Writers are Not Alone

Writing is not a solitary act. True, it might begin as a need for one individual, but when you are done your finished product is cast out into the world. It is no longer yours to control. A piece of writing becomes open to interpretation; it is no longer in the original writer’s power to change the message that it portrays. Good writing will more closely mirror the author’s intent, but a story is only as good as the words behind it, and words are severely limited. 

J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the legendary Lord of the Rings trilogy was a linguistics professor before he became a household name. His ability to use language to conjure up the images that he wanted to is perhaps one of the best examples of how language can be used to its most effective level. Mordor, for example, is a dark word; its similarity to the word “murder” cannot be taken as accidental. As you can see, mastery over words will give your readers an experience as closely correlated to the one intended as possible. 

But each individual will ultimately need to interpret a piece of writing for themselves. What Jung called arch-types will provide a basic framework of understanding, but the specifics come down to individual experiences. For example, a murder scene in a book will be widely viewed as a deviant act, but if a serial killer reads your work, he will necessarily have a different interpretation and visualization of the scene than someone whose family member was murdered in front of them will. These are extreme examples, of course, but the point is still the same: different people will see things differently. Your story no longer truly belongs to you once it is published—it becomes your readers’ and is completely open to their interpretations.