What Do You Look For in a Review?

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Sat Jan 28, 2017 3:30 am

Mea says...

We all love getting reviews, and a lot of us love giving them. So when you click on that notification, what kind of review are you hoping for?

This could be about anything from tone (gushing, encouraging, harsh, etc.) to length to specific kinds of feedback (talking about pacing, characters, imagery, etc.). The field is wide-open.

Ready, set, discuss.

We're all stories in the end.

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Sat Jan 28, 2017 5:28 am

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Omni says...

I look for conversations

It's great and all giving or receiving critiques, but if both parties aren't willing to sit down and discuss what they read together then a crucial part of communication is lost. I've recently been stressing replies to my reviews to have conversations, because obviously I don't know everything that's going on and maybe the author wants to correct me on something, which will lead to us discussing and fangirling over the story.

@ScarlettFire and I even went to a wfp just a couple of days ago to discuss a certain plot point in her story that I talked about in my review. That was the most fun I had reviewing in a long time!

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Sat Jan 28, 2017 12:15 pm

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Mageheart says...

When I see a review, I always hope it has an encouraging tone! I'm not very good with harsh reviews because then I feel like I'm a bad writer. I understand that I have my strengths and weaknesses, but reading a harsh review makes it harder for me to write afterwards.

As for the feedback in a review, I'm pretry much happy with anything! Whether it's about my wording, dialogue, descriptions, characters or even grammar, I like seeing it in a review because it helps me improve my writing.

The same can be said for the length of the review. It doesn't matter what the length is, as long as the review helps me out.

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Sat Jan 28, 2017 4:16 pm

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Virgil says...

I'm also one who likes discussions with their reviews, as @Omnom said. It brings a sense of liveliness to it and I have a lot of fun with that. I also happen to love reviews that are upfront and honest. I love getting harsh reviews when harsh reviews are needed to be dished out so that I can fix whatever's wrong. But mostly and most sincerely, I want the reviewer to be honest, because I always am. If you see my reviewing, there are no tricks or lies about anything, I tell it as I see it.

I'm not a large fan of grammar reviews--you could even say I hate them. I don't see the reason to do something literally anyone else can do without giving anything else such as critique on the actual content of the story. If there's a gaping hole when it comes to grammar in a story, I may explain the rule of it and why they're doing it wrong, but other than that, I just say to use a grammar checker and that even they don't always catch everything, so I suggest proofreading a lot as well. This isn't to say that talking about structure or flow or pacing, or anything of that sort is bad, it's mainly when it's pure grammar.

Really, the most I want people to do is be honest because it's the most helpful they can be--stating what they think. It gives a new perspective on things that I'm hoping to get perspective that's different from mine and then I can edit through it + know where to go next with my writing.

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Sat Jan 28, 2017 4:55 pm

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tigeraye says...

It's hard to explain, but I want to feel like the reviewer didn't review just for the sake of reviewing, but actually became immersed in the story. That's not to say I want everyone to say positive things and have no criticism, you can certainly become immersed in a story and still find plenty of things to point out for improvement. I like comments on the characters, plot, etc, not just writing style, grammar, and more meta things.

If I see the reviewer reviewed just to reivew and didn't seem to actually delve into the story much at all, then I end up thinking I did something wrong on the greater whole that wasn't covered by the review.

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Sat Jan 28, 2017 5:46 pm

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fukase says...

Apart from the mechanic devices in prose and poem,
I really crave for your interpretation of the works.

Although it is seemed like the reviewers retelling the story, but it's the thing I'm looking for. I don't mean retelling the story in the exact words, but in their own simpler and clearer ways if they are to tell the story back.

This idea ignited when I got reviews for my haiku poems. Some of them retold back what the story might be happening in the poems.

Isn't it just wonderful?

Example: I wrote a poem with the persona a boy that just had his legs broken because he just fell from the stairs, but a reviewer just wrote that he/she thought that the poem is about a girl that had just broken her heart because of her boyfriend.

It will make me to know that my poem or story isn't just what I thought it is, but another can read it and interpret it as something 360 degree different from what I originally thought.

It will make me will realize my works can trigger many more meanings that will keep hidden except when some reviewers mention them. And from the interpretation also, I can know how people respond and understand to my works. Moreover, if you think your reviewers interpret your works wrong, you may have to fix the way you tell the stories.

Plus, it's always great to read how funny or how unique your work will appeal to other if it not to you.

~Memo

Last edited by fukase on Sat Jan 28, 2017 6:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Koku is Koku.
Koku is CUTE.
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Sat Jan 28, 2017 6:11 pm

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Tenyo says...

This thread makes me so happy =]

So, to be honest, I'm not a fan of long, in depth reviews (and I cringe at the ones I used to write.) I'd rather have a few shorter reviews with general opinions.

I guess, because I think if I wanted to learn to write better there is a gurgling sea of entangled writing tutorials on the internet, and an abundance of expert advice in libraries. I can go to those since many are more practised and informed than your average YWSer. YWSers, however, are not books, they're people.

When I get reviewed I like to have a human to do what humans do and interpret and misinterpret and cheer and angst at me in a way that grammar tutorials and spellcheckers can't.

Hints in the form of treasure hunts are great too. When someone suggests a different approach to a piece, or a similar work that I might take inspiration from, then it gives me something to go forward with.

We were born to be amazing.

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Sun Jan 29, 2017 10:27 am

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Mea says...

Wow, there's some really awesome responses here. ~~Definitely not taking notes for when I review y'all's stuff.~~

It's hard to explain, but I want to feel like the reviewer didn't review just for the sake of reviewing, but actually became immersed in the story.

I read that and realized that's exactly what I want, too, and also that I'm guilty of not always letting myself be immersed in the story because I'm looking for stuff to critique. So I've been writing my reviews today with that in mind and actually enjoying myself a lot. See, I've already learned something.

@Nikayla - Being honest is definitely a big thing for me. Sometimes I think people worry that being honest will make them seem harsh, when really you can be completely honest without being harsh, as long as you go into the work with the right attitude, one of "there's a gem of a story here and I'm going to see if I can help polish it."

@NicolMemo - That's a really interesting way to look at it! I know when I post poetry I really love it if they 'get' what I was writing about, what story I was telling. But maybe it's better not to worry about that so much, because poetry never really has only one interpretation.

@Omnom - Discussions are definitely something I should try to start more when I review. I love it when I get a response to the review and/or a like, but it rarely goes past that and I feel like I'm missing out on opportunities to improve and just have fun.

For me, when I'm posting novel chapters, I love overall commentary on the plot and pacing, as well as the characters. I also love pure reader reactions - people talking about my characters like I talk about my favorite characters makes me so happy as a writer. I don't care as much about stuff specific to the scene because that scene might not even be there in the next draft, and I really don't care about specific sentences unless it's an overall problem with my tone or style.

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Mon Jan 30, 2017 8:29 pm

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StellaThomas says...

Before I post a piece, I tend to have an idea in my head of what I think its strengths and weaknesses are. For this reason, I like reviews that note both its strengths and weaknesses, and not just the weaknesses - because I need to know that what I think is strong is actually strong, and what I think is weak is actually weak, and that I'm not delusional about the whole thing.

I'm gonna play devil's advocate about creating discussions around the piece. I'm not a fan of replying to my reviews further than "thanks for the review!" This is because I find that if you get too far into replying to reviews, you end up refuting every point the reviewer makes. Have you guys ever written a review and the writer gets back to you and essentially says, "yeah thanks for the review and all, but you were wrong on most points and I'm not taking what you said on board." Yeah, that's very annoying. So while it's good to hash out the criticism and come up with creative ways to incorporate it in your work, I tend not to reply to reviews. So in that sense, I'm not looking for reviews that start a conversation.

(That said, I don't mind getting review replies to my own reviews, I just tend not to give them!)

I really think that poetry reviews would be way more fun if reviewers told the poet what it is they think the poem is about. For instance I wrote a poem about a very specific set of circumstances in my life that I doubt many YWSers have come across, but the poem was vague enough in describing these that it let the poem resonate to many readers, and it seemed to connect to their own experiences completely separately to mine. That is a really beautiful thing about poetry.

"Stella. You were in my dream the other night. And everyone called you Princess." -Lauren2010

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Mon Jan 30, 2017 9:07 pm

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Brigadier says...

*flips over everything really quick before saying anything*
My apologies in advance if I repeat anything but there's so much to look over. Also spoiler because I went too far in depth about my review hopes.

Spoiler! :

1. Now obviously I'm going to start with the tone of the review because you all (well most of you anyways) know how I feel on negatively written reviews. The points in those reviews may be great and completely valid, but when the reviewer is talking down to ~~you~~ your story, it completely changes the situation. I for one, am more focused on defending my precious story than paying attention to the seriousness of the review. So when I open up my notifications, I'm really hoping to find either a neutral or nice review. I'm okay with a plain, no emotion, straightforward, Vulcan written review because I tend to be that way myself (for the most part). And well nice reviews are sort of self-explanatory.

2. So a common thing to say on review day is quantity<quality and I think a similar principle applies to reviews in general. Like there's a difference between a thorough review and a long review. You can write a review about nothing in particular for 5k characters and it would be very long (quantity) but not great in the quality department. I want to see a focused review that goes thoroughly over two or three points rather than lightly touching on ten. To me that just seems like a neater, better way to help the writer.

3. If I do think a review is going to be very thorough about things (you know because I know people), I'm hoping that there's a good variety in the topics. This situation also applies to when you've had one really good review and you hope the next guy talks about something else. I want the reviews not to overstep each other too much while both covering some key elements.
^This dream of mine, leads to me sometimes stopping reviews because I see I'm stepping too far into something already covered well.

4. If I'm writing about an odd topic that week, I'm hoping someone will state their opinion rather plainly. For example, I see people often bounce around the like/dislike thing in a review. We can take the criticism folks or we wouldn't be putting the works up. I'd like to have a actual 'I like this...' or 'I don't like this...' or 'I have mixed feelings...' statement because it would be so useful to me. (As long as it's supported of course.)

5. And like many other people in the post, I don't want to find a completely grammar oriented review because those just get tiring. Like I realize I have some mistakes here and there with technical things but could you please talk about the characters, plot, etc. I don't absolutely hate adding these into reviews because I use them for cushioning once and awhile but I don't like it being the main discussion point.
Ex: (Didn't actually happen but I've encountered ones that were pretty close.)
"You have two typos and one grammar mistake in three paragraphs so I'm going to spend 2k characters educating you on this and leave out the back door."
"That's great but what did you think of the surprise twist?"
*coughs*
I only dislike these so passionately because I used to write reviews like this.

*runs away quickly*

the brigadier rides again!
LMS VI: Lunch Appointment with Death

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