Battling Perceptions

I touched on this a little bit before when talking about folks I didn’t think really “got” the point of some of my work, but it spawned a deeper thought session my mind – author perceptions of their work versus audience perceptions of it.

When writers write, we have certain ways we want our work to come across.  We have certain themes we see as essential to what we’re trying to write.  But what if the audience sees our work in a different light?

This can be frustrating as a writer.  Can’t you just get what we’re trying to say?  Are you too stupid to see it?  These are the inner(and sometimes, stupidly, outer) voices we use in our annoyance.  However, I’ve often said that reading is subjective, so should we accept it on the part of our own stories too?

For example, I see Salvation Day as a deeply emotional book about a struggle with grief and faith, but a few have seen it as an adventure story with no deeper meaning.  Wrongful Death, to me, may be the weakest book of mine, but I’ve spoken to some who have found grand meaning to their own lives within its pages.  So how do we control the perception readers have?

Bottom line is that we can’t.  We can try our best to drive a story in a certain direction, but in the end, it’s the audience that will decide for itself what they find.  We can try to better explain, if asked, but it’s not our mind.

That all said, it’s kind of humorous when sequels stay on the lines of perception we wanted them to but upset the perceptions of the audience.  😉