A Writer is Only Half of His Book

A writer is, after all, only half of his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.

~ P.L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins books

Yes! We agree. Lory and I have talked more than once about this idea. It is a wonderful thing to write a book, but what does it mean to write a book that doesn’t get read? What is a writer without readers?

This feels a little like ‘What is the sound of one hand clapping?’, or ‘If a tree falls in the forest with no one to hear does it make a sound?’ We could have an interesting philosophical discussion about writers without readers, but for our purposes here I’m more interested in the practical idea that the writer and reader are two sides of something; it takes both to bring meaning to a book. 

Some writers say that they write for themselves, not for a reader. Some writers know their audience and are consciously writing for them. In between, are books where the writer had something to say and the reader heard what they thought the author had to say; often not the same thing.

Readers find things that writers never thought about. So is it there or isn’t it? Yes. No. Maybe.

I was interviewing Laura Lippman on her book, Living Doll. I asked her a question about the connection between how the main character’s mother had dealt with his childhood health problems and how he dealt with his adult relationships with women. From her reaction, it was clear that she had not written with that idea in mind, and she was intrigued by the idea. Did I find something that wasn’t there or did I find something that was there, but she didn’t realize it. Who knows?

My thinking is that it doesn’t matter. Writers write what they write. Readers read what they read. How fun is it thinking about the intersection?

On Mary Poppins – I looked it up and found out that there are eight Mary Poppins Books. I don’t think I’ve read any of them. I remember reading the Wizard of Oz and how different the book Dorothy was from the movie Dorothy. Now, I’m wondering about Mary Poppins.

On the relationship between writers and readers – What do you think? Let us know at twosides2thestory@yahoo.com