QUESTION:

I am writing a research paper on Ender's Game and Children of the Mind. In both books you present your main characters as innocent children. You also continue on the same plot that a specie or species is about to be wiped out and you chronicle their lives trying to save their world. My question to you is: Is there a reason you kept these two elements constant for a reason or just coincidence? You also incorporate many characteristics, such as brilliance and strength, throughout these books, I was wondering is there a reason for this?

OSC REPLIES:

That's how the story seemed right to me. It's not "coincidence" when one finds similar elements in stories by the same author. As with all other people, some story elements feel particularly important and true to authors, and those elements are bound to show up more than once in the stories they write -- just as readers are apt to find similar elements in the stories they most enjoyed reading.