Stories are read twice in readers’ minds: Once for information, then for meaning

I think that if one writes a story over a long period of time (at least a year) and over multiple drafts, the story will accumulate extra levels on its own—which is to say, the subconscious mind of the writer will provide them, given enough time and opportunities to sneak in while the writer is paying attention to things like syntax and story structure and make its contribution on the sly, as it were. It is a natural process, I believe, one that will have its way, sometimes to the surprise of the author when they look back later at what they have written. And so I have generally found books where it is done purposely to be a bit heavy-handed (because there is the subconscious contribution added to the conscious one saying much the same thing and it can all be a bit too much) and sometimes rather artificial.
 
I think that the author is basically seeing that there are two things happening with a reader.
First he engages in the words on the page, then he engages his own imagination to fill in parts that might not be stamped in stone. This is why different readers from different eras might find different things; because in fact each reader brings to the story whatever it might allow them to imagine.

I would suggest that a writer tends to read with three components.
That's reading whats on the page; editing as they go; engaging the imagination.
And because of this the editing can get in the way of the imagination and is more likely to ruin the experience.
Also because of this when I am working with someones writing I tend to read it through at least twice.
Once as a reader and once as a writer; before I offer my advice.

And I think this ties loosely with @Teresa Edgerton 's post...

Letting the Imagination Do What It Does Best

It has seemed to me, lately, that as valuable as the technical advice here is—and it is very valuable, don't get me wrong—that we sometimes put too much emphasis on that and ignore the important contributions the imaginative part of our brains can provide. It think this is because the technical...
www.sffchronicles.com www.sffchronicles.com
about imagination.
 
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