How has religion influenced your writing?

-- Submitted Anonymously

OSC REPLIES: - March 12, 2001

All my real beliefs (not what I believe that I believe, but what I really believe at the deepest, most unconscious level) show up in my work without my having to make any conscious effort to include them. Because I am a believing Latter-day Saint, some of those beliefs are bound to show up. But I have no program for trying to put those beliefs into my writing. On a superficial level, I have used some Mormon history and scripture or Mormon cultural motifs in my fiction, but these are not of any particular significance in terms of "influencing" my fiction. I also use other histories and cultures in my fiction, as they serve my storytelling purposes. I have no "Mormon" agenda with my fiction -- I simply tell stories I care about and believe in, and hope I can write them well enough to reach the audience that will care and believe also.

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