Ask the Author: Daniel Martin Eckhart
Answered Questions (8)
Daniel Martin Eckhart
As long as there was light, they'd be safe from monstrous fangs. The gods, laughing, hurled the world into darkness.
Daniel Martin Eckhart
Bit strange, perhaps, but of everything that's out there, I'd want to visit the hero of The Champ, my first novel. I'd like to just spend a few days in his company, just sit there on the bench, with 115yr-old Wilber Patorkin.
Daniel Martin Eckhart
Roughing It (Mark Twain), Native American Myths (Rosalind Kerven), Red Blood and Black Ink (David Dary), Boundaries Between (Martha Knack) ... just to mention a few - what can I say, it's a research summer - lots to learn about the world of my next novel.
Daniel Martin Eckhart
Intensely living in worlds and with characters of one's own creation.
Daniel Martin Eckhart
Anyone thinking about a life (note: I did not write “career”) as a writer should have an inherent passion for writing. You should have a very basic need to put your ideas to paper. You should literally be unhappy whenever you cannot write down those ideas.
We all have ideas. Whenever somebody starts with the “I have a great idea” bit, I usually listen politely, then just as politely tell them that they should go ahead and write the story themselves (they never do). Fact is, I’ll be swamped with my own ideas for the rest of my life … but that’s not the point.
The two most essential elements for a writer are discipline and stamina. Only then come craft and talent. You can learn the craft and you can become a reliable, prolific writer without being the most talented one. But you will never be a true writer unless you have the aforementioned discipline and stamina.
Start writing. Now! Write every day – develop the discipline of writing daily – write your manuscript, finish it, write the next one, finish it, write the next one, finish it. Finishing is important! Most of those people with "great ideas" won't EVER finish a story. By constantly writing you’ll grow your writing muscle and your body of work. You'll also increase your stamina, you'll start to believe in yourself.
People will hurls all sorts of stuff at you - mostly rejection. But if writing has become an essential part of you, nothing will be able to stop you. All the talent in the world won’t help you unless you have the discipline and the stamina to deliver on the promise of your talent. So - you have the stamina to swim across the Atlantic? You have the discipline of a world class Olympic athlete? Good - start writing then ... always.
We all have ideas. Whenever somebody starts with the “I have a great idea” bit, I usually listen politely, then just as politely tell them that they should go ahead and write the story themselves (they never do). Fact is, I’ll be swamped with my own ideas for the rest of my life … but that’s not the point.
The two most essential elements for a writer are discipline and stamina. Only then come craft and talent. You can learn the craft and you can become a reliable, prolific writer without being the most talented one. But you will never be a true writer unless you have the aforementioned discipline and stamina.
Start writing. Now! Write every day – develop the discipline of writing daily – write your manuscript, finish it, write the next one, finish it, write the next one, finish it. Finishing is important! Most of those people with "great ideas" won't EVER finish a story. By constantly writing you’ll grow your writing muscle and your body of work. You'll also increase your stamina, you'll start to believe in yourself.
People will hurls all sorts of stuff at you - mostly rejection. But if writing has become an essential part of you, nothing will be able to stop you. All the talent in the world won’t help you unless you have the discipline and the stamina to deliver on the promise of your talent. So - you have the stamina to swim across the Atlantic? You have the discipline of a world class Olympic athlete? Good - start writing then ... always.
Daniel Martin Eckhart
My most recent novel, HOME, originated a long time ago, while walking along the Coney Island boardwalk - the Atlantis diner was still there back then ... and from there a giant WHAT IF arose.
Daniel Martin Eckhart
Life - living it, paying attention to it, musing about it - everything has the power to inspire.
Daniel Martin Eckhart
Another fantastical tale, of course. Set in and around the remnant of an ancient forest named Wychwood in Oxfordshire.
Daniel Martin Eckhart
Does writer's block exist? No. Are the plenty of writers who believe it does? Yes. Are they completely off? Well, not entirely.
Here's the rub as I see it - if you're an experienced writer, you have a handle on your craft. You trust your writing muscle, you trust your instincts. You have that confidence because you've been there before and you've made it through.
Take the example of a marathon runner (and we all know that the marathon analogy fits writing like a glove, don't we!?). The runner knows he's done the e.g. New York marathon - he knows he has what it takes. He keeps in shape and, by doing so, can feel entirely confident about making it through the next marathon in one piece, too. Same with novels, same with scripts, same with us - we've done it before, we can do it again.
Writer's block, to me, doesn't exist. In my case, a period of non-writing is a period when I instinctively know that I'm not supposed to write. If it feels right, I write. If I feel like writing crap, I write crap. And if I don't feel like writing at all, well then I'll happily be the world-class procrastinator I love being. Basically, the trick is not to worry! Trust yourself, trust your writing muscle. Because, heck, we all know how it works - while we walk the dog, while we dust the action figures, while we re-sort our DVD collection - our writer's brain is nicely at work - things are-a-happening. All part of the process.
But what about beginning writers, you might ask? What happens if you don't have the body of work to give you confidence? Well - write, write, write! The more you write, the more you work your writing muscle, the more you learn to understand and use it (remember the marathon runner? He knows exactly when to slow down and when to haul ass). And should you, somewhere along the way, feel that you've just been attacked by the dreaded writer's block phantom - just remember that - it - does - not - exist. What exists is your writing muscle - it wants to and needs to grow - so work the damn thing and before you know it, you'll trust it.
Here's the rub as I see it - if you're an experienced writer, you have a handle on your craft. You trust your writing muscle, you trust your instincts. You have that confidence because you've been there before and you've made it through.
Take the example of a marathon runner (and we all know that the marathon analogy fits writing like a glove, don't we!?). The runner knows he's done the e.g. New York marathon - he knows he has what it takes. He keeps in shape and, by doing so, can feel entirely confident about making it through the next marathon in one piece, too. Same with novels, same with scripts, same with us - we've done it before, we can do it again.
Writer's block, to me, doesn't exist. In my case, a period of non-writing is a period when I instinctively know that I'm not supposed to write. If it feels right, I write. If I feel like writing crap, I write crap. And if I don't feel like writing at all, well then I'll happily be the world-class procrastinator I love being. Basically, the trick is not to worry! Trust yourself, trust your writing muscle. Because, heck, we all know how it works - while we walk the dog, while we dust the action figures, while we re-sort our DVD collection - our writer's brain is nicely at work - things are-a-happening. All part of the process.
But what about beginning writers, you might ask? What happens if you don't have the body of work to give you confidence? Well - write, write, write! The more you write, the more you work your writing muscle, the more you learn to understand and use it (remember the marathon runner? He knows exactly when to slow down and when to haul ass). And should you, somewhere along the way, feel that you've just been attacked by the dreaded writer's block phantom - just remember that - it - does - not - exist. What exists is your writing muscle - it wants to and needs to grow - so work the damn thing and before you know it, you'll trust it.
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