Review Series Idea

Okay, yes. Fair enough. I have made several of these blogs about blogging, and yet I haven't followed through on most of them. I will start my advice series just as soon as I get a buffer on my homework, which should happen this week. There's a lot going on lately, and long story short, it has been a very rough week.

So, obviously, my last blog made it clear that I am not happy with the state of reviews on this site. Most of them are not constructive and they discourage so many new writers. In quite a few cases, I have found that they aren't even that useful for finding stories I want to read, instead peddling dull, lifeless prose as some masterpiece (mostly due to what I call "showing to tell". More on that in a later blog.), or just promoting something I don't like for subjective reasons.

Since complaining about the state of reviews as I see them isn't very productive, I think I will instead demonstrate how I think they should be done. In the review group I'm in, You Might Like This (no link because I'm lazy), we recommend stories we liked, and we post why we liked those stories. I will try to take this a step further, and I will explain why someone might like it. I will also explain what I liked about it and what I did not. Constructive criticism or plain ol' subjective advice may be included, but everything will be clearly denoted as my opinion.

My format won't be perfect, of course, but I want to create a better kind of review blog. If there's an occasional criticism of your reviews for being too harsh, it's probably not a big deal. But if you develop a reputation for consistently being overly harsh and adhering strictly to Sturgeon's Law... Well, it's time to re-evaluate, don't you think? This is fan fiction, not professional work. It's for fun, and we shouldn't be overlooking that aspect.

Oh, and don't think this will be only positive like on YMLT. I'll include the ones I didn't personally like, because my opinion isn't the be-all, end-all, and maybe you'd like that story. Those reviews will probably take longer, because I'll have to figure out what exactly I didn't like and whether criticizing it is even worth the effort. If the author's gone or the fic is really old, I'll probably do a shorter review sticking mostly to the positives.

I can't promise any sort of schedule, because my reading is sporadic and I'm settling into my new schedule. Between schoolwork (and trying to get ahead on it) and adjusting to my new position as a manager, there's quite a bit of important stuff on my plate that I need to figure out before I load up on reading or writing or anything else. Hopefully, I also don't have any sort of crises or emotional implosions or whatever the heck happened. I legitimately don't know what my problem was or why it happened. All I know is that it's over now.

Now, I'd probably better get to bed, since it's 2am and I need to be up at 9 if I'm going to catch my algebra class. I know pretty much all the material already, but since I already paid the money, I might as well get a refresher.