Analysis and comments from someone else, on the other hand, is what usually causes me to look at my stories in a new light. Prismatrix01 left a comment on "Me, My Sword, and I", saying that the overall theme of "being more than what you're made for" is similar to The Iron Giant, which hadn't even considered before but agree wholeheartedly! (I also didn't realize MMSaI even had a theme). A lot of the comments on "A Hole Dug With a Rabbit's Foot" also caused me to look at the whole article differently: Maxyfran73 described the story as unfocused but that it felt earned, which caused me to reflect on the way I handled all the moving parts of the piece; LAN 2D and swordlover87 said the setting feels very well lived-in, and that made me think about how I view fictional settings in the first place. And there was something this one person said about it in a discord server, that really… it made me actually like what I wrote:

"surreal, and atmospheric; almost like a fever dream but enjoyable"

Something about this… it reminded me of another author's works, specifically the way they made me feel while reading them. Maybe I'm arrogant for seeing this comment as an indirect comparison, but if I'm able to create something that has a similar effect on people, it makes me want to continue writing for as long as I can.¹

Oh! Actually, looking back on Rabbit's Foot, the time constraint of the contest really made the piece better than it otherwise would have been; forced me to shorten certain parts or remove others that would've ended up just being fluff.

How do you interpret your own work?

That's a tricky question since I usually write stories while knowing full well what's going on. In the case of things I (as the author) don't even know, I guess I end up in the reader's shoes wondering this and that while trying my best to make sense of things. Including but not limited to considering contrasting possibilities. 🤔

Do you find it useful to analyze your own stories, or not?

Oh, hell yeah. I analyze things by default, so of course I'm gonna do it to my own work and justify it.

Why [is it useful]?

Because it builds the world, scene, and characters the work is set in and involves. Thus, allowing me not only flow more naturally while writing but also make sense of it all. Otherwise, there'd likely be a lot more plot holes and whatnot.

Do you ever find yourself discovering something new about your past writing, either through someone else's interpretation, or through your own realization?

Totes, but mostly through someone else's interpretation. And that's a great example for why I prefer not to explain my work. Sometimes, readers have more interesting interpretations than I did as the bloody author. 😅

However, I think some of the underlying elements of my "deeper" works include a continous struggle against the past and how the actions of others influence your own- part of the Latin American experience and how being born and raised in a region where foreign powers cause suffering for their own goals shapes your class and racial conscience. I use some stories to vent frustration, resentment and other grievances I have against the injustices that my people have suffered through their history… or just my own personal experiences as a young adult.

Other times I simply wish to make character studies: delve deeper into the psyche and motivations of characters that have so far showed up solely on plot-driven stories as a way of making them more three-dimensional and relatable.

Honestly I don't usually end up with a different interpretation when going back to my own work. Rounderhouse did have an interesting interpretation of A Disease of the Flesh, though, "the first casualty of an apocalypse is always our trust in one another, and that's the thing that ends up killing us". That was a cool angle to see- I had the Captain kill off crewmates (sus) because he represents clinging to an old way of life at the expense of the new. It's weird that my writing means things I didn't think of when writing it. Weird but cool.

It's been a while, but we're jumping right back into it. A continuation of our last thread, we're doing biweekly discussions on the Library, her stories, authors, artists, and everything in between!

This week, our prompt is:

How do you interpret your own work? Do you find it useful to analyze your own stories, or not? Why? Do you ever find yourself discovering something new about your past writing, either through someone else's interpretation, or through your own realization?

—submitted by LAN 2D

Discuss! And remember: if you have an idea for a discussion prompt, submit it here and it may be used in future threads!