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M. Darusha Wehm

Science fiction and mainstream books by award-winning author M. Darusha Wehm

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#amwriting

The Right Tool for the Job

November 22, 2012

photo credit: justinbaeder via photopin

There are two things you need to know about me for this story:

1. I am a creature of habit. I love schedules and plans, and have been known to turn down the opportunity to do something awesome because I’d scheduled something lame and totally unimportant for that time. More than once.

2. I used to be a real wrong-tool-for-the-job kind of person. I’d use whatever was handy for just about anything. I once built a set of patio furniture on my balcony with only a handsaw and electric drill. Nothing really wrong with that, except that my balcony wasn’t flat, I had neither a workbench nor a vice. At one point I used a stack of old CDs shoved under one end of a piece of wood to try and recreate a more or less 90° angle to attach the table legs. It sort of worked – good enough for me.

However, living on a cruising boat for several years has broken my attachment to both of these aspects of my character. They’re still there, but I can usually recognize when they have to go. When you’re at the mercy of the weather, plans are written in the sand at low tide. And using the wrong tool can ruin a lot more than your day. When the gale starts ablowing, you reef those sails.

So, I’m getting better at realizing that just becuae I’ve always done something a particular way doesn’t mean I have to keep doing it that way. Which brings me to why I abandoned Nanowrimo this year.

I’m an 8-time successful participant in Nanowrimo, and those writing bursts have all been useful. Several have turned into parts of now-completed novels and the couple of attempts which will never see the light of day in any format were extremely useful writing exercises from which I learned a lot. And so it was that I entered the ninth consecutive November where I anticipated getting down 50000 words of a long form project.

I started on Nov 1, as usual, and by the first weekend of November I was on track wordcount-wise. No problem, right? Except there was a massive problem. I was ruining my writing.

Unlike previous years, I now have a daily writing schedule that I’ve been keeping. It’s been working out really well for me, as I share my time between writing new fiction, editing works in progress and the inevitable administrivia of a self-employed writer. It’s a good schedule (I love schedules!) and it’s been making me crazy productive. Until I screwed it all up with Nanowrimo.

It was obvious that it wasn’t working for me, and when a tool stops being useful I’ve finally learned that you put it aside and get one that is. It was hard, though. The power of the unbroken streak, the call of the familiar – they are very hard for me to ignore. But it became clear that if I carried on with the Nano schedule, I’d be doing it only to have done Nano again. And what’s the point of that? I already know I can do it. I also already know I can write novels without the Nano machine behind me. So why was I doing it again?

No one knows.

So, I quit. The day I decided it was over, the project I’d been working on got better. My ideas crystalized and the writing improved considerably. I’d gotten back on to the writing schedule which was working for me – I’d picked up the correct tool.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: #amwriting, nanowrimo, writing

Working…

January 7, 2012

So, with the incredible end of my IndieGoGo campaign, I’ve got a shot in the arm financially and motivationally. Which means I’m keeping plenty busy.

The Beauty of Our WeaponsFinal editing and audio recording of The Beauty of Our Weapons is coming along – it feels slooooowwww, but it’s actually moving ahead at a good pace. If the weather holds (I can’t record when it’s raining or windy), I should be done in a couple of weeks.

Then I can get final formatting done for the hard copies and start that process.

I’m also working on the short story commissioned by my patron, theoretically more than practically working on another novel and I have another short story percolating away in my brain. Busy, but happy – that’s how I like it!

(Check out the cover art by JT Lindroos. How awesome is that?!)

Filed Under: News Tagged With: #amwriting, writing

Junowrimo

May 29, 2011

About a month ago, I started to have this familiar feeling.  It’s kind of akin to heartburn crossed with nervousness.  I know that sorta sick sorta excited feeling.  It’s a novel idea.  Not a new or previously unthought-of idea.  No, it’s an idea for a novel.

But it’s not merely an idea.  That’s too small.  It’s like this universe is forming in my mind, small at first, then expanding rapidly until all these little details have been made extant – a character’s nickname, the colour of a house, the title (always the hardest part for me).  So.  I guess I’m writing another novel.

The timing wasn’t great, I thought, given that it’s May and all.  Then I heard about the Southern Cross Novel Challenge (SocNoc), and I was like, “Hey! That’s perfect!”

So, for the month of June, I’m pretending it’s Nano time and writing this novel that won’t get out of my head any other way.  It’s not like I have anything else to do here in Fiji where the water is clear and warm and full of beautiful fish to look at. No. Nothing else at all.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: #amwriting, writing

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A teal, purple and amber circular swirl with images of different landscapes (various futuristic cityscapes, an endless suburban street, a desert world) and flying whales. Text reading Transmentation | Transience by Darkly Lem.

Transmentation | Transience: Or, An Accession to the People’s Council for Nine Thousand Worlds (The Formation Saga)

From bestselling authors Darkly Lem comes Transmentation | Transience, the first book in a sweeping multiverse of adventure and intrigue perfect for fans of Jeff Vandermeer and The Expanse series.

Over thousands of years and thousands of worlds, universe-spanning societies of interdimensional travelers have arisen. Some seek to make the multiverse a better place, some seek power and glory, others knowledge, while still others simply want to write their own tale across the cosmos.

When a routine training mission goes very wrong, two competing societies are thrust into an unwanted confrontation. As intelligence officer Malculm Kilkeneade receives the blame within Burel Hird, Roamers of Tala Beinir and Shara find themselves inadvertently swept up in an assassination plot.

Learn More

Free Stories

The Interview

Originally published in Podioracket Presents - Glimpses “I was working at this stim joint, a place called Ultra-Sissons. It’s not where I’m working now — I wasn’t a bartender then, just a busser. … Read More... about The Interview

Major Tom and the Lucky Lady

I was balancing a cup of tea in one hand, while hanging on to the side of the companionway hatch with the other. I climbed into the cockpit sideways, compensating for the roll of the boat. I was only … Read More... about Major Tom and the Lucky Lady

The Foreigner

I slip into the fake-leather seat, and look at my watch. I have about an hour before the shareholders' meeting, but I have to stop by the day care first, so I want to make this snappy. I've found that … Read More... about The Foreigner

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