“A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.”–Samuel Johnson
I was talking to one of my patients today and we were discussing how much we both enjoyed reading. She told me that she loved to read because she could make the people and the places in the story whatever she wanted them to be. I asked her what she meant and she said, “The characters can look like whatever I want them to look like. The setting is what I want it to be.” Now, as a fanatic reader, I know she’s right. When I read, all heroines magically look like me. If the author describes a character or a setting in such a way that it doesn’t feel right in my head, I just change it. That’s what readers do, right? As a writer, though, it took me aback to think that someone might do that to one of my books! These stories were gifted to me by my imaginary friends. I gave birth to these tales and, frankly, it wasn’t always an easy labor. As I mulled over her words, I realized that I was looking at this in the wrong way. I write to share my imagination, my fantasies, and all things scary, lovely, and weird. If someone is enjoying my work enough to meld their own dreams with mine, that’s pretty cool. It’s all very kumbaya, but I like the thought that we’re all connected in our literary world. I’ll start the book, you finish it.
Sandy Huth 
I guess we shouldn’t kill ourselves trying to describe every detail of our characters then!
It’s interesting that you post this. Socrates actually rejected the written word, and one of his three reasons for doing so was fear of the reader misinterpreting what has been written. He believed that speaking was far superior to writing because once you cast those words onto paper, there is no telling what a reader might do with them. They might manipulate your words, or misunderstand your meaning because nonverbal signals are difficult to put into writing. The power of words scared him, and he warned against relinquishing that power into the hands of strangers.
I find Socrates’ three reasons for rejecting the written word fascinating. I’ve actually used them as the basis for my novel, The Six Provinces of Debris. The first three chapters are posted on my blog, but the first chapter is the one that specifically refers to Socrates’ three reasons.