Ask the Author: Danie Markgraaff
Answered Questions (6)
Danie Markgraaff
Writing in my mind consist of two parts. Telling yourself the story, then preparing the story through your writing for your readers. The first part is 10% and the second part 90% of the work. The second part is to develop, refine and take care of the final product. This is what differentiate study writers who write for themselves in their study and writers that get published. Learn to love and enjoy both and the sky is the limit irrespective of how many books you sell.
Danie Markgraaff
I suppose that it is mostly people who inspire people to write. Each human being is unique and responds uniquely to their environment. The worlds and the environments we live in, and the variety of the circumstance and situations becomes the props and backgrounds. We cannot change peoples behavior, but we can change the props and then make our people respond to what happens to and around them. The results will be their story, coloured through the writer's framework of reference making each story unique. This challenge inspires me and stirs me with each talented person I meet, observe or read about. Incredibly inspiring.
Danie Markgraaff
The ability to paint pictures in peoples minds and not knowing what that picture looks like but giving enough material that the reader can create his or her own masterpiece. Absolutely amazing!
Danie Markgraaff
This is always a difficult question to answer. Any writer would tell you that their minds are consistently working on new ideas or transforming events around us into stories and characters. Painting pictures with words. My latest novel was based on three short stories I have published on Amazon – A Snipers Dream, A Sniper’s Call, And A Sniper’s Redemption. The first short story was based on a question – What if I create a sniper who finds him or her in a position for an assassination, but then woke up to find it was a dream – or was it? And the reader never knows who the sniper really was. The idea came up to combine the trilogy into a novel, but it was not meant to be, so I decided to create a whole new story around this imaginary character but in a covert career in South African context. Farm murders in South Africa is an ugly reality. I decided to use the ugliness of that sad truth in our history to kick off the story of Erin McBride and how she got into an assassination career and how she eventually struggle with all the moral questions in her heart to find significance back into her life.
Danie Markgraaff
I am currently working on my next novel.
My next novel which is a sequel of Equanimity – The final hunt of the honey badger that I released only two weeks ago. The book takes the main character from Equanimity, Erin McBride, further in her quest to repay her debt to the lives she had taken so mercilessly as an assassin and covert operative. She had promised herself that she would never again get into violent action which was still her resolve until she met David Montgomery. When David's world fell apart privately, socially and financially, he embarked on a road to emotional and spiritual recovery. He met up with Erin on one of her Karoo farms when they were confronted with the brute force of Hans Weisman. A wealthy east German businessman whose company lost $250 million through David. Erin has to come out of her retirement to defend her new found love to ensure a future for them and her dream at Ukhutula
Aiming for publication in November 2018
My next novel which is a sequel of Equanimity – The final hunt of the honey badger that I released only two weeks ago. The book takes the main character from Equanimity, Erin McBride, further in her quest to repay her debt to the lives she had taken so mercilessly as an assassin and covert operative. She had promised herself that she would never again get into violent action which was still her resolve until she met David Montgomery. When David's world fell apart privately, socially and financially, he embarked on a road to emotional and spiritual recovery. He met up with Erin on one of her Karoo farms when they were confronted with the brute force of Hans Weisman. A wealthy east German businessman whose company lost $250 million through David. Erin has to come out of her retirement to defend her new found love to ensure a future for them and her dream at Ukhutula
Aiming for publication in November 2018
Danie Markgraaff
The brain of a human being is wonderfully created. We have all grappled to get the old computer going, but it merely means that we haven’t organised it yet. Writer’s block is our struggle to focus. It has nothing to do with creativity. Creativity is your gift that finds its way in various forms into the hearts and minds of people. But the switch is in our brain.
If the switch doesn't flip into writing mode, we need to prompt it. I sometimes struggle because I am not focussed. One’s mind is thinking of too many things and not about the writing.
In the movie, ‘The Last Samurai,' the young Japanese Samurai archer said to Captain Aldren - ‘Too many minds. No mind. Too many minds.’ Think less and focus on what is at hand. Unless some evil force has stolen your creativity – which I do not believe is possible – Sit down with a nice cup of coffee and start typing. It really does not matter what you type, you can always come back and fix the stupid, incoherent brabble. The disjointed, rambling brabble is the plug in the brain, and as we allow the mind to work on what we write, it will flush out the fluff, and clean, pure creativity will flow onto the paper. How long does it take? I don’t know. For me, about twenty minutes or so, then I lose myself in storytelling.
Hope that helps. It is merely a matter of sitting down and write. The creative juices will eventually come. Don’t try too hard, just flow with what is in your heart.
If the switch doesn't flip into writing mode, we need to prompt it. I sometimes struggle because I am not focussed. One’s mind is thinking of too many things and not about the writing.
In the movie, ‘The Last Samurai,' the young Japanese Samurai archer said to Captain Aldren - ‘Too many minds. No mind. Too many minds.’ Think less and focus on what is at hand. Unless some evil force has stolen your creativity – which I do not believe is possible – Sit down with a nice cup of coffee and start typing. It really does not matter what you type, you can always come back and fix the stupid, incoherent brabble. The disjointed, rambling brabble is the plug in the brain, and as we allow the mind to work on what we write, it will flush out the fluff, and clean, pure creativity will flow onto the paper. How long does it take? I don’t know. For me, about twenty minutes or so, then I lose myself in storytelling.
Hope that helps. It is merely a matter of sitting down and write. The creative juices will eventually come. Don’t try too hard, just flow with what is in your heart.
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