: Re: What to do about readers reading into things? I have certain people in my life who insist on reading way too much into my writing. As it is, I do my best to avoid giving my characters

I once sat in on a class on Tolkien, where the professor extrapolated everything into an extended metaphor on World War 2. Now, I'm pretty much equally geeky on Tolkien and World War 2, and I had a number of objections to this. Sure you can draw parallels, but he wrote the books during WWII, of course it affected the writing. That doesn't mean that he drew from one to create the other.

What I eventually realized was that, as an artist, you have no control of what the reader/viewer/whatever will draw from your work. When they work it into their worldview, anything can come out. And will. They'll draw inferences that you never intended, they'll see similarities that you didn't create.

The best thing that you can do is keep your mouth shut, and smile a little smile. If you produced a truly enduring work, people will still be agruing over what you meant long after you're dead, and if you let on that really you were thinking about the hot barrista at your favorite coffee shop...That'll ruin the whole thing.

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: What helpful writing exercises do you use? The two I do most are dialog and description related. When I meet a person or I'm just sitting people watching, I try to write their description

@Yeniel532

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: Deep, convincing characters always work. Others have suggested that a comedic approach might work best. It does not have to be broad comedy. The darkness of your fantasy can remain pretty

@Yeniel532

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: Short, forceful, sentences are clear and pleasant to read. Long sentences (full of description and unnecessary circumlocution), while capable of containing more information than a much shorter

: Re: What to do about readers reading into things? I have certain people in my life who insist on reading way too much into my writing. As it is, I do my best to avoid giving my characters

More posts by @Yeniel532

: What helpful writing exercises do you use? The two I do most are dialog and description related. When I meet a person or I'm just sitting people watching, I try to write their description

: Deep, convincing characters always work. Others have suggested that a comedic approach might work best. It does not have to be broad comedy. The darkness of your fantasy can remain pretty

: Short, forceful, sentences are clear and pleasant to read. Long sentences (full of description and unnecessary circumlocution), while capable of containing more information than a much shorter

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