When you post your work on YWS, what are you hoping to see in a review? Are you looking for general comments about how the reader related to your work, looking for specific comments about grammar and awkward sentences, all of the above, or something else entirely? A lot has been said about what reviewers think an author wants (or rather needs), but not much has been said about what the author wants from the reviewer.
Maybe most of all, at least at the moment, I like comments about awkward sentences, if I haven't noticed them myself. Of course I'd also like the overall impressions and comments about characterization, if we're not talking about poems.
With poems, I'd like to have comments about imagery, the understandability (is that a word?) and the flow. And overall impression, how the reader felt while and after reading, etc.
"Your jokes are scarier than your earrings." -Twit
"14. Pretend like you would want him even if he wasn't a prince. (Yeah, right.)" -How to Make a Guy Like You - Disney Princess Style
For fiction, I love all of the above. I especially like when they find the bigger things I've screwed up on or could improve on, or don't use at all, that way I have a new problem in my writing to focus on. Editing scares that heck out of me, but I'm trying to fix this by learning how to edit better, and for this reason I like getting challenges from my reviewers. If something is particularly screwed up, I'd love to know about it! I also like grammar fixes, awkward sentences fixes. Like I said, all of the above. I think I would love people even more, however, if they pulled it to pieces so I could find, like I said, the bigger things I still don't know how to do.
For poetry I love hearing peoples interpretations and ideas of what they thought it meant, mostly because I like to know if the poem worked or not. I lace a lot of theme in my poetry and it's good to know people understand you! I also like help with flow, and diction. Again, pretty much "all of the above" except diet. I'm not that great at poetry yet and I can't work within it, or edit it, as easily as I'd like, so it's easier when there aren't huge problems, haha. I still like huge problems though. It makes me happy to have somewhere to improve.
“It's necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.” ― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
One that tells me a) why they liked/disliked it as a reader, and b) what they think would improve it as a whole. I also like to know about the pacing, covering the speed of the plot and character development, since that's a problem for me
I hate it when I get a review that points out a million mistakes and problems, only to find: "but this was quite good" stuck at the end. Because then I get confused.
Grammar tends not to help me much. I mean, it would be going to an editor anyway--unless there's a repeated mistake, such as with dialogue or whatever.
Last edited by Blink on Sat Dec 27, 2008 6:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction." ~ Oscar Wilde
Comments about characters and dialogue and possible cliches are the most important things. Then punctuation, because semi-colons can confuse me, and awkward sentences, because they suck.
"TV makes sense. It has logic, structure, rules, and likeable leading men. In life, we have this."
Well... I think I love to hear about what people think of the characters and plot the most. Because I get so close to my characters, I'm absolutely fascinated by other people's interpretations of them. And I like to hear about ways I can improve them because several of my characters, I really hate since I worry people will be annoyed by them. XD As for my plot, I always want to make it better because I worry constantly that it's weak. Anyway, I try to give the same type of reviews as I hope to receive, but sometimes it's hard because I worry about giving the wrong interpretation of somebody's character or plot, and making them angry... or I just worry that I haven't got anything intelligent to say. XD
EDIT: Forgot to say: I'm also, because I mostly write fantasy fiction, a big fan of comments that tell me how I can improve the created world, what doesn't make sense, what does, how I can fix things. It's weird, although fantasy is my favorite genre, worldbuilding is one of my weakest skills. (Well, that and pacing. XD)
"The world is not beautiful, therefore, it is." --Kino's Journey
Two biggie things. One, how the reader perceives my writing style. I'm not all that comfortable in one single style, yet, so I'm playing around with differences in tone and word choice. Does it suit the story? How effectively am I writing it? What do you think I could do to increase its potency?
Second, what about the work strikes you as unrealistic? The characters, the dialogue, my settings, what?
And any comments on plot are welcomed gratefully, though they're not as needit badly. Grammar is generally the only thing that doesn't need work.
First off, the little things: grammar, awkward wording etc.
Then, what they thought of it, how it made them feel.
Then, any suggested changes based on what they thought of it.
When you look at your life, in a strange new room, maybe drowning soon, is this the start of it all?
I really really just want to spend hours reviewing now.
In Fiction, I'd prefer to hear about the basics: grammar, dialogue, characterization and the overall impression. I'm also grateful when people point out awkward sentences, and tell me whether or not the pace is too slow or fast, or if my protagonist is out of whack.
I don't write much poetry, but I would like people to tell me about the flow of it, and how it made them feel. If it sparked any emotions, and how they interpreted it. I'm not on Firefox, so excuse me if I spell anything wrong =] There's no red squiggly line to guide me.
I love hearing about awkward sentences. They're easy to fix, and I feel like I really fix up my story when I do so. Plus, I never catch them myself.
Overall comments are amazing, but they're much harder to fix. So while they help me the most, I just groan when I get them 'cause it means I actually have to work hard.
Grammar bothers me to no end. It's like, I know grammar. Shut up, will you? It's a missing period - I'll catch it eventually. (Unless I specifically asked for it. )
Oh, and I love praise, even though I stink at giving it myself...
This is going to be weird, but... I basically just want a yes or no. I want to know if said piece will have any hope. If it does, then I will worry about editing it. Even I can usually find most things wrong in my piece, I just need encouragement. Is it good or bad?
And then, I like hearing my major problems. This usually tells me it's a no. xD But characterization, dialogue, or even a question that I haven't even thought of and ruins the whole idea. And even then, I love it when the critic actually... believes that I can fix such a problem. If they try to help me (even when I don't really need the help)--it's a respect and encouragement thing. I'm a sensitive person, so I always need that nice voice behind the critique. ^^
I love finding out if the reader/reviewer has the same reaction/emotion/interpretation as I do, of my characters and plot. I like people to write their opinions of the characters, if the plot is intriguing/exciting etc.
Grammar, spelling and general mistakes are nice to know about, but I'd rather just a general overview of the style, tone, pace, characters and plot.
Oh, and if I've written some really dumb dialogue that sounds like a retarded robot wrote it with its eyes closed or my sentences are getting too... purple prose-y XD
Usually, when I post something here, it has already been run through my critiquing shredder. So I really need the overall impressions, but line-by-line is good.
Basically, I want line-by-line, as well as their overall impressions of the piece.
i like that the title of dr jekyll and mr hyde makes a clear stance that the embodiment of one’s own evil doesn’t get a claim to the doctorate — waywardxwallflower
I think I would love people even more, however, if they pulled it to pieces so I could find, like I said, the bigger things I still don't know how to do.
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