posted
Mr. Card, I've been working on a story and I was struck with several questions about writing that would ordinarily go unanswered but being that you tend to read these posts I figured why not ask, the worst that could happen is you don't answer, and in that case, I'm no worse of than if I never asked, so here goes. And if these questions have been answered by some biography piece or on another thread feel free to direct me there instead of re-stating answers.
-First off, Did you start your career as a "writer" or were you educated in something else and you fell into writing when you realized you had a gift for it?
-Second, have you found that making the hero of the story be nothing more than a man (i.e. Ender) is more or less fun than writing a story about a character with abilities beyond that of man? (i.e. Alvin Maker or Jason Worthing)
-Third, Do you tend to get inspired to write something and then write it, or sit down intending to write something and then it comes?
-Finally, and this one is a little strange, now that you are "famous", has the fact that you keep in contact with you readers via this message board effected you in terms of the "risks" that you are willing to take with your writing?
I'd love to hear your insight.
Posts: 484 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
I'm just givin' you a hard time. Not ment to mean that I really have a problem with people giving me helpfull advice. I'll check out that link. Thanks.
posted
-First off, Did you start your career as a "writer" or were you educated in something else and you fell into writing when you realized you had a gift for it?
"Career" is such an inappropriate term for anything I ever decided on. I suppose I HAVE a career, but I never chose one. I entered college as an archaeology major and gravitated to theatre mostly because that's where I was spending all my time anyway. I loved acting, directing, costuming, makeup, but it's when I started doctoring plays and then writing my own that people got most excited by my work. So I did more of it. I started a theatre company, and wrote musicals, I directed my brains out ... but when my theatre company went broke (nobody said I was a smart businessman) and I needed to make money beyond my pathetic job as an editor (yet another career!) I turned to writing fiction because I knew I could write. I suppose that was a career decision. But what I LOVE to do is teach. And direct plays. And I want to be a singer when I grow up. Plus run for office and win. Ha ha ha.
You see my problem. I haven't actually decided on my career YET, so ...
-Second, have you found that making the hero of the story be nothing more than a man (i.e. Ender) is more or less fun than writing a story about a character with abilities beyond that of man? (i.e. Alvin Maker or Jason Worthing)
You choose ENDER as your example of a hero who is "nothing more than a man"? I would have chosen Orem Scanthips or the heroes of Homebody or Enchantment (male AND female) or Homecoming as better examples of normality than Ender Wiggin <grin>.
Fun? Writing isn't fun. It's WORK. It's BORING. I stopped enjoying it years ago. I do it because I like having an income. If I only wrote what was FUN then the only output I'd have would be my hymns and poems and my Uncle Orson Reviews Everything column. In other words, precisely the work for which I earn NO MONEY AT ALL.
-Third, Do you tend to get inspired to write something and then write it, or sit down intending to write something and then it comes?
Yes.
-Finally, and this one is a little strange, now that you are "famous", has the fact that you keep in contact with you readers via this message board effected you in terms of the "risks" that you are willing to take with your writing?
"Famous" is such a relative term. Brad Pitt is famous. Shania Twain is famous. The current crop of American Idols are famous. "Writer fame" is trivial compared to these, and has no effect on my work at all.
This message board is valuable for other reasons.
Nor do I have any idea what you might mean by "risks" that I take with my writing. If I wrote in Portuguese, now THAT would be a risk - because then people in Brazil and Portugal would know just how limited my "fluency" in their language really is, while nobody else on Earth would have any idea what I was writing about.
But when I write in my native language the stories that I care about and believe in, the only risk is that nobody will understand it or care about it or believe in it. Then what have I lost? I'll have a book that doesn't sell. But I've deliberately written and published books that had no particular future; so what? It's not like they cut off one of my fingers for every work of mine that has no noticeable audience.
But that's the risk that I have with every book or anything else I write, and I can't imagine how maintaining this online community would affect that, either to increase or decrease the risk.
The only "risky" thing I've published has been my political essays. And people rip me to shreds for those on my own websites. How, exactly, does this website impinge on THAT risk?
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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posted
I'm not complaining. Just pointing out that whether something is "fun" or not is not really an important consideration in my decisions about what to work on ...
Now, focusing the rays of the sun through a magnet in order to start small fires ... THAT'S fun.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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posted
Thank you for your response Mr. Card. I think it is unfortunate that you don't have fun anymore when you write. I sure do. but then again I'm not trying to pay the rent with it.
Posts: 484 | Registered: Jan 2005
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quote:Fun? Writing isn't fun. It's WORK. It's BORING. I stopped enjoying it years ago. I do it because I like having an income.
I feel so much better. I have to *force* myself to write. Usually I have to imagine my boss looming over me, demanding to know where the manuals that were due last month are.
It's sort of fun to write the stuff I'm writing when I'm mad because there isn't anything already written, or what is written is outright wrong or difficult to follow. It's more fun after I'm done with the initial laying down of words and I can go back, prune, clean up, reword, etc. And the most fun is to have the manuals used with actual people, to see if I succeeded in being invisible to learning, that I've made the learning curve smoother. I already know they're going to hate it, I just like to see if I can help them hate it less than if they didn't have the manuals at all.
But the initial writing is not as fun as I thought it would be.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
It goes back to that old thing of work is work no matter what you do. If it was fun they would call it going to fun not going to work.
Posts: 832 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Of course once you make a mistake we all seem eager to pounce all over it too. The high price of fame!
Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Hmmm, maybe you are not allowed to make mistakes since we pounce on you when you do. Something to think about..... I'm just on my lunch break and bored silly Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Fun? Writing isn't fun. It's WORK. It's BORING. I stopped enjoying it years ago.
I hope that doesn't happen to me!
"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do that, because the world needs more people who have come alive." Writing makes me come alive (when it's working!), and writing about particular subjects, especially.
Mr. Card, if Ornery articles make you come alive, maybe you could try your hand at political nonfiction (for pay, I mean). Some make a living at it!
[ April 30, 2005, 01:19 PM: Message edited by: Will B ]
Posts: 1877 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
It would put my heart at ease to know that OSC derives some enjoyment from writing, even the type of writing that pays. Not a lot, mind. Writing is 99% struggle for me right now, but it's all worth it for that 1%.
Or perhaps this is one of those Paul Harvey Rest of the Story things, where what the creative genius intended to do with his life never comes to fruition. However, the very thing he never meant to make a living on is exactly the thing that brings him fame and fortune--or something a bit like it.
I think I'll probably end up the same way. All my dreams of doing something with music or being a writer will have to be put aside. Instead I'll end up making handbags for a living.
Posts: 407 | Registered: Jul 2003
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