agile

Evil Agile

by

We wonder how people can get away with so much horrible stuff.  I’d like to talk Evil and Agile productivity, and yes, I am completely sober as far as you know.

For those of you who are in no way familiar with me, I’m a Project Manager, a professional help-stuff-get-done-guy.  While I’m being paid to be the most anal-retentive person in the room, I prefer to use Agile Methodologies, which are all about rapid, adaptable, approaches to getting things done.  It doesn’t sound Evil, but stick with whatever journey I’m soberly on because I think Evil people are actually pretty good at a kind of Agile.

Many Evil people have A Goal.  It may be (more) money and power, it may be dealing with their childhood traumas, and usually, it’s a dangerously pathetic combination of things like that.  Agile is all about Goals because when you set them, they direct your actions more than any single plan.  You gotta know where you want to go to get there.

Then, simply, Evil people set out to achieve their Goal by whatever means they can.  They don’t care if they lie, cheat, steal, burn books, burn people, and so on – the Goal is what matters.  Agile is also about making sure that your actions direct you toward your Goal so you’re focused and efficient – it just doesn’t involve Evil.

But what if Evil people hurt others, get caught, etc.?  Simple, they lie or do something else because they don’t care – they adapt.  Agile emphasizes constant adaptability and analysis as well, just with an emphasis on truth and honesty.  Evil people are pretty adaptable, even if that adaptability is staying the course and lying about it until others give up.

Agile emphasizes goals, directing yourself towards them, and adaptability.  Evil people do the exact same thing.  The only difference is that Agile emphasizes helping people and being honest, and Evil people are just Evil.

And this is why we’re so often confused by Evil people.

We expect elaborate plans from Evil people – and there may be some – but they’re focused on their Goals and how to get there.  We expect Evil people to be derailed by getting caught in lies or hurting people, but as we’ve seen they don’t care.  They want something and they’ll adapt no matter the price played by other people.

It’s the banality of Evil all over again.  Evil isn’t even interesting in how it gets things done.

Steven Savage

Steve’s Update 5/30/2022

by

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

Brutal few weeks with all the bad stuff in the news, but there’s progress being made!

The Way With Worlds series: Not doing anything on this until Q3 for the final book in the “Disaster series.” The cover conversion went on hold a bit for a rough few weeks, still plan to have the covers (if not the books) ready this year.

“Think Agile, Write Better”: I have the outline back from people, and I’ve re-edited it! It’s really improved and I will start writing this week or next! Thanks to everyone who helped!

The Seventh Sanctum rewrite: I’m now doing test launches – which is a bit of a pain because I’m dealing with some directory and access juggling. I need that so I can switch over and have fallback. On the other hand check out the beta at www.PageOfGenerators.com.

Social Media Realignment: With the future of Twitter still unpredictable, this is going in fits and starts. I’ve got a big list of things I want to do, which probably means “sit down for a week as my major focus and do them.”

The Compendium of Writing Advice: Going to set this aside until the Sanctum is launched I think. Just too much on my mind.

Steven Savage

Dishonor Your Idols Respectfully

by

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

Serdar wrote on how one gets outside of copying influences to find your own way.  He shares his own experiences, and it’s a journey you’ll appreciate.  In turn, I want to share some of my most formative experiences because they’re about learning what doesn’t fit you.

When I returned to fiction with A Bridge To The Quiet Planet, Sir Terry Pratchett’s was the obvious influence.  Whereas he took on fantasy and cultural tropes, I evolved a fantasy setting into the information age, exploring what that said about both the genre and people.  Combined with my love of worldbuilding, it was a romp through a techno-fantasy world, more serious than Pratchett but also reveling in deconstructing tropes.

When my editor got back to me, I realized I also came off wordy as hell.

Now, Sir Pratchett can be pretty wordy, so the influence is evident.  The thing is, what worked for him didn’t work for me – I worked better with a tighter style.  Sometimes you grow out of an influence by finding what parts fit you and what doesn’t – if one doesn’t fit, throw it out.  Sir Pratchett had to decide to do his own thing as well, and it worked for him.

(As a note, I have revisited Robert Aspirin, my early “funny fantasy” influence, and his tight prose may help me out in future writing).

My second formative experiences as a writer started with Agile Creativity.  I was getting tired of Agile being so bog-standard IT stuff, or seeing applied half-baked to writing or art.  I decided I’d write a book applying the core of the Agile Manifesto to creativity in general.  I was going to explore hardcore Agile and hardcore creativity and do both right.

It got several sales, including one bulk order, and for a time was my most-requested presentation at conventions.  I’ve had very good reception on it, and take great amusement that it uses Agile standards, while being for cosplayers, artists, and so on.

This only led to ideas for other books on Agile, which I’ll be working on in 2022 and possibly 2023.  These will get into the psychology of writing and Agile, and another that let us say will have an attitude.  I stepped away from multiple, stale (to me) influences now I’ve got more places to go – and take my audience with me.

What can I say?  I’m an explorer, I’m the guy that gets weird as a way of doing things better.

Don’t fear giving up on your influences, or winnowing them down, or saying “screw it, I’m doing the opposite.”  Those moments are a critical part of growth as a writer.  I can assure you every influence you have probably had many similar moments, and that’s how they became good enough to influence you.

Honor your influences by deciding when to stop listening.

Steven Savage