Do you happen to know this woman?
You ought to.
Think again.
Look at her: she is not 20 anymore (‘She had finally escaped from the nightmare of youth’ – Anne Taintor).
She is the active type, ready to climb a mountain if needs be.
And she also thinks: she reads books, and not just to find new recipes.
I know a lot more about her, and so do you. I just could not fit it all in one quick illustration.
I know this: she loves going to museums and art shows, yard sales and flea markets.
She sees movies and she reads blogs as well as newspapers.
She has informed opinions.
She may be an artist, or she may just be very interested in culture.
She has a great sense of humor.
Do you finally know who she is now?
You
Of course – it is you, my ideal reader.
You, who share a lot of my characteristics, only you are so much better.
You are a little younger than me, and a little prettier. Especially your legs – you wear skirts!
You can probably ski and play the piano, which I can’t.
Also you never burn your dishes AND you never snap at your kids.
You plan your holidays months in advance and you always know how to find that one special place no one ever set foot in before.
You can also stand the heat of Italy in the summer!
You are less impulsive and more kind.
You dress better too.
Why you?
Every summer I try to learn something new. A technique or a theory.
This summer I decided to rethink the whole blogging experience. So I signed up for one of these blogging courses.
And – lo and behold – the first assignment is: write a blog post about your ideal reader.
But
But I am not so sure my ideal reader is also the right reader.
All of us, if not told otherwise, tend to write for an audience that is a lot like ourselves.
Three of the course’s questions about my ideal reader are:
Where does your reader live?
Is she comfortable with the blog format?
Is she likely to comment?
Good questions. From real life meetings with my readers I think more than half of them are Dutch.
I write in English for the other half.
Is she comfortable with the blog format?
Often not. I know a lot of my real life friends think reading blogs is a waste of time.
Let’s face it: the world is divided into those who are and those who are not living in the blogosphere.
Does she comment?
My real life friends never do. My ideal reader.. hm.. she would be too busy visiting museums and the Swiss Alps!
Anyway.. since I changed over to WordPress a few weeks ago I don’t even know who my real readers are anymore.
If they came along to the new blog.
If they like anything I have to say.
What they would like to read.
Do you?
Hi Kitty, I don’t know if I fit the ideal profile, since we share so many quirky characteristics that you forgot to mention in the ideal section ;).
I love your posts when they are as frank as this one is, they keep me glued to the screen. Love it when your philosophising (is this a word?).
I must say that next to this I also think your tutorials and internet wisdoms are always very helpful.
Ha, musing I guess would be a better description than philosophizing.. although I feel flattered. Yes I left out a few things.. you know why.. reader’s attention spans are short nowadays ;-)
What a perfect discription of ME! (Except form the skinny legs part)
I like your interviews, to see your work or work in progress and to read about everything what inspires you. I would say now: don´t change a thing. But that advise is not worth a whole course.. Hopefully you are going to share some lessons learned.
Yes secretly I had you in mind of course ;-)
Never got to take a look at your legs though but it would not be hard for them to be more fitting for wearing skirts than mine
Great post to read Kitty. Very engaging. I do enjoy your style, wit and artwork as you are but I also know you are driven to find out more about everything you like and ways to develop both yourself and your art. In fact I think this of your character is a main feature as to why I’m drawn to you as a friend and respect your advice and ideas you share. I’m excited to see where this blogging course takes you.. based on what you’ve just written I’m looking forward to more wonderful and unique posts!
PS I enjoy reading about a combination of what you’ve been creating, how your developing and where you find your inspiration : )
Thanks Chantal for your well thought out comment! As always. So all of you artists like personal posts, work in progress, and inspiritional stuff. Tutorials too. I will keep that in mind and I will try to post more in progress work.
Great post Kitty! Ideal is something I think about pretty often. It’s something to shoot for….but in my case anyway, hardly ever attain! But that’s the point of ideals isn’t it…guides. I just love what you’ve done here with your new site….I feel sort of shy with it though, like it’s somebody new and I don’t know them yet. What made you make the changes? It all looks very accomplished.
Ha, love this post! You describe me! well, except for the snapping at the kids and hiking in the alps bit (a fantasy perhaps). Can’t wait to see what you get out of this class, which one is it by the way?
Hi Lari!
Silly you.. look down to the bottom of this page and you will see where I bought this theme, and for less than 50 euro’s if I remember correctly! A theme is a lay out template to lay over an existing program – wordpress in this case – and once it is installed that’s it. I have had a wordpress blog before so I know how it works. I like it better than blogger – more dependable – and everything is stored where YOU want it, instead of in the cloud. It gives you more control. The only hitch is you need a programmer to help you a bit, nothing ever works exactly right at once.. but this design firm has a great forum and a good helpdesk. I am having someone in Holland help me to install a shop… that is a lot of work. For her.
I made the changes because I had one website and two blogs.. it was just too much work. Now it is all in one place. Less sloppy too.
And if you are intimidated.. I am really still the same!
Hi Kathryn – it is good old Alyson Stanfield’s Blog Triage class, but a self study one. Actually I have already skipped two classes because I found I already knew what they told me – being a writing teacher and all. I have changed my about page though. They keep telling you to be outspoken, so I am trying to be more like the real me. But the internet is still a scary beast.
Love this post! Good question too to ask yourself if the ideal reader is the right reader.. Makes me think about customers. Is a happy customer the ideal customer or is the complaining/lots of questions/critical customer the ideal one? The last one, we can learn from, isn’t it?
Can find myself in your description of your readers!! And totally understand what you say about real friends who don’t read blogs or comment.. But aren’t ‘blog friends’ a bit of friends too, with the same interests (like blogging..)?
Again love your post!
Yes Lisette, online friends are true friends too. And happy customers are undoubtedly the best – criticism is great, helpful criticism is perfect. That sort of criticism/attention usually only comes from friends though.. most people do not feel an urge to communicate.
Btw you have a beautifully designed website!
Hi Kitty,
Checking in from scorching hot Virginia, USA.
What I liked about this post was the happy resemblance of an ideal Dutch reader and ideal English speaking (probably American, since we are so numerous,) reader. It seems smart women are the same the world over.
That basically describes me, though my kids are grown and gone and I love flying by the seat of my pants when traveling.
PS, I have excellent legs and have been wearing a skirt every day in this heat!
PS What wouldn’t I give to have even just one of your legs! ;-)