Edit Your Novel from the Eyes of Your Ideal Reader

Now, while you’re still viewing your novel for content, read your novel through one more time and look at it through the eyes of your ideal reader.

Your Ideal Reader

Everything you do regarding your content writing from now on should be related to how your ideal reader will view what you have written. I know that I have skimmed over the concept of writing for your ideal reader to this point, but if you haven’t done it already, you’ll need to get a better idea of who your ideal reader is.

How do you know who your ideal reader is? What is that person’s demographics? You want to know as much about your ideal reader as possible. I believe that it is a good idea to create a character that resembles that ideal reader. Begin with the novel’s genre. Who reads this genre?

For instance, if your book is heavy on the romance, your audience is probably mostly female. If your genre is historical, a huge percentage of your audience is probably older readers who are into learning more about their own roots. If your novel is science fiction, you’re probably dealing with a geeky group of individuals. If you’re dealing with the apocalypse, you’re looking at an audience who might be into conspiracy theories.

Does your ideal reader live in an urban area, the suburbs, or in a rural setting?

The more detailed your ideal reader character becomes, the better you’ll be able to focus on writing for that reader. It is a mistake to think that you’re writing for everyone, because that means that you are writing for no one.

Editing Conversation for Your Ideal Reader

Take another fresh look at your dialogue. Look especially at how your characters’ conversations flow. Are you using dialect? If so, try to look at your writing from your ideal reader’s viewpoint. Do the conversations make your readers stop to decipher your writing? If so, it says more about you than it does about the character, so this needs editing.  

Editing Description for Your Ideal Reader

How do you know when your descriptions are too heavy? One of the easiest ways to know that it is time to cut down a descriptive passage is to look at your passage from the eyes of your ideal reader. Would you as your ideal reader read this passage or would you skip over it? If you would skip over it, then delete it. However, if some of that description is necessary for your story line, cut out what isn’t necessary and keep the necessary part. You don’t want your reader to have to go back and read a boring passage of description just to find that missing necessary piece buried in a descriptive abyss. 

Another issue that may come up that you need to address would be if your ideal reader understands your specific references. For instance, you might have to explain what something is. This is especially common for me when writing history. For instance, in Soldiers Don’t Cry, in the scene where we meet the seventeen-year-old Elizabeth, she is working in the kitchen using a peel. I casually defined what a peel was in the conversation that a peel was the flat, long-handled tool she slipped under the loaf of bread that she was removing from the oven. In Sailing Under the Black Flag, I defined nautical terms giving the reader some insight into the sailing experience.

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