Reviews... Good God What Are They Good For?

Better than War, that's for sure! Wrote this quickly while Donovan is in the bath. Opinions welcome, please and critique ...

Why and what are reviews good for and are they helpful?  These are  questions posed, I don't use that word everyday, posed .. asked, posed.. either or, these are the questions.

Everyone who writes here hopes for a review.. more than one is nice.. It is like the ending of my writing for me. To hear what others have to say or share if they have felt or been through something like it.

When I first came here almost five years ago, maybe four, we had subscriptions to writers we liked reading, the writings were on our profile which made it much easier to see new writing by the subs The reviews were always there it was a review for a review... which is only fair.

The reviews I received were so helpful. I was not such a great writer and still am not but I am better.
I was told less words were better for poetry. I was told to watch typos and grammar.. I still have trouble with that.. still I do better. These days most of my reviews are helpful. When you put your writing out for all to see, bare your soul you hope someone will read and tell you what they think. Some of the worst reviews to me are, "Cute poem", "Loved it"... this does not help.. and not many of us want to hear our poem was cute unless it is meant to be only cute.

I don't offend easily, but when I see someone review a friend's work in a harsh way I take offense. These people I call snobs.. They use million dollar words and you might have to be a psychic  to understand some of the obscure poetry.. yet, they come and review  in a harsh and ugly way.. there are nice ways to get your point across and be helpful... I have had people ask did I think some of my writing was worthy of top writing. My answer was no .. and it was not because I had read so many stories and poems so much better and rated them as such .

I am making this too long .. as I always seem to do.

Reviews are needed, wanted and useful. They help us become better writers, give us confidence and make us feel our writing was not in vain. If no one reviews why bother to copy it from word pad and add it to writing? None.

Review , be honest and say in an intelligent respectful way what you find wrong with the writing and how it can be improved. Young writers need to be read with care. Sometimes an email is best. Never discourage younger writers as the writing is good therapy and much better than other things they can be doing.

We need to be kind yet helpful too .. praising bad writing is not going to help the writer become better.. and I can say I have done this in the past. As for me, I had to learn to review .. and still do. I love reading on this site it has many talented writers that honor me here and there with a review.

Peace All

Author's Note

I used 'Good God" in the title as i think in music so often- and thought of 'War good God what is it good for " so there ya go

Reviews

[RDOriginal]

I've only been a member of this site for just over a month and from the beginning felt that as a writer the reviewing process is a vital part of writing. At the moment my balance of 101 reviews to 60 received is about right - it's a give and take community after all. If you don't look at loads of different styles and things that might inspire or act as a warning on what not to do then how do you progress?

There are some really good reviewers on here but as you say "cute poem" or the phrase "loved it" followed by a bunch of smilies to pad a 'review' enough to get 2 rather than 1 point is a waste of time.

I'll generally take about 10-20 minutes to write a review because much less than that doesn't give enough time to understand the piece and pick out good techniques, things that work and give my opinion on ways that might improve it (and I always couch these as suggestions, there's nothing more insulting than providing a critique that rubbishes a piece of art just because you don't like/get it).

I guess I've not yet had the misfortune to run into a pretentious critic because of my short term on here but I have run into a couple of people who've written a meaningless one sentence review of my work and then flooded my inbox with read requests - 27 requests in one day from 1 person is perhaps bordering on the parasitic! That's more than a week of writing reviews at the exclusion of anyone else!

You've stirred up some real emotions with this article, great job!

Rich

ps: In summary, this review can be summarised as, "itz gud, : ) xxx"

[Sara]

i agree with you on your reviewing technique: reviewers *should* be honest but respectful of a person's work; nothing irritates me more than somebody who comes in and cruelly slashes up a poem or story without offering any constructive criticism in return. it's rude, and nobody likes a person with an attitude anyway... if i find a work poor, i either don't review it period or use the 'sandwich technique' where i offer a sentence of criticism between two of the piece's redeeming qualities... i also agree that young writers need to be handled with care. when i was younger, i had a really, really hard time taking criticism, and even today i sort of cringe when i get a negative review, though i have (thankfully) gained a bit of armour over the years... still, i always try to tell myself to write for the love of writing and not to gain reviews!! writing for reviews will only lead to my downfall... interesting discussion topic, chloe, i enjoyed reading yours and everybody else's comments :)

[Iota]

It's hard for me to review someone who does not write in the same style or genre as me. I am not a traditional poet, I don't write sonnets or follow poetic rules that others do here. Free verse or spoken word is my area. If I was better at English I could critique their spelling and grammar but I have a hard time doing my own not alone someone else. So I don't review instead I comment and I have no idea if it is helpful directly to a writer. I just say how there work affects me, or makes me think or feel.

I think for me I like to receive reviews like that, I want to know how my work made feel. Did it move you? what went through your mind more so than any other type of review.

[Desert Dreamer]

Reviews are very helpful for me. First of all, any review encourages me to write more, it is nice to have any kind of feedback, good or bad. I am not talking about mean reviews, that is a different story, I am thinking about respectful reviews even if they are negative a review can still be considerate of others (at least to me). I like to hear what my writing made people think, and I like to have suggestions on how to improve and to have any mistakes pointed out to me, in this way I can possibly improve as a writer.

I like the sense of community it creates when we review each others writing. I often get inspired when I take the time to write a reivew.

I am still learning how to be a better reivewer.

[The Analog Kid]

I agree totally. I have had a 400 level class in creative writing in college I don't need some pretensious "critic" on here. On the other hand, a fellow "writer" knows best, regardless of where they come from:)

[Jessie Sianodel]

Since being here I have gotten one review. And it was mean. It was some guy reprimanding me for saying 'dying sucks'. And all i can remember thinking is 'He knows this is a fiction story, right?' . I have not gotten any good reviews. I have been here for maybe two weeks so i get I can't get them all immediately but I can't help wondering what's the point if no one leaves them? I have like 50 veiws on one of my chapters and all I think is oh they read it and left because they hated it which is why they didn't leave a comment or anything. I have left i believe like 5 reveiws here. Not one of those people has reveiwed my work. But I can't just stop writing so I'll keep going and act like people like what i write for them...

Lol sorry i kind of used you as my venting station. Thanks for that! lol

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

Well first off like everything else what is good or bad is judgement from person to person... I think the good thing bout reviews is not only for constructive purposes but to see people reactions... it can be big in telling if you are expressing yourself fully. For me if I don't like something I don't review cause I figure it is just my opinion and don't want to be negative... now for those that review something they don't like should at least do it with constructive views and not tear them apart. At least tell what would be helpful instead of say "this sucks" or something of that nature... you bring up great points here Chloe.

[Emily B]

sometimes, I find comments in my reviews that lead to revisions . . . sometimes, I find comments that lead to other poems . . . sometimes I find a new friend through the sharing of the words, all worthy reasons to review.

Sometimes, I can do the same things for another writer. I always hope to leave something worthy, though some days I don't quite reach it.