The Search for the Ideal Reader

Confession: I once owned three New Kids on the Block albums. Their Christmas album was my favorite, and I could still sing along to "Funky Funky Christmas."

Reading:

• On Writing, by Stephen King

Writing:

• "Illuminated"

One concept that King talks about in On Writing is the Ideal Reader--that is, the target audience boiled down to a single individual. He states that for most writers, the Ideal Reader is someone real in their lives, the first person to be given a manuscript when a draft is finished.

I'm not sure what it says about me that I don't have an Ideal Reader, at least not one that's capitalized like that. My parents often read my stories first, just because they're kind enough to drop what they're doing and print it out whenever I send one. I have a handful of friends who will also read my output, but not regularly. I'm also part of a writing group

So who is my Ideal Reader? Maybe it's me, in one respect. I try to write the kind of story I would enjoy reading, certainly. But I don't think it works like that. Writing is communication, and since I always know what I mean, communicating with myself just doesn't fit the bill.

I think the issue is that I do not have a peer who shares my interests and bends over backwards to support my nascent writing career. And when I put it like that, it sounds like it would be difficult to find such a person. Am I that much of a loner?

Part of the issue might be that I only moved here a year ago. Only a few people from my past live nearby, and they're all in the city, too far for more than weekend excursions. And the sort of relationship that would cause someone to drop everything they're doing to critique a story takes time to develop. The quest for the Ideal Reader, then, becomes the more familiar challenge of meeting people in an unfamiliar region, when most of my favorite activities are solo ones.

In the mean time, who am I writing for? Perhaps not an Ideal Reader, but my idealization of the Ideal Reader. Maybe I'm writing for a person I haven't even met yet.