Tell Me Something Tuesday was hosted by Rainy Day Ramblings, but she has (temporarily?) stopped blogging. So a group of us that had been doing posts (Linda from Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell, Karen from For What It’s Worth, Roberta from Offbeat YA, Jen from That’s What I’m Talking About and me) decided to get together, come up with some more topics and keep the meme going.Michelle made us a logo and we’re off and running. For more details, check out this post where I reintroduced the meme.
I can be sporadic, but when I do join in I will always share next week’s topic at the end of the post. So, today is about…
What do you do when that pesky review makes you work for it?
I think I’m about to expose myself as a book blogging fraud or something… but well this doesn’t happen to me, because my reviews are just whatever I’m thinking or feeling about the book. There was a time when I started blogging that I was really stressed about having quotes or having a good sense of humor in my review or just knowing my review was “GOOD” and well, those days have passed. I don’t have the time to stress over my reviews. I finish a book and I sit down at Goodreads and just say exactly what I’m thinking about the book and what I would say to a friend if I was tying to encourage them to read it… or tell them why they may not want to.
I do have kind of a formula in that I write my general, quick snippet reaction first and then go a little deeper. But if my thoughts aren’t thinking that way, then I write the review however my mind is thinking. This may work for me in that I am naturally a writer – words flow from me pretty easily. I love to write, and conversational writing is by far the easiest for me – which is how I approach my reviews, as if I’m talking to y’all. But also, I have come to accept the grammatical errors and less-than-perfect sentence structure in my reviews. I blog for fun and I cannot continue to do that if I stress over my reviews. When I publish them on the blog I do read over what I had on Goodreads and make some edits, but that’s it.
I usually sit at my desk and listen to music on my laptop while I’m reading. At the same time I usually take some notes and write down things I want to remember about the book and then write the review right after finishing the book.
Writing the review immediately makes it a lot easier for sure. I used to be a note taker, but not so much anymore.
I don’t generally get stumped, but I’m not as free-flowing with my words. I’m an engineer by schooling and the only writing I did was technical in nature. I don’t have a huge vocabulary and sometimes I struggle to put into words how a book makes me feel. I envy those who have a gift for writing.
I can understand that for sure! Your reviews are always well-written though, so the struggle is paying off 🙂
Ha! I don’t stress over reviews but perhaps I should?!? I read reviews I wrote years ago and I always seem to think, “Wow, that’s a really good review.” LOL Of course, I haven’t written that many reviews as of late but I’m trying to get back to review writing. I can see where I might have some trouble with a review of a book that didn’t WOW me since I’m out of practice.
LOL I’ve done that too – read old reviews and thought they were really good. But I’m happy with my review structure now too lol. If I struggle it’s because the book was meh – I have no real criticism or praise, it just is.
I have the most trouble with the 5 heart amazing books because I can’t figure out anything amazing enough to say.
I get that – it’s like how do I get people to understand who amazing this book is? Especially when it’s not something tangible, it just FEELS 5 stars!
I also don’t stress a lot about reviews, although I do have a general set up I usually adhere to. Like you I usually just write down what comes to mind and what I think about the book. I do have some reviews that are harder to write than others. Like in one I am writing next where one of the things I didn’t like is a bit of a spoiler and I have to think of how to word that to not reveal too much.
Oh yes! I didn’t think about that, but you’re right – reviews that go into spoiler territory can be tricky.
I’m pretty much the same. If nothing comes to me when I sit down to write then I just hold off until it does.
In my earlier days, I tried to write more *professional* type reviews that really went against my natural style and it burned me out even with reading. So now I just go with the flow.
Karen @For What It’s Worth
I pretty much write reviews the same way you do, although some reviews are harder to write than others depending on the book and rating.
I take the same approach for all my reviews except for one of my bloggers who has a format template that she insists upon (and it’s not bad). Much easier. But, I will say that a mediocre book that wasn’t awful nor was it great leaves me with little to say about it and that can stymie me.