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So, as I'm writing, I noticed something I've been subconsciously doing for a while:
"Oh, you're concerned about something, guess this is a red-letter day" Iris smirked at Two, well as much as a hooked beak allowed her to. Iris was one of the genetically engineered troops at the Foundation's disposal, basically a humanoid avian.
Her irises were bright yellow. Without visible sclera, they were like
a golden rim around the eyes. She was covered with a soft, fur-like
plumage, white on her head and neck, where it was bushy enough to hide
away the fact, she indeed had a neck.
Her vest only had a plate carrier in the front, even that had to be
enlarged to nearly twice the normal size to cover the chest that
housed the massive muscles, needed to fly. The back had a pair of
slits below the shoulders, where Iris' wings sprouted from. The wing
feathers were larger, more rigid and dark brown in coloration. The
arms were covered with brown feathers, abruptly ending around the
wrist. Thick, orange hide protected the hand. Ebony-black claws stuck
out at the end of each digit.
In short, I want to give everyone the "Mephistopheles Experience", aka: What I think I'm writing, the values, the morale of the story, the atmosphere, all that stuff.
According to the Reader-Response theory (and Poe's Law), different camps of people interpret literature differently. They have different needs and different buttons (you shouldn't push), and most importantly, different expectations, in terms of tone and so on.
I know it sounds misanthropic and dumb, but I'm afraid of the readers. What if they misinterpret things. For me every detail is important in establishing and reinforcing the atmosphere.
For instance, why mention the plate carrier? Well, because it lines up with the world that's established as realistic, these humanoid avians need large pectoral muscles to be able to fly, and they also have an extra set of limbs on their backs, so I adapted the armor to it by making it directional and a bit lighter.
Worldbuilding camp digs this stuff, but I'm unsure about others. So, is it possible to write-as-intended and deliver my "experience" to others, or should I give up?
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The only way to avoid misinterpretation is by having little or nothing to interpret.
What this means is telling simple, realistic (not fantastical) stories. This is clearly not what you are interested in doing.
So, no, for the story you are writing avoiding misinterpretation is impossible.
You can deliver your experience to others, but just like your opinions, others will disagree. My stories occur in a world, and my hero characters express opinions about how the world should be. Many of those are my political opinions, too.
But, I should think it obvious, at least half the world disagrees with me, in some cases 95% disagree with me. I don't care, my heroes are mine, my imagination is mine, my fantasy worlds are mine, and my audience is entertained by that, or they are not. I'll let the market decide.
As it turns out, many people are entertained by my thinking and writing, so that's great. I am intentionally trying to entertain them and craft stories people will like.
Write what is in your imagination, with the intent of entertaining others. If you don't, you are doing something wrong in the writing, so learn to write to entertain others. Learn how to craft stories, and dialogue, and scenes, and descriptions.
I would only worry about how readers will respond to what you write in terms of whether enough of them find it entertaining that they will want to read it. If their response is "This is boring," and putting down the story, either get better, or write for just your own personal entertainment as a hobby, or stop writing and find a different hobby.
Take solace in the fact that most people will not read your story. If you manage to reach 10% of people, that would be a phenomenal success. For the other 90%, the reader response will be boredom and disinterest. I don't think there's ever been a story with universal appeal, and even the most successful ones probably don't get higher than 1%.
If you're lucky, your story will find its audience. Some people who will pick it up and keep reading. The trick is not to induce the correct reader response in everybody, but to help the story find those people that will have some response to it.
It sounds like it's one of those scifi stories that obsesses over realism and worldbuilding. If that's the case, then the worst thing you can do is dilute the mixture. We know there's an audience for those kinds of stories, and we know this is the sort of thing they like. Indulge as much as you can and assume that your readers are as smart about this stuff as you are.
In fact, it's probably better to assume that your readers are smarter than you. A little paranoia may spur you on to more research.
Ultimately, you are always going to go against someone's reader response.
Are you aware of 'The Death of the Author' by Barthes? Basically, your intention as a writer dies once the work is out there because it is completely up to reader interpretation (this is a simplification of the theory).
The only thing you can do is write it how you want to write it, and deliver the experience you envision on the page. You can't worry about reader-response because everyone will just interpret it as they want.
It's not something you can control, essentially because once the work is in another's hands, your authorial status dies.
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