Yahoo Forum Archive

Hey guys,

There's been some very interesting discussion going on here about how to
write reviews. This is a good discussion to have, and I hope newer
reviewers pick up some pointers, and that even old pros see a ways that
might work better for them.

I do want to keep this from devolving into a fight over what's a good
review and what's a bad one. Here's my philosophy on reviewing, in a
nutshell:

a. any review that is written is better than any review that isn't
b. reviewing should be fun, because making it a chore tends to reduce
the reviews that are actually written (see (a))
c. reviews that tell you something about the story, particularly the
reviewer's reaction to the story, are best, provided that doing so
doesn't interfere with the "fun" factor too much.

Basically, I like it when people stretch themselves, both in their
reading tendencies and in the kind of reviews they write. But I'm
definitely not going to sit here and tell people how to review, so long
as we meet the basic standards of fairness (like quotes being
blockquoted) and niceness (like reviews not being flames). There may be
things that I would do differently, or I may have my favorite type of
review as an author or as a fellow reader, but not every reviewer has to
be just like me!

I'm not saying stop the discussion, because I think it's a neat one.
However, please do be careful of other reviewer's toesies. There are a
*lot* of people who read this group but never comment, so when you
discuss certain types of reviews, please do be careful. I tend to think
of this group like making a suggestion at a town hall meeting, with a
crowd of other people listening on - I will express my opinion as
honestly as I can, but I also don't want to be ignorant that there are
other people listening on who may think the exact opposite of me, and so
I want to be careful how I say things. You never know what kind of
review the person on the other end of the intarwebz may like to write as
a review, or receive as an author.

I need to finish up some RL things this afternoon, but will try to catch
up on the posts later!

Marta

I agree with Marta. I would additionally add that some reviews are better
than others, some writers do better with the review format than others, and
most of us can learn to write better reviews. But essentially, any review is a
good review, because it is a reader expressing to the best of their own
ability what they like about your work.



**************Get the scoop on last night's hottest shows and the live music
scene in your area - Check out TourTracker.com!
(http://www.tourtracker.com?NCID=aolmus00050000000112)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Marta said:
a. any review that is written is better than any review that isn't
b. reviewing should be fun, because making it a chore tends to reduce
the reviews that are actually written (see (a))
c. reviews that tell you something about the story, particularly the
reviewer's reaction to the story, are best, provided that doing so
doesn't interfere with the "fun" factor too much.

Well said! I like any kind of review I get, so long as it isn't a flame!
And there are a lot of ways to write a review.

The more reviews you read, the more you can learn about how to write your
own reviews, as well! There are as many styles as there are reviewers!

Dreamflower

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 3:50 PM, melayton@gmail.com <melayton@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hey guys,
>
> There's been some very interesting discussion going on here about how to
> write reviews. This is a good discussion to have, and I hope newer
> reviewers pick up some pointers, and that even old pros see a ways that
> might work better for them.
>
> I do want to keep this from devolving into a fight over what's a good
> review and what's a bad one. Here's my philosophy on reviewing, in a
> nutshell:
>
> a. any review that is written is better than any review that isn't
> b. reviewing should be fun, because making it a chore tends to reduce
> the reviews that are actually written (see (a))
> c. reviews that tell you something about the story, particularly the
> reviewer's reaction to the story, are best, provided that doing so
> doesn't interfere with the "fun" factor too much.
>
> Basically, I like it when people stretch themselves, both in their
> reading tendencies and in the kind of reviews they write. But I'm
> definitely not going to sit here and tell people how to review, so long
> as we meet the basic standards of fairness (like quotes being
> blockquoted) and niceness (like reviews not being flames). There may be
> things that I would do differently, or I may have my favorite type of
> review as an author or as a fellow reader, but not every reviewer has to
> be just like me!
>
> I'm not saying stop the discussion, because I think it's a neat one.
> However, please do be careful of other reviewer's toesies. There are a
> *lot* of people who read this group but never comment, so when you
> discuss certain types of reviews, please do be careful. I tend to think
> of this group like making a suggestion at a town hall meeting, with a
> crowd of other people listening on - I will express my opinion as
> honestly as I can, but I also don't want to be ignorant that there are
> other people listening on who may think the exact opposite of me, and so
> I want to be careful how I say things. You never know what kind of
> review the person on the other end of the intarwebz may like to write as
> a review, or receive as an author.
>
> I need to finish up some RL things this afternoon, but will try to catch
> up on the posts later!
>
> Marta
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 3:50 PM, melayton@gmail.com <melayton@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hey guys,//snipped///
>

> a. any review that is written is better than any review that isn't

Thank you Marta. I think that's it in a nutshell and says everything
I was winding up to say. so I'll just leave it at that.

Sulriel.

In a message dated 7/16/2008 4:46:09 PM Eastern Standard Time,
sulriel@gmail.com writes:

Thank you Marta. I think that's it in a nutshell and says everything
I was winding up to say. so I'll just leave it at that.

Sulriel.



Hey, I sooo argee. I'll take any review over none and cherish it (OK,
certain notorious ff net flamers excepted.)



**************Get the scoop on last night's hottest shows and the live music
scene in your area - Check out TourTracker.com!
(http://www.tourtracker.com?NCID=aolmus00050000000112)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]