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Two Reasons to Want to be a Writer (according to Orson Scott Card)

By Jared Dees

In the postcript of the audiobook version of Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card shared the two reasons anyone decides to become a writer.

  1. You read something amazing and say, “Oh, wow, I want to be able to write like that.”
  2. You read something awful and say, “If that got published, then I can write.”

The more I think about this the more I think he is exactly right.

Here are just a couple of examples that come to mind:

Example of #1: 

When Charlie Holmberg (The Paper Magician) was 13 she watched a Japanese anime TV series, “The Vision of Escaflowne,” and wanted to create stories like that.

Example of #2: 

David McCullough (John Adams, 1776, Truman) wrote his first book about the Jamestown flood because he thought he could do a better job telling the story than any other book he had read on the subject.

 

July 14, 2018 Filed Under: Author Tips, On Writing

About Jared Dees

Jared Dees is passionate about sharing practical resources to teach faith. He is best known for his website The Religion Teacher and is the author of many books including 31 Days to Becoming a Better Religious Educator, To Heal, Proclaim, and Teach, Praying the Angelus, Christ in the Classroom, and Beatitales: 80 Fables about the Beatitudes for Children.

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Jared Dees is passionate about sharing practical resources to teach faith. He is best known for his website The Religion Teacher and is the author of many books including 31 Days to Becoming a Better Religious Educator, To Heal, Proclaim, and Teach, Praying the Angelus, Christ in the Classroom, and Beatitales: 80 Fables about the Beatitudes for Children. See all of Jared's Books →

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