Implied reader

The Children's Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2013 has great articles in it. I am working my way through them, in no particular order, but they are all useful and insightful; a must for any aspiring writer.

Page 87 - Who do children's authors write for by Michael Rosen  has made a block fall fully into place at just the right time.

We all write with a reader in mind but maybe not fully in mind as it were and this maybe one thing more I have to cultivate and learn in a more conscious way. With this course I am writing for a specific "section" in mind and they are distinct from other areas of society - despite the fact that they come with all sorts of ideas, dreams and interests all affected by age group etc. This is something that I have come to terms with and I am enjoying; the cut and thrust of tailoring a piece for boys or girls of a certain age group etc.

With my latest assignment I found myself writing a story about a girl. She is an adventurous, fearless type who takes the opportunity to explore the forbidden and finds herself embroiled in a magical and dangerous experience; which she suspects her Grandmother, if not fully, is aware of. This story came organically but with the insight of the article above I realize that I am writing this specific story for a particular type of girl.

Add to this, after raising my fears about the word count restrictions of this assignment, Nina Milton offered the advice to treat each story as "as 1500 words of a chapter of a book" and a huge weight seemed to come off my shoulders.

I knew whom the first story, the first part of the assignment, was written for or at least the character identifies closely with her, how she was when we were children.

My "implied reader" is my Sister, Barbara. 

She was a tomboy. Fearless in outlook, strong of character, a bender of the rules and she broke a few, but always adventurous. She took life and still takes it on with gusto; there are no areas she considers off limits to her and if there are she questions why and usually breaks down barriers - and yes she does get rewarded with magical events happening to her and her family. 

Quite a revelation to me that I have an implied reader of this kind, so close to home. I kidded myself that I was writing for an imagined child in this instance, someone generic and remote. It again shows me that not only the fictional writing examples are of use but also this helpful collection of articles.