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Steve’s Update 8/7/2017

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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 my audience, so where am I?

First, apologies for missing another start-of-month update two months in a row.  It’s like I forget to do a post on those times, and will try not to do that.

So August’s goals are pretty much get out the Way With Worlds Book 3, keep writing “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet,” and I may get out a generator or two.

So what have I done the last week?

  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet”: Chapter #4 was released to my pre-readers.  Remember if you want to pre-read, let me know.  Plus I also integrated a lot of feedback – what I’m doing is, as feedback comes, reviewing past chapters to correct any mistakes or common mistakes.  Definitely helped, but a bit draining.
  • Blogging: I recorded more blog posts – so as you can guess, more is coming!  I have some pretty interesting stuff coming up!
  • Speaking: I spoke at Kin-Yoobi con (and really I gotta post the Asian Cooking Hacks handout).

What am I going to do this week:

  • Way With Worlds Minibook #3: I’m going to do the cover and hopefully the edits.
  • “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet:” General writing, finish up Chapter 5 and probably do some more fleshing around of the plot to incorporate some changes I came up with.
  • Generators: I’ve actually got a new generator queued up and I plan to launch it.  I think I may do “funnier” generators for the rest of the year, take a bit of a break.

Challenges:

  • Fair warning this month opened with a lot of unexpected issues; friends moving, friends having job changes, friends with family health issues, etc.  So I might see some interruptions.

– Steve

A Writer’s Life: Writing And The Models

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

My friend Serdar was discussing why we write and why it’s valuable.  If you haven’t read is stuff, scope it out, his Flight of the Vajra is one of my influences to write again.

He talks about why some writing fails at a point, and how writing is a way of modeling.

The tough part is for that model to be properly informed by real human behavior and real-world facts. Most of the bad writing I’ve encountered is either ignorant of the way the world works in its most mechanical aspects, or depicts models of human behavior that are either too flat or too ludicrious to pass for the real thing, or (worst of all) both of those things acting in concert.

 

He’s right on many flawed works – yet also we see flawed works be enjoyed by people.  All of us may enjoy some flawed or just outright shallow stuff – not in the MST3K/Rifftrax way – but we really enjoy them.  I know I’ve enjoyed my share of, let us be frank, pandering B.S.

I think some things appeal to people – even with flawed models of behavior and world – due to audience participation.

On the “lowest” level a story may be very flawed, but if it tickles our sweet spots, we enjoy it.  Perhaps there are many guilty pleasures here, but also things that may be profound at least in what they tell us, moments of artistic madness.  We bring these stories to life because they fit our desires.

Then there are stories that are very trope-filled. Because they’re familiar, we may enjoy them, even when they’re not exactly realistic or believable.  Our “suspension of disbelief” is a high-wire act, but because familiar themes are involved, we embrace them.  Cultural and media tropes bring these stories to life, and we power them with our belief.

Finally, there are stories and settings that come alive due to the way the creators work.  The things we “get” even if they may be alien or bizarre or unfamiliar.  These are rare and powerful works at their best.  They come to life because the creator makes something believable, even if we may have trouble relating to it, and we bring it to life because we “get” what’s going on.

Perhaps when writing, we should set goals for how we want the work to come to life.  Many of us may aspire to the last category, but there may be nothing wrong with a lot of tropes or some pandering if other ethical/personal concerns are addressed.

– Steve

A Writer’s Life: Big Rocks II: Electric Boogaloo

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

I recently ran into a case of getting blocked in my writing.  It was weird, things just felt “wrong.”  I wasn’t happy with a scene.  Some plot elements seemed off.  Editing earlier chapters felt odd.  I was writing, but it felt stuck.

So I took a lok at how I felt.  I didn’t even to need to use the “Five Whys” because I quickly realized what this sensation was.

It was the Big Rocks. https://www.stevensavage.com/blog/2017/06/writers-view-big-damn-rocks.html

Big Rocks, which I wrote about, are those parts of the story we’re so stuck on they hold up the evolution of the story.  They literally weigh you down because if you changed, removed, or broke them down the story would be so much better.  It doesnt matter how great an idea or scene is, if it holds your story back it should be gone.

Way back when I became aware of them it was a case of plot idead and scenes acting as my big rocks, keeping me from getting going.  Now I had written scenes and chapters and . . .  you got it . . . was unwilling to change them.  *What I had written had become a bunch of Big Rocks holding me back.

Realizing that was a relief.

  • Suddenly two characters that seemed partial became one character, who changed the entire game yet made the plot MORE intact.
  • Thanks to the first item one character gets a hilariously annoying fangirl.
  • A few rearranged and blended scenes made everything flow better.
  • A throwaway Nasty Monster got changed to a different kind of Nasty that set the plot better.
  • Became aware of a lot of subtle themes as I write, and it seems there’s always more.  Now the story includes themes of PTSD, heroism after the fact, and the need for trust.
  • One character who faded away became a bridge to another plot element, furthering the theme of “smart people doing smart things with stupid results.”  I like him so much I may bring him back in a short story.

Writing is never solid.  It reminds me of a story I heard about a martial artist who challenged someone to bend his arm.  This martial artist adjusted his arm and stance ever so slightly, constnantly, and thus countered every attempt to force his arm to bend.  It was like an ever-adjusting flow of water, powerful yet subtle.

So, be that flow, get to your destination by bending whenever needed to get there – and you become both immovable yet adjusting.  You just go around the Big Rocks – and wear them down.

As a side piece of advice, I think cultivating this “flow” attitude early in any piece is needed.  You’ll constantly adapt and adjust, and it’ll become habit.  It’s rather Agile really.

 

– Steve