So, I wrote this article the other day and shared it with the members in my club and, at the request of @RobinSparkles, I decided to post it here in the forums! I hope you enjoy this unique outlook on reviewing.
Let's face it; there are some very crappily written pieces on here. I do not mean to judge, as I think everyone has potential, but, even though I believe some people are born writers (this guy ), some members, mainly the younger ones, are innexperienced and do not have a very good control over the English language...yet. I won't even speak of the ten year olds who think that they're amazing and come to this website, lying about their ages. And then there are those people who don't belong here, period.
But I know we all can't help messing with the ten year olds from time to time. I still haven't found one yet that I can mess with. If anyone has any names, I will take them .
Some can be arrogant and, if we review poorly written works and give false compliments to be nice, we are not helping them at all. It doesn't help a young, potentially grandiose writer to stroke their ego.
I refer you to this right here...
http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=204236
Yes, that was me at thirteen. While I wasn't bad for a thirteen year old (I probably wrote at a fifteen year old level...or at least the average fifteen year old), I was by no means good. I look back and just laugh at myself, my arrogance, and stupidity. Their cynicism was percieved as bullying by me at the time (Yeah many of them were jerks), but it helped motivate me and I am glad they did that to me now!
And so, now moving on to the "Spotswood Method". I see it as being the snarkiest, but most effective and even constructive, style of reviewing. Honestly, it can be extremely enjoyable and fun to write these snarky reviews.
To that end, don't stroke their egos, be honest, be humorous, and be judgmental without being an arse.
I know it sounds cynical, but it is true. Of course we do not tell the author that, but we do not tell them that it is good either or compliment them for something that isn't worth complimenting just for the sake of being nice.
But you don't discourage them either...just offer a new kind of constructive criticism that does not require any complimenting at all. Don't tell them that their writing sucks just because they have a sucky command of the English language, they have a sucky storyline, they have sucky grammar, and they don't know how to write...yet.
Don't discourage them! Tell them that they have room for improvement, but that doesn't mean that you can't jokingly make fun of fallacies and things that make no sense.
For instance, if someone is writing a story and a character is referring to the spread of a zombie disease, a character might say, "We need to stop the spread!" and they do not clarify what the "spread" is.
You can reply. "The spread of what? Butter on toast? Do they have something against toast? Or is it jelly on toast, or possibly even both? What spread are they trying to stop? I can't believe it's not butter? Clarify!"
See? Humorous, fun, snarky, but not necessarily offensive. If the author sees it as such, it isn't our fault that they percieve it in that manner.
I know it might be a bad example, but I am in a hurry, but still, it gets the point across.
So, that is my method of reviewing certain stories, but it does help more than offering false compliments...substantially. If you aren't able to embrace cynicism and cannot give honest advice (without being a jerk), don't give compliments to make the author feel better. We aren't here to make them feel better; We are here to review and, ultimately, help offer advice to improve the author's writings!
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