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This week: Tips for Quality Reviews Edited by: Dawn Embers  
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A Newsletter For Authors by Dawn Embers
Discussing the art of reviewing with some tips, thoughts on quality and even a little information on template usage to help those who want to review but might not have it in them to do hundreds a month. |
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Reviews are great for the site and everyone is hoping to get reviews on stories, poems, and other items made viewable on the site. However, someone has to actually give those reviews. There are some great groups who do their part to encourage people to give reviews, along with the site chance to win a prize by doing Good Deeds and reviewing. While it's not always the easiest thing to do and it takes a little time away from writing our own work, I want to provide my views and experience with reviewing here with a few tips for on how to review.
I will admit, that I don't do over 100 reviews a month. In fact, there are times when I'm novel focused and I don't do more than 10. More often than not, I review for a contest that I manage because I have to judge a number of rounds to keep the contest going but I don't do many reviews all of the time or try to get at the top of the reviewers list. So, why should I talk about reviewing? Well, I have won Good Deeds and more than once, so I might have a little thing or two to say on the topic.
The first is: quantity is not the answer. It's great to review different people and items. Some people are here more to read than write, in fact, so nothing wrong with spending most of your WDC time working on reviews. However, when a goal is to churn out as many reviews as possible, at times that can drop down the quality and provides less for the author. A note or email with a sentence about something they wrote is one thing. At times, however, a random review of a super old piece that gives not much beyond meeting the character requirement, it can feel a little like the main point was to get the review done and not any interest in the item (or at times even that the piece was actually read). So, for some things a number focus be fine, don't let the need to do more and more keep from providing some feedback within the review.
There is a reason I joined a group that focused more on quality than quantity, even though I'm sure some months they wonder if I'm still involved. Not that it has to be 10,000 characters either. Putting in a bunch of words in order to reach character when you don't really have that much to say isn't the better option. In fact, I do think there is a place for the short comment type of review. On a personal note: I wouldn't submit a two-three sentence review to Good Deeds, but that's just my personal opinion on the issue. It's still appreciated by writers to receive any comments on the writing, whether full review or not.
Number two for me is the use of templates. If anyone hasn't noticed from my newsletters... I have a tendency to ramble. The template gives me some direction and helps to keep from having just long paragraphs for the writer to have to shuffle through to glean anything out of my comments. It doesn't have to be fancy or full of writingml in order to be effective either.
On the other hand, I also recommend not being married to the template. If there is a section not relevant to the story/poem/item that you are reviewing, don't keep it in just because it's part of your template. It should be a starting point that can be tweaked with every review. If I'm reviewing a poem that doesn't have a rhyme scheme, for example, instead of saying not applicable in the rhyme spot of the template, I will just delete that part for the individual review. It's okay to delete sections that are not relevant at the time. It won't change your template, just that individual review. Helps to cut out when something isn't necessary to keep the review easy to read.
Third and final: Remember why you are reviewing. If it's a fun little comment to drop by someone from a random read, cool. Judging for a contest? Make sure to direct part of the review in relation to contest details including rules and any prompt that was required. There are many reasons to review beyond any gift points or prizes and we shouldn't forget why we are doing the review in the first place.
Bonus tips: Be cautious with colored fonts and many images. The signature is great and it is best to post it at the very end of the review instead of the beginning to keep the focus first on the content of the review. Some colored fonts can be find but too many can be distracting and some colors are difficult to read.
And that's the main thing. While the review groups are fun, earning points great and awesome things like Good Deeds superb in promoting the act of reviewing, in the end the reason to do the review should be about the item and what you have to say. Everything else is just extra. Read something interesting and have feedback based on your view as a reader? Send them a review and let them know.
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What do you appreciate the most from a review?
Last time I wrote for this newsletter, I discussed recovering from NaNoWriMo. Here are a couple responses to that topic:
Comment by Elycia Lee ☮ 
Hey there, Dawn. Me too. I have only hit 10k words but that is because I started on the 16th. I probably spend until the end of December writing, then take a break in January. I'm so used to updating word count and uploading the copy to NanoWriMo.org then stare at my chart progress. Should they be... discontinued since Nano is, like, over, any sites you recommend that does pretty much the same? Nano instilled a queer habit in me.
Comment by GaelicQueen 
First 24 hrs spent high giving writers as they finished, lunch with friends, joined December Advent challenge, and went to the dentist.
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For Authors: January 27, 2016 Issue [#7446]
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