At the risk of sounding dense, my ideal reader is anyone who wants to read what I write, but I owe it to you to be more specific.  At the moment, I know of one person who has actively stated he wants to read what I write, and that’s my friend Stephen.  That makes poor Stephen, by default, my ideal reader.  Why?  Because he’s said he wants to be.

I’m thankful for and motivated by this statement.  If there is one, there might be more out there.  Somewhere.  If you’re reading this, you might be my ideal reader, which may or may not be more desirable than being a redneck.

For now, I’m striving to write something I want to read.  I owe it to you to be more specific.

I want to read something unexpected but, when I think about it, I realize I should have seen it coming.  I want characters who mean something to me.  When I finish a book, I want to know what happens with the characters after the conclusion of the story.  If I’m wondering about characters and wanting to be involved in the next chapter of their lives after I finish reading this one, that’s a good book.  To me, it doesn’t necessarily matter which genre the book is written in (I detest unpronounceable names, so I promise to use very few of those in my writing).  The characters and their journey matters more to me.

I use very little description.  I think I need to work on that, but in many cases, I think it’s perfectly okay for a a reader to draw their own conclusions and fill in the blanks on the setting.  (I am working on this — some setting is helpful for story context.)

That’s what I can tell you so far.  What do you look for in a book or story?