Yahoo Forum Archive

Hey guys,

I've been reading the debate people have been having on whether it is
important to try to make your reviews long with interest, though I
haven't been commenting on every post.

And on that note I'm going to give my say on all of this. But I won't
go on forever, I promise.

LENGTH OF REVIEW

For the most part I take a live and let live approach to reviewing,
because I *do* want reviewers to enjoy what they're spending so much
time on. It shouldn't become a chore.

So when it comes to reviews, I'll never say "reviewers who write
points in the 6-8 point range are better than those who write in the
2-4 point range." Because that's not true. Each people have their own
length that comes naturally to them.

I do think it's important that when you write a review you givesome
thought to the length you're writing. For some people (authors and
reviewers), giving feedback is the most important thing about these
awards. And that's a laudable goal. But for other people the
competition really is important. For this reason it's important to
consider how many points you're giving a story. You don't have to wear
yourself out reaching ten points if four is what comes most easily to
you; but it is important to save those four-pointers for stories that
are really outstanding. Certainly if you write reviews that range the
whole gamut of possible points you want to make sure you don't give a
eight-point review to something that was good but not great, whereas a
truly spectacular piece gets three. For a lot of people the results of
these awards matter. So - while I don't want people to stress over
counting every character - it isn't something I want people to just
disregard.

That said - don't worry about it *too* much. Just do the best you can,
without letting MEFA reviewing become a stress.

LENGTH OF STORIES

On ficlets vs. novels: I'm not going to get into this debate, though
it's fun to watch. :-D For the MEFAs it's important to remember that a
213-word ficlet and a 70,000 word epic novel can end up competing
against each other. We don't categorize based on length, except that
stories that meet some *exact* word count (true drabbles - 100 words
exactly - and drabble variants, like double drabbles or series of
drabbles) compete together. It's not because they're short, but
because they have a specific form. There may not be as many
restrictions on them as a haiku or sonnet but drabbles really are
challenging to write well.

If you find yourself having a hard time writing long reviews for short
pieces, that really is okay for drabbles because they are all
competing together. But I think it's important to not write a shorter
review for a 247 scene (or even an 1,800-word vignette) simply because
it's short. It may be that the things you like in long stories just
aren't there in short ones, and so you more naturally like longer
stories than short ones. THAT'S FINE. And it's evened out by people
like me, who tend to like shorter ones. (No comment against long
pieces - this is my personal taste.)

But as things are handled now, every length of story gets thrown
together, excepting those that are some specific word count. So it's
really only fair to judge them by criteria that they can both succeed
(or not) at. Do they have good characterization? Is the pacing good?
Are they true to canon? Is the language a joy to read? Did the imagery
make the scene jump off the page at you? Yes, there will be
differences between the two. But as the two compete together, it
really is important to be as fair between them as you can.

But again, we're all human. And this should be fun, right?

So that's my word on these two interesting topics. I may not follow up
on replies (too busy of RL), though I will certainly read them. And if
you think the discussion is pertinent to the MEFAs, do feel free to
keep having it here. I'm not killing the conversation or anything.

Marta

Marta