Meet Dan Martin | Writer for the Screen, Interactive, Comics, and More

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dan Martin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dan, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I think anyone pursuing a career in the arts inherently has to be something of a risk taker. You might think working behind a keyboard as a writer is pretty safe (it’s the characters who are put in danger). But to build a career in a creative field, you have to be ready to make a big bet on yourself. There are easier paths, and careers with more clearly defined steps to success, but they wouldn’t give me the same opportunity to go on the adventure of creating something new.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve written for a number of different formats, but what I’m best known for are interactive narratives — video games with branching storylines where the player makes key decisions for the characters. It’s allowed me to write for amazing franchises such as Game of Thrones, Batman, and Star Trek. (And for that last one, I even got to write and direct Jonathan Frakes, one of the stars of Star Trek, reprising his role as Will Riker from The Next Generation.)

While traditional, linear stories also present characters with key decisions and tough choices, when writing for interactive, those moments where you let the player take control of the narrative carry even more weight. First, the choices need to have compelling alternatives that are actually worth following through on. Because if you offer a choice to the player, you really should let them take it. And if you’re going to build the alternate path, it better be worthwhile.

But more importantly, the act of actually MAKING a choice is a unique, powerful piece of drama that the player takes part in – one that simply does not exist in a linear story. These choices make players pause the game and debate with themselves about which way they want to take. They ponder what their decisions say about the character they’re roleplaying as, and what those choices reveal about the player THEMSELVES as an expression of their values. That’s the great magic trick of an interactive narrative: we reach out through the screen (and the controller) and into the mind and the heart of the player.

I had never even PLAYED this type of game before when I got my first gig writing one. So it was kind of like jumping onto a moving train. It wasn’t easy to learn how to craft compelling, meaningful choices for players to engage with, but it was so worth it. Not just because it’s absolutely necessary for my interactive work, but because of all the ways it has strengthened my writing for other mediums. It makes you write stronger characters with clearer motivations, in scenes that build to more definitive conclusions.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
LA is a special place. There are many sides to the city and so much natural beauty in close proximity, too. Any visit to LA has to include some stops at famous filming locations. As a lover of action movies, that means swinging by the Fox Plaza which stood in as Nakatomi tower in Die Hard, the Emser Tile building that Riggs jumps off in Lethal Weapon, and the intersection of Plummer and Hayvenhurst out in the valley where the T-1000 drove a tow truck off an overpass to chase John Connor down the LA River.

Further out, there’s Point Dume in Malibu where we see the ruins of the Statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes, and then up the 14 to check out Vasquez Rocks, featured in Star Trek, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, and many more. Those double as showcases for that natural beauty surrounding LA.

If music is more of a draw than movies, the Sunset Strip is the place. Hit up The Rainbow Bar & Grill for a stiff drink, and let yourself be transported back to the hair metal heyday of the 1980s. Then go see a show at The Viper Room, The Roxy, or The Whisky A Go Go. But bring your earplugs!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
No one gets there alone. My partner Keri is there day in and day out, and her support is impossible to quantify. There are friends, family, classmates, and colleagues who have all lifted me up one way or another. Extra credit goes to all the people who read those early drafts of my work that I wouldn’t want anyone else to see!

And I’ll give a special shoutout to my dad, William Martin, who is also a writer. As a novelist, he works in a different medium than I do (one that feels very different when I’m writing for video games), but he always has good advice. When I’m dealing with a fast-approaching deadline, or a Gordian knot of plotting, he’ll remind me, “If it were easy, everyone would do it.” Writing is hard, and he would know.

Website: https://www.danmartinmedia.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-martin-media/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@danmartinmedia

Other: https://www.startrek-resurgence.com

Image Credits
Vasquez rocks portrait, San Diego Comic-Con appearance, comic signing, at convention with cosplayer, and giant tiger statue: Keri Johnson. Photo with Jonathan Frakes, and Star Trek: Resurgence collection: Dan Martin