The Readers Voice

There was a post over at SF Novelists discussing a Post Modernist concept Marie Brennan called "Reading In". The idea is that different people will find their own themes and meanings within a story, regardless of the authors conscious intent.
Here is her description of this, minimally edited and I encourage you to read her words for yourself.

...in the context of the type of story with an element that might or might not be fantasy. Me? I say screw the hedging and the ambiguity; I read that type of story as fantasy, and I do so willfully...It happens with other things, too. I willfully read strength into characters (especially women) that aren’t given any, or sympathy into characters the story wants me to demonize. And I choose that phrase for it because this isn’t something I think is in the story at all; I’m adding it wholesale, entirely against any reasonable interpretation that would pass muster with a decent literature professor.

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It's an intriguing idea that I fully agree with slash understand. What Marie Brennan calls "Reading In" I call the "Readers Voice". As a reader we are actors in our own stories. Rather than allowing the story as written to remain static words on a page a reader provides the hundreds of little details that breath life into the story. The hidden beliefs of the characters, the emotions in their voice, the humour or irony in comments that may read stale or sad. This is the same thing that a good actor does as they turn a page of words from a script into a compelling performance.

In my last writing group meeting the Readers Voice came up, though we didn't discuss it directly, it was forefront in my mind. The nature of a writing group meeting is for the members to share their views and impressions of each others work. This is the time for us as writers to find out what our readers see in our work, and use it to strengthen our stories, or to even take them into entirely new directions.

With one story in particular we all had different reactions. The Author meant for it to be a two part story, but the readers were happy with it ending in one part. While one person saw it as a mythical quest for meaning, another read it as an elaborate suicide note. Both interpretations are valid, even though one is more in line with what the author intended than the other. So to sum: Be consciously aware of the Readers Voice, use it to shape the editing of your stories (which means you need Readers). And of course it's ok to disagree with the author if it makes the story more enjoyable for yourself (though there are many 'Egos' that would disagree).