Our guest author, Madeline Hunter, ponders the imponderable – reader interpretations vs. writer intent. Read on…
This post is supposed to be about readers and reading, and it is. Only it is not about my toppling TBR pile. Instead I want to talk about how readers actually form and control the books they read.
Actually, I think that readers finish writing the books they read. Let me explain.
I received a nice amount of reader emails when my first book was published. Like any writer I was elated that someone had actually read the story that up until then had only existed in the minds of me, my agent, my editor and my best friend. Upon reading some of the emails, however, I began to wonder if all of these new fans really had read the story I had written.
The first eyebrow went up when a couple of them compared my book to those by a writer whom I admire, but that I don’t think my work resembles at all. Yet here were some readers gushing on how similar our books were.
Then I received some letters asking me to explain something in the plot that I thought was very clear. As in hit-you-over-the-head clear.
I received a lot of feedback about the historical detailing. I found this interesting because in order to carve that book down to something resembling a publisher’s word count, I had stripped out most of the detailing.
There were also readers who really fixated on some minor character. That walk-on with five lines somehow had become the reader’s best friend.
I chewed all this over. I continued getting emails like this with my following books. Reviews really could make me pause too. The question that would pop into mind with this feedback was “Did she read the book I wrote?”
I have concluded that the answer is “Probably not.”
Oh, they all read the words I had written. But reading is a creative process. Two minds are making that story. As a writer, I put down words to try and communicate the story unfolding in my head. The reader’s mind may add or subtract, may react more or less strongly than mine did, or may focus on small things that I barely noticed myself.
I figured out what was going on when I wrote a report at work one day. This committee report was somewhat critical of certain policies and how they were being implemented. When the report circulated, I began getting feedback from various department heads. Every single one had missed the main point of the report, even though it was boldly and baldly stated several times. Instead, to their reading, that report was really about them and their departments.
When we read a novel we are a lot like those department heads. We are not clean slates that the writer gets to chalk up at will, totally controlling our absorption of the story. We all bring our histories and our experiences and our personal baggage with us, and it subconsciously affects how we read every book.
For example, we relate to characters with whom we share some experience or characteristic. We react badly to characters who trigger memories of people we really dislike. If the heroine reminds us of the girl in high school who made our life hell, the story is going to have a hard time engaging us in a positive way. If the reader thinks my hero is like the guy who just dumped her, there is a good chance she will not finish the book. Even a name can affect how a reader relates to a character.
I learned from my readers that reading is not a flat experience. Every word and every sentence does not get absorbed equally, and different minds absorb different things in different ways. Our minds emphasize scenes, words and phrases that interest us for whatever reason and more easily forget ones that don’t.
Of course, sometimes a reader writes to me and her letter indicates she read exactly the book I thought I wrote. That is always nice. Actually it is exciting. Oh my gosh, I think. She totally got it. She didn’t miss anything.
But sometimes a reader picks up one of my books and reads a story that isn’t nearly as good as the one I wrote.
And sometimes a reader reads one that is better.
Interesting post, Madeline! I’ll admit I haven’t thought of this, but I totally see your point! How about you readers and writers out there? Ever read a book and think one thing, then go back to it years later and get something totally different out of it? How about characters – love them one time, hate them the next?
Yes, I have to admit that when I reread sometimes some of the characters aren’t as likeable or are more likeable that in the first read. I think going back and rereading sometimes is necessary, especially for a book with lots of details and books that deal with multiple characters.
You make a good point. I never thought about this before but after reading this I can see that this has happened to me before.
that’s what I love about the different blogs and boards where readers and writers can interact. It’s fun to me to see what others think of a favorite book of mine. Or to get different recommendations for new authors. Sometimes, the raving about an author will have me pick up a book. Sometimes the author has a new reader; sometimes I wonder if I read the same book as the others b/c I just didn’t get into it.
In interacting in different boards where authors have a series, it’s fun to see which secondary characters have caught people’s eye and why, etc etc.
As an author it must be equal parts fascinating and equal parts frustrating.
Tracy, I certainly find it fascinating. Sometimes if I really try, I can do a kind of “out of writer’s body” experience and see where the reader is coming from. It is a little strange to do that. It means totally closing the door to my memory of the book, stepping into that reader’s perceptions, and seeing the book from this very different perspective. When that works, it is very interesting because I see HOW she read it, and what came through prominently for her. And, yes, THAT story is there too, just as she read it. It just wasn’t the story that I experienced while I wrote.
By the way, I love the choice of picture graphics used to decorate this blog post. It took me a while to figure them out. What is that? A sponge? What is a sponge doing—- Ohhhh.
Madeline, I can so relate to your take on reader feedback.
It is puzzling and intriguing when a reader *gets* something from the book entirely different than what was originally intended. Obviously there is no such thing as a perfect pitch.
Sometimes, it makes me think of those college English classes when we were bidden to dissect some long-gone author’s work and come up with what it meant. As if! 🙂
Interesting post,
EC
I have to say the pic are allllllll Gwen. She is great at it, scary place her mind is *g*.
I LOVE the odd duck out!
I have been trying to think who I would rec someone to read if I was asked – I loved Madeline Hunters “title here”, what would you recommend like it.
And honestly? I am drawing a blank. You have any ideas? OH! Contest post *g*
This was such an interesting, thought-provoking post that I’ve been thinking about it off and on all day.
All things are seen thru perspective gained from life experience, education, upbringing, and just generally what kind of a day you’re having that day. I tend to think writing must be the same. I imagine that an author who looks back on a work they did years ago, they wonder, “WHAT the hell was I thinking??”
This is why I think anthropology is such an interesting topic. Wish I had gotten my degree in it instead of English.
At the risk of getting boring and academic, it is the influence of anthropology that has changed the way the arts are looked at by academics now. The idea of dissecting the great book for THE interpretation is pretty much dead among younger professors.
As a resister of these new-fangled theories of criticism, I was chagrined to discover that my experiences with those reader emails led me to exactly the same conclusion! There cannot be THE ONE meaning of a text.
Madeline – EXACTLY! I think back on an English professor who was just crushed when her masters-level class had as many opinions on some John Donne poem as there were people. And, let’s face it, that was HIGH DRAMA for an English class!
Ack – I wish I was sitting around a table drinking a beer with all of you right now, talking about this. It’s such an interesting topic.
I had a college professor that told us about an experience he had that was awesome. I canNOT for the life of me remember the poet’s name, but anyway, some poet they make you read in high school. He saw this poet speak at a conference and he was talking about one of his poems and how he repeats the last line. There is this big, fancy schmancy, intellectual answer the English teachers tell us as to why he did that. In his talk he said, “I just liked the way it sounded when it was repeated at the end” bwahahahahahahahahaha I felt VINDICATED b/c whenever we had to do all that “this is what they writer meant. . . .” stuff, I never seemed to quite see it the way my teacher wanted me to. 😉
High five, Tracy. I’m with ya sister!
I want to say the poem was Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” but I googled it and the internet is still full of fancy explanations for it, so maybe it was a different poem. *sigh* I wish I could remember, but anyway, I know my professor told the story whoever’s poem it was LOL
Hmm, that is interesting. Of all the books I have read I have only re-read a portion of them. I can honestly say that each time I re-read a book it comes to me the same as the first time. When I read a book I try to block out all other thought because I have read a book that just the character’s name made it hard for me to want to continue, but I did finish it and I was glad that I did because it turned out to be a really good book. Also, when I read a book if I don’t understand a certain sentence or even paragraph I will read it over and over until I do, even a few pages back if I have to. I even keep a dictionary next to me while I read for those times when I come across a word I am not all to familiar with and will read the entire definition until I can find the meaning in which the writer is using. My purpose in reading a book is to read it from the writer’s perspective, not my own, so that is what I try to accomplish. Now I’m sure some of my personal baggage gets affected by the story, but I don’t let it affect the story itself…if that makes any sense. I am the one affected by the story, not the story affected by me. If I can’t connect to the story then I don’t read it until I can. (Does any of this make sense? lol)
I think personal baggage can really kill a book for some people. A woman recently divorced from the love of her life who was fucking around on her might not be able to read or enjoy a book with adultry.
Someone who has lost a child may not be able to read about it. Cancer has touched your life or rape or some type of big bad ugly… you may have a harder time with reading about it and may see more than what is on the page. The woman who married the sheik she thought was really just her asshole boss who hated her but once she lost her glasses and took down her hair she was lurvy and he had to have her but didn’t get rid of his mistress when they moved to whatever land he was from may have issues with Harlequin Presents.
Or whatever…
I often wonder who over thinks books more. The authors or the readers.
LMAO.
Anyone wants to take a Freudian guess at why I hate innocent little virgins?
::raises hand:: me me, pick me!
LOL – Or anyone who has a problem with two brothers who must have buttsecks with every woman the other one meets and can’t do it unless they’re spanked first and tied to the headboard may not like some erotica titles.
rofl, Gwen. I recently read one of those. It was okay. But it felt kind of stale–even though it was my first one. It was not particularly erotic, despite the buttsecks, nor did it have a particularly believable HEA.
Amidst the increasingly abundant buttsecks, I’m beginning to long for a truly charged scene where the hero and the heroine exchange nothing more than a glance and the page burns.
Oh jaded me.
Oh and Madeline, if you are still around, which of your titles would you say is the most erotically charged?
Sherry – Sylvia Day has a few of those kinds of scenes in “A Passion for the Game” – lovely book.
Madeline is most likely walking backward slowly, away from the blog, making a cross with her hands
no really she worked today… I think she is coming back but gwen may have scared her… gwen does that but we like her anyway
No, I’m still here. I was at my day job today. For those wondering, I will answer in two words that you all will understand—-medical benefits.
Most erotically charged? Hmmm. I would have to pick from among Stealing Heaven (even after they consumate), The Seducer (what can I say, he smolders)and Rules of Seduction (but interestingly enough, it mostly is charged within their love-making after they are married.) Although I do think that this is really something that different readers would answer different ways. Also fulfilled or unfulfilled eroticism has a different impact.
Now, there was another post I was going to respond to. I have to go find it again.
Oh, it had to do with the baggage, and how if something just happened to you it is hard to read about that.
The one time readers wrote to me and I suspected that was going on was with By Possession. In it, the hero and heroine are in love, but she will not agree to being his mistress, which, since she is serf born and he is a lord and it is the 14th century, is the only place she can have in his life (she believes this too.) He doesn’t understand, because he will take care of her, they will have each other, and while he might have to marry someone else, that will be the woman who is actually second. It was not unusual for aristocrats at all times to have such arrangements.
Anyway, I did get some mail from readers who really reacted strongly to the heroine’s choice. They thought if she loved him she would agree to be his mistress under the circumstances, that she SHOULD agree, in the name of love. Some of these letters were very impassioned in their explanation/expression/rationale.
It did make me wonder if maybe some of those readers had found themselves having to make a similar choice, and chose differently from my heroine. . . .?
Well it is one hella book to inspire such a passionate response I guess.
I don’t know, I mean I have no bones about not liking a book. Somethings I will love, some not and I know not every book by even authors I lurve and adore will be A’s in my mind. I have no problem reviewing them or blogging about it.
But to email someone, out of the blue and argue with what choices they made or tell them they suck seems weird. And “Hate Mail” completely goes over my head. Hmmm I don’t often email authors to tell them I love their books either. I guess I just suck… cuz authors like mail don’t you? Well not HATE mail but all the other kinds.
Then again I emailed Sherry out of the blue and said send me your book! Now. LOl maybe that is the same thing?
I spend a large amount of By Possession annoyed with the hero. And I just went and pulled a few books (Madeline was one of the first authors I read so all her back list are new copies aka sybil made much better money at the time and doesn’t think about how much was dropped in a month on books. Many I have yet to read).
Funny thing is I don’t think I have ever read Stealing Heaven. And I would have sworn I have read them all. And it is an Autographed copy. LOL so you must have signed stock in San Antonio at some point ;).
I agree that personal baggage/push buttons affect how many react and how we can all read something very different in a story.
Like Cassie, I don’t find myself changing my mind about a book I’ve re-read.
Well hell Sherry, you answered for me already.
Yes, we like mail. We live isolated lives, pretty much. So of course we love it when a reader writes to us, especially to praise us. I have had crummy days that were turned around by a reader’s email. And in truth very few readers write to say “you suck”, even when more nicely put. I have only had a few of those.
The mail I described above wasn’t “you suck” mail. The letters were just trying very hard to explain that I had gotten it wrong, that if she loved him she would have become his mistress.
I can understand how some people can associate the book they are reading with their own everyday experiences, it makes perfect sense. For me, though, once I am absorbed into a book it no longer is a book, if that makes sense. To me it becomes a real story, real characters, which makes me that much more emotionally invested in it. Yeah, there have been a few parts where I question similar things, like why is the heroine being so prideful when she knows she will be happy with him or why didn’t the hero say something differently to her that would have won her over right then and there, but my answer is always the same…it is happening for a reason, because if she wasn’t prideful then their love wouldn’t become desperate for eachother and play out into the great love story that it becomes and if the hero would say what needed to be said earlier on then he wouldn’t have to work to win her heart (or ours) and their love story would become boring. Well, I guess that could be associated with my everyday expeiences since that is the kind of attitude I have towards life? Maybe? Yes? No? I don’t know, but I do know that when I have those questions it is not in relation to what I may or may not have experienced because it is not my story, it is theirs and my purpose in reading the book is because of that reason. Are there any readers who can understand what I am talking about because I have no clue if I am explaining myself properly? lol
Okay, here’s another thought. When readers comment saying that if she loved him she would have become his mistress, it is more because they themselves if in that situation would have done so, right? So, would they be taking away the real story of the book to think like that since it is a book about those characters relationship, not their own, or is it okay that the reader comes to that conclusion even if it discourages the reader from eventually liking it? I think that is the part I am not understanding.
Besides, the book wouldn’t be exciting if it played out so easily. Those instances is what builds the characters strength, it builds the story. If they weren’t there then the story would be finished within a couple of chapters and more likely than not worth even reading.
Another thing I don’t understand is why there even is hate mail because of it. If the reader is unhappy with a book it is not the fault of the writer, but that of the reader, for letting their assumptions interfere with the true story of the book, right? The story eventually ends in the characters favor so why get all bent out of shape with how it gets there? There is only one author writing the book and so many people reading it. How is the author to write in a manner that suits everyone of those readers? Shouldn’t it be the reader who is to read the book for what it is? Isn’t that the purpose of reading a book, to escape from one reality into another? Or is that just me?
Well to be fair I threw ‘hate mail’ in there more along the lines of talking about reader reaction and the different ways it seems to manifest itself.
Although it does oddly tie into something on Jenny C’s blog which I have still yet to go read. LOL
Anyway my main point it Madeline wasn’t talking about that in her blog – I don’t think. LOL I should go reread. Sorry I am not awake yet *g*.
Hi, Cassie!
I will admit that sometimes when readers ask me “why didn’t she/he do X?” my first reaction is “Because if he/she did X, the book would have been over.”
As long as NOT doing X does not seem implausible, or make the characters look stupid or thoughtless, sometimes the option of doing X is off the table because doing X would kill the story’s development. That first clause is the key. If most readers would think “Oh, for heaven’s sake, anyone in that situation would just do X” then there is a problem with the story and the writing.
Hi, Madeline! =D
Yeah, I can understand that. And that is a very good point, if the majority of the readers all experienced similar aversions then in that case the fault would fall on the writing and the story. I remember a Sci-Fi horror book I read years ago that was about 400-500 pages long and started out great, but by the 100th page I grew bored with it and never finished reading it because it was so far out there and the plot didn’t conicide with the overall scheme. For all I know the book could have eventually tied all the loose strings back together, but it all seperated too early on in the book and then took way too long putting it back together. With romance novels, if the majority of the story is based around the heroine’s stubborness or pride and not the romance that is unfolding between her and the hero then I get frustrated with it and it takes me longer to finish the story because at that point it is just too dramatic and makes it very hard to connect with the characters on a deep emotional level.
I should probably add that I am not referring to any of your books though. I thought By Possession was a wonderfull book, even with the headstrong heorine, Moira. lol Heck, with all this talk of your books and the interesting perspectives of your readers mentioned in the comments throughout, I am wanting to go back and re-read the series again. =]
I have ended up looking all around for that stuff. The good news is I uncovered it in Msn.