More on Wiggle Room

Editor Betsy's recent post about "wiggle room" was interesting. I'm not sure I agree with her about unintentional themes, but I do agree that different readers take away different things. And this is a good thing. For example, I recently workshopped a story with a new group and got some very diverse feedback. A little wiggling may be inevitable. :)

Recently, I reread Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and in the "Author's Definitive" Introduction, he wrote:
This is the essence of the transaction between storyteller and audience. The "true" story is not the one that exists in my mind; it is certainly not the written words on the bound paper that you hold in your hands. The story in my mind is nothing but a hope; the text of the story is the tool I created in order to try to make that hope a reality. The story itself, the true story, is the one that the audience members create in their minds, guided and shaped by my text, but then transformed, elucidated, expanded, edited, and clarified by their own experience, their desires, their own hopes and fears.

Wiggle Room.