game done.

You need a certain among of worldbuilding – Use this precision to avoid getting lost. Feel free to enjoy it, since you are also part of the audience, but also know when to stop.

Know your audience – Ask who your target audience is and deliver enough worldbuilding for them. If you find yourself with a huge list of different target audiences then you don’t have one in mind. You’ll get lost.

Worldbuilding is about delivering value, and knowing enough to deliver a game or a story or whatever. Keep yourself focused by asking how it serves your larger goal. Even if your goal is a world guide for an RPG, you have to ask what delivers value.

Let me close out with a suggestion if worldbuilding troubles you: Write down your target audience and sort them into no more than three categories. Next, ask yourself what these audiences want and list the top three things. This will give you a guide to how much to do – and not do – and make you think about your audience.

If you can’t answer those questions easily, then you’ve learned even more . . 

Steven Savage

Just Write Something

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

As I work on A School of Many Futures, the sequel to A Bridge To The Quiet Planet, I end up on a mental rollercoaster. I’ve found a way to deal with that.

I’m sure you’ve had ups and downs in your writing – for me, having done nonfiction for so long, writing fiction is trying. Sure I got one novel out after not doing much fiction for awhile, but it took a lot to get back into it. The second novel produces it’s own challenges, from plotting to questions, and though it’s easier than the first book, I have my moments.

Do I do this twist? Should I do something else? Maybe a short story to jumpstart me?

The worst part of writing fiction is you wonder. You can speculate endlessly on what you should do and where you’re going. You’re creative, and you can use your creativity to worry at an amazing rate.

Several of my friends made the same point to me – when in doubt, just write.

If you write, then you get something done.

You have something to use in your story. It may be good enough.

You have something to edit. Sure it’s bad, but at least it can be fixed.

You can try out an idea and see if it works. If it fails, then at least you know (and you can put it in file to save it for later).

If you write, then you don’t worry about being blocked – you keep moving, even if it’s imperfect.

You get your mind moving, so even if what you made is unusable, uneditable, and unsavable, then your brain is in writing mode.

One friend of mine noted that when drafting, they will make it scriptlike and edit it later. You don’t even have to write things in full, just write enough to have something.

This has helped me get over some blockages the last week. I’m writing, even if it’s not perfect or needs editing. I’m thinking and revising my work, improving it over time and seeing it in new lights. Most of all I’m not stagnant, so I’m moving forward no matter what.

Sure there’s challenges – but something is getting done, and each time I’m one step closer to a book.

The only book that fails is the one never written. So next time you’re not sure what to do, write. That’s one thing that can guarantee a book or story or post is done.

Just write something.

Steven Savage