Ask the Author: Matt Heart
Answered Questions (4)
Matt Heart
There was a time when inspiration looked simple.
My wife and I would sit back, have a few drinks, and watch TV. We’d pause whatever we were watching and start talking about life, about ideas, about “what if?” One night we were watching a scene where someone was losing their breath underwater. The term hypoxia came up. I looked up the definition and immediately thought, That’s a great title for a book.
I started pitching the idea to her right there on the couch. She smiled and said, “Write it.” And that was that.
These days I don’t drink anymore, so inspiration looks different. But it hasn’t slowed down. If anything, it’s sharper. I’m not searching for ideas — I have too many. It’s never a question of what I want to write. It’s always when. Some stories burn fast. Others sit. I have two manuscripts right now that are a year and a half old, both around 35,000 words — and I haven’t touched them in months. That doesn’t mean they’re dead. It just means the timing isn’t right yet. I write when the story feels alive. When I’m excited. When it pulls at me. Inspiration isn’t a lightning strike. It’s a conversation. Sometimes with my wife. Sometimes with myself. Sometimes with a single word that refuses to leave my head.
My wife and I would sit back, have a few drinks, and watch TV. We’d pause whatever we were watching and start talking about life, about ideas, about “what if?” One night we were watching a scene where someone was losing their breath underwater. The term hypoxia came up. I looked up the definition and immediately thought, That’s a great title for a book.
I started pitching the idea to her right there on the couch. She smiled and said, “Write it.” And that was that.
These days I don’t drink anymore, so inspiration looks different. But it hasn’t slowed down. If anything, it’s sharper. I’m not searching for ideas — I have too many. It’s never a question of what I want to write. It’s always when. Some stories burn fast. Others sit. I have two manuscripts right now that are a year and a half old, both around 35,000 words — and I haven’t touched them in months. That doesn’t mean they’re dead. It just means the timing isn’t right yet. I write when the story feels alive. When I’m excited. When it pulls at me. Inspiration isn’t a lightning strike. It’s a conversation. Sometimes with my wife. Sometimes with myself. Sometimes with a single word that refuses to leave my head.
Matt Heart
Don’t overthink it! If you have an idea, sketch it out. Build a rough draft. Decide how many chapters it needs. Name them if you have to — chapter titles keep you focused. Sometimes I write my chapters like movie scenes. Visual. Tight. Purposeful. If you can’t afford $300–$400 for an editor, use the technology available to you — responsibly and professionally. Let it help with punctuation and grammar.
But never let technology write for you! You only get one voice. Use it. Tell the story the way only you can. I’m not interested in writing 12- or 15-hour books. That’s not who I am. I’m the uncle you invite to the birthday party to tell jokes. The kid at the sleepover telling scary stories in the dark. I’m there to give you a few intense hours — to make you feel something — and then I’m gone. You move on to the next story. But part of me lingers behind. Write what you feel—not what you think you’re supposed to write.
But never let technology write for you! You only get one voice. Use it. Tell the story the way only you can. I’m not interested in writing 12- or 15-hour books. That’s not who I am. I’m the uncle you invite to the birthday party to tell jokes. The kid at the sleepover telling scary stories in the dark. I’m there to give you a few intense hours — to make you feel something — and then I’m gone. You move on to the next story. But part of me lingers behind. Write what you feel—not what you think you’re supposed to write.
Matt Heart
For me, it’s creation. I get to build entire worlds from nothing. I give my characters a voice. A pulse. Breath. I shape their fears, their flaws, their darkness—and when I’m finally satisfied, I hand them to a narrator who brings them fully to life. Then I score the audiobook like a film, layering music beneath the emotion. That process? It means more to me than cutting a three-minute song in a studio ever did.
As an independent author and publisher, I answer to no one. No watered-down plots. No forced edits. No committee steering the ship. I control the pacing. The reveals. The silence between the lines. I decide what you see—and when you see it. But the best part?
It’s when a reader trusts me enough to get in the car.
I’m driving. They ride shotgun. And together, we take every twist and turn inside my mind.
As an independent author and publisher, I answer to no one. No watered-down plots. No forced edits. No committee steering the ship. I control the pacing. The reveals. The silence between the lines. I decide what you see—and when you see it. But the best part?
It’s when a reader trusts me enough to get in the car.
I’m driving. They ride shotgun. And together, we take every twist and turn inside my mind.
Matt Heart
Tender Eyes 3: The Butcher - I am putting a lot of thought into this novel. It seems to be my most challenging one yet.
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