Who is my Ideal Reader?
One of the challenges for new authors is deciding who you’re writing for: not a market or a critic or an agent or a publisher, but one person who you want to appreciate your stories.
Like many contemporary authors, I was introduced to this idea by Stephen King, in his authorial autobiography, On Writing. He calls it the Ideal Reader. My partner challenged me to describe my IR, and I couldn’t.
The Ideal Reader is a sort of spirit animal for the writer. You’re supposed to write the first draft for yourself, but when you come back to edit and rewrite, your IR is your co-pilot. With Blood River awaiting revision, I need to find my IR.
“If you know the tastes of your Ideal reader at least half as much as I know the tastes of mine, it will be not difficult for you to imagine what he will like, and what — not.” — Stephen King
The IR can be a real person: in King’s case it’s his wife, Tabitha; JK Rowling’s children were her IRs for the Harry Potter novels. It could be a friend whose tastes you trust, a teacher, or another writer. Stephen King hit the jackpot, since Tabitha is not only his wife and friend; they met in a writing group and it’s obvious that he respects her as a writer.
Your IR is supposed to help you put a distance between yourself and your writing, but as with many authors, I haven’t found an IR so I’m going to base them on the reader I know best: myself. The question is, what am I looking for in myself that I want in my IR?
1 The “Aha!” reader. I think China Mieville coined the distinction between “Aha!” readers and “Ahhh” readers, in the introduction to Jeff & Ann VanderMeer’s 2008 collection The New Weird. Aha! readers like to encounter something new; Ahhh readers are looking for literary comfort food.
An Aha! reader likes imagination — you could also call them a phantasiaphile — and they’ll be delighted by a story which introduces new ideas and thoughts, or turns traditional forms upside down. They’re disappointed by formula and the mundane, and they’re not afraid to work a little to understand the world you present or the language you use.
Aha! readers aren’t exclusive to sci-fi and fantasy — you’re probably an Ahhhh reader if you’re on the 18th book of that ‘trilogy’ the author never tied up, or you read TV and film tie-ins.
We’re all a bit of both, but I hope I’m writing for people who like something new, whether that’s formats, characters, environments or voices. I’m one of them, at least some of the time, and when I think of the few novels I’ve failed to finish in my adult life, lack of imagination or originality has been instrumental.
2 A story lover. I am a sucker for a well-paced story and I’d love to deliver novels with perfectly placed beats of highs, lows, victories and reversals in my protagonists’ journeys. All I need is engaging characters that my readers will root for, so that’s the entire craft of writing in a nutshell. No problem.
I’m making no promises at this stage, but that’s why I’m heading for St Mary’s in September to hone my craft for a year.
3 A sapiophile. Someone who loves intelligence. I discovered this word in a dating profile: it stood out like a beacon among profiles festooned with emojis, financial expectations and boasts of yogic flexibility.
I knew instantly that it was one of the top qualities I was also seeking, and I’d like my ideal reader to have it, too. There’s a level of hubris involved, but I’d like my writing to show intelligence and for my IR to want it.
I didn’t need to keep looking after I found that profile, either.
4 Informed. I was going to say educated, but that comes with a boatload of class and cultural baggage, so I’ll just say that I’d like my IR to know a bit about the world. How they came about that knowledge is no business of mine, but my IR probably knows most of the world’s capital cities, what order the planets go out from the Sun, and is familiar with the low-hanging fruit of shared SF culture.
I’ve finished some of my favourite novels with new understandings of history, science, art, society and geography, as well how to make the perfect Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster. If I don’t know it, I’ll assume they’re more informed than me so I get it right, and that’s when I might explain something. This isn’t the BBC, though, so inform and educate are second-tier commandments after entertain, unless you’re writing Willard Price-style children’s adventures. At any rate, your Kindle can supply any reference you don’t understand.
5 Progressive. I’m least sure about this one, because while novels with social themes that clang around with bells on make for poor entertainment, I’d find it hard to read a contemporary story that was politically, socially or environmentally tone-deaf. The clue is in nuance and subtlety, ensuring the themes live in the voices of the characters, not the author, and in the universe they inhabit.
I don’t think it’s the author’s job to say what’s write or wrong, unless they do it through their characters and the direction of their narrative. Ultimately, your readers will make their own choices: many of today’s world leaders must have read 1984, and a few of them seem to think that it has an upbeat ending. I doubt they were George Orwell’s IRs.
