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Steve’s Update 1/5/2019

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

Hello everyone! Well the holiday may be over, but I’m plugging away as always!

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

  • A Bridge To The Quiet Planet: Is selling in ebook format and has been repeatedly updated as I edit the print copy. I was disappointed with the typos I saw (I at least figured why), but the print copy is looking great!
  • Way With Worlds: I’ve got a lot of notes on the next book. More on that in a bit!
  • Seventh Sanctum: Nothing new quite yet, taking a break after the updates, but I do have a few plans in mind. I’ve also begun my plans to update the code base over the next year.
  • Other: Mostly a lot of chores and side things.

What’s next?

  • A Bridge To The Quiet Planet: A break for a few days as the print book’s next proof copy comes to me. If all goes well I’ll do a big haul and be done. I also hope to work on a special free book – a world guide!
  • Way With Worlds: I’ll take my notes and compile them into an outline, then probably start the book in February.
  • Seventh Sanctum: I’ve got two or three generator ideas, let’s see if anything comes of it!
  • Book Access: I’m trying a few things to improve book distribution, stay tuned!

Steven Savage



Fun Is Fine Because It’s Fun

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

The ever indomitable MagenCubed had a great comment on Twitter about how we often feel we’re not allowed to have fun. That writing, art, everything fun has to have Some Deeper Meaning, or Some Potential Profit. I have to agree with her, the idea that our fun must somehow Become A Big Thing seems very pathological and way, way too common.

Sure, I write on how people can use their hobbies on the job, but as I’ve often stated know the value of your hobbies and just fun is fine. I feel it’s best we’re honest and clear on our interests, and part of that is to say something like “shut up I’m playing Overwatch to goof off, go away.”

It seems everything has to be monetized. Or therapeutic. Or advance our careers. Or it has to have some meaning beyond what it is. I actually remember when it wasn’t this way! Really!

So I began asking why. What happened? I think there’s five factors affecting turning fun into work.

The longest trend is simply our culture, which idolizes work and productivity and earning money. The idea that somehow if we’re not making money or planning to make money or working real hard something is wrong. It’s sort of an unholy fusion of American Capitalism, Protestant Work Ethic, and a fetishization things having to be “useful.”

Secondly, in the last few years, we’ve also seen the increase of the gig economy, from contractors to Uber drivers. This kind of economy is one without permanent employment or reliable income, and thus one is always hustling and scrambling. It’s too easy to have that attitude leak into our hobbies, and in many cases the “permanent hustle” leads us to constantly worry about tradeoffs of profitable versus unprofitable time.

Third, even when employment is reliable, it doesn’t seem too reliable in the last few years. There’s always the temptation to add a second stream of income, or just see if one can monetize a hobby. How many of us are worried that one corporate acquisition is going to kill our jobs, and isn’t the temptation there to have some cover . . .

Fourth, with all the other crap we have going on, it seems that we think that art or tv or whatever has to have some Great Healing Purpose or Deep Personal Exploration. It’s as if something can’t be good for us because we enjoy it. It has to be some deep thing that transforms us utterly or has some great deep meaning. Also, of course, this justifies us not making money at it – we’re pursuing something Great And IMportant.

Finally, we’ve also created so many tools and options, from Patreon to self-publishing, it’s easy to try and monetize any work. It’s not much effort to shave the serial numbers off of fanfic and hit up Kindle or Draft2Digital. Sure you like art, but it couldn’t hurt to try a Pateron, could it? It’s so easy to try and monetize we may try it before we ask if it’s a good idea.

Our culture, our economy, the push to have deep healing meaning, and the ease with which we can try to monetize hobbies is a powerful combination. I think it’s left us constantly worried we’re not working, and turning fun into work just in case – and because we can.

So no matter, have fun. Fun is it’s own purpose. Fun is fine. Fun is good. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t just have fun.

Even me. Now and then people like me need to be told “back off, I’m goofing off.”

Steven Savage

Transcending Your Influences?

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

In a recent discussion with Serdar, the idea of writer’s “transcending their influences” came up. You know the idea – to go beyond your influences into something your own, avoid their limits or being derivative, etc. For some reason, it made me uncomfortable.

My discomfort told me there was something to analyze here. Why did the idea of “transcending one’s influences” as a writer give me that unpleasant sense of discomfort? It didn’t take long for me to figure out why.

It’s because I’ve seen this phrase and phrases like this used in ways that were actually pathological.

A few examples came to mind:

Treating influences as the enemy. Many is the time I met an artist or writer who acted as if their influences were somehow bad, as if they were cages or foundations. I worried that they’d spend so much time not being something they’d never be who they were now, and who they could be. It felt like childish rebellion.

Treating influences as things you can discard. You can’t just toss influences away. They’re there, period, possibly even for good reasons. Acting as if you can just walk away from them (as opposed to incorporating them, finding others, adapting over time) seemed futile.

Leaving influences before you’re ready. Influences present a lot of opportunity to explore them – often in ways the influencer did not. I don’t like to see artists of whatever kind work so hard to get away they ignore new paths they could find in the work that inspired them.

Lack of self-awareness. Wanting to get away from an influence may mean you don’t take the time to understand why they’re an influence, what they did (and didn’t) do for you and so on. Escape may limit self-awareness – and if you’re trying to get away from a bad influence, you might just find a new one.

Arrogance. Sometimes when I hear people talk of transcending influences, it seems to be arrogant (possibly hiding insecurity). They are above these influences. They can be better than others still enslaved to influences, etc. They don’t need influences (like we can get away from them).

I am all for artists and writers and all creatives growing and developing. I expect them to keep evolving. This will mean, in time, they will grow into their own people, and the influences they have become more foundations or waypoints than what they do.

I think I’ve been concerned there’s too much pathology around the idea of transcending one’s influences. That people harm themselves or limit themselves while trying to overcome limits that often aren’t limits, just phases they’re in.

Well that was productive. I feel like I’ve learned something about myself – and perhaps transcended a limit . . .

Steven Savage