Ideal Reader

So this post is dedicated to my best George (and yes for some strange reason I refer to my awesome best friend as a Harry Potter character.  It's a random story that wouldn't make sense to anyone but us.  Yes, we are that special. )  Anyway, so I have this super awesome best friend, yes that's you Ali, and she just happens to like the same book genre as I write.  So she has been given the torturous/privileged (depending on how she decides to look at it :-)) task of reading my chapters as write them.  This has been a huge help to me.

Without realizing it, she has filled an important role.  Something I heard people talk about all the time in my writing classes was the importance of having something known as an IR.  Well, me, being the novice that I was/am, had no freaking clue what that meant.  After a little while, people finally explained that an IR stood for Ideal Reader.  And Ideal Reader is someone that loves the types of stories that you write and that you trust to read your work.  This is the person that you aim to please with what you're writing.  If they're not diggin' what's going on, then it's quite possible that it's not working.  After I figured that out, I went a long time being sad because I didn't have one of those and I didn't think I was likely to find one because most of my family thinks my reading/writing obsession is a little crazy and even those who like to read aren't really big on the fantasy or paranormal romance genres.  (don't get me wrong though, they're all uber supportive.)

Well, I worked so long on my first novel that it had been awhile since I had tried writing something new so I was a little self-conscious after I started writing Susceptible.  To appease my self-conscious side, I sent my first and second attempts at chapter 1 to Ali to see what she thought and she has just been reading chapter after chapter ever since.  It seems kind of silly to me that I didn't think of her before.  I mean, who sat outside Barnes and Noble with me for hours waiting for the next installments of our favorite series?  Who do I recommend books to?  Who recommends books to me?  It was an obvious choice and she does the job well.  She doesn't get to know any of info before hand so she doesn't get a tainted view of what I'm writing, but she gives me a great look into whether or not I am accomplishing what I'm intending.  She also is a great motivator in getting the next chapter. I believe I was told I was fired once if I didn't have my next chapter to her by midnight.  And not only does she give me deadlines and threats, but knowing that I'm gonna get to see her reaction when she reads it, just makes me excited to send it.  

Anywho, ideal readers are awesome sauce (especially mine, she deserves some awesome reward for sticking with me and dealing with all my obnoxious questions) and I would really recommend finding one.  I hope that all of my fellow writers can fine theirs.