what is your purpose for writing your sci-fi novels? what do you want to warn humanity about? or what do you want people to learn?

-- Submitted Anonymously

OSC REPLIES: - March 12, 2001

Each novel has only one purpose: To tell a story I care about and believe in. But the issues I care about and believe in (often different for each book and story) are issues that deal with how human beings live with each other. I'd like to think that the things I believe about how life works and what goodness is are true and important enough that those who read my books might end up with better understanding of how to be good and happy. At the same time, I don't have any theme in mind with any of my stories. I merely trust that by telling a story that feels right to me, it will be a story that will make a positive difference for at least some of its readers. As soon as a writer takes conscious control of this process and tries to put a deliberate "message" into a story, it becomes an essay and is far less effective and far less likely to be what the writer really believes. It will reflect his conscious opinions, not his unconscious worldview. So even though I do believe in the power of fiction to change the world (gradually!), I don't have any idea, while writing a story, what particular changes that story might lead to.

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