How reviews help.

So.  Reviews.  I'm sure you've noticed I am quite loud about them recently - authors need you to review things!  I particularly need you to review things X3 

Obviously reviews of their work help authors to get exposure, help buyers decide what is right for them and help authors to improve on future work.

But I'm not talking about reviews of your work.  I'm talking about you, the writer, reviewing other people's work. 

When I am reading something I know I'm going to review, I am always thinking about how the review is going to go.  I think about why I am enjoying it or more frequently, why I am not.  By which I mean, I tend to analyze harder why I don't like something, because that is more important to me than why I like things, not that I hate almost everything XD 

And why do I concentrate hard on what I don't like?  Because the chances are, if I can understand why I don't like something in someone else's work, I can understand how to eliminate or reduce those things in my own. 

When I write a review, if I like the book, I say why I liked it and if there were areas where I feel improvement could be made.  If I don't like the book, I tend to start out saying I didn't like it much, but try to find some points I did like.  If I really hated it, I just don't review it at all.  If I loved it, I will probably just ramble on and not say anything constructive, and that means I was too busy enjoying it to analyze anything at all. 

For example.  I watched two movies recently.  One I loved, one I found 'eh.' 

The one I loved?

The Book Of Life.

I just loved it, it was really funny and I liked all the characters, even the main villain.  As I said when I originally wrote the review after seeing it - If the line "Kids today, with their long hair and their not wanting to kill stuff" doesn't sell it to you, then I don't know why you're watching me. 

There was one thing that bugged me actually, but... it is just a personal niggle, and not doing the thing that bugged me would probably have annoyed way more people than doing it.  I can't say what it was though, because of spoilers.  I wouldn't put that in the review of course, because it has little bearing on whether or not the film was any good.  I suppose I could have mentioned that the animation and style was wonderful and quite unique.  But that doesn't have any bearing on the story, so I tend not to focus on it in a review unless I start gushing.  I MIGHT.  But I won't.  Now then.

The one I thought was 'eh'?

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.   

I liked it well enough, I wanted to find out what was going to happen, but it was very plot driven.  There was some mystery and plenty of action, but I had trouble actually caring about the characters themselves.  I can't string two sentences together about any of them.  They're so busy fighting demons, we never really learn much about them other than that they fight demons.

It is worth pointing out here that I have never read the books, and you should never judge a book by its movie.  You often lose a lot of character development in a film because there just isn't the screen time.  So basically, it was okay.  I'm sure other people would like it a lot better than I did.  I'm also sure there are people who would dislike it more than I did. 

Now then.  The review here that is most helpful to me sure as hell isn't the first one.  I am already doing (so I hope) the things that I liked about The Book of Life.  It's exactly my sense of humour, which is why I like it so much.  There was decent character development.  After the initial set up, I cared what was going to happen to these guys.  I need to make sure I do that.  The Mortal Instruments review is more useful to me because the problem I am having with Tyrian's book is the problem I can see in it. 

  You see, Tyrian's book starts just when Fairyland breaks out into civil war.  One of the things you are frequently told to help you write is 'What do the characters want?'  The problem with story lines like this is, what they want, right now, is for this war to end, please.  But that isn't going to be enough for many a reader, as it wasn't for me watching Mortal Instruments.  Seeing the problem in action in a different story was very helpful.

  Sometimes, I read or watch things I fully expect to be terrible.  I was asked why I bothered to do it when the general consensus was 'they suck!'.  'I don't need to read it to know it's bad'.  Well, actually... yes, you do.  Popular opinion is just that, and sometimes things people decry as terrible are actually not, especially when people just say they're terrible without reading them or watching them.  There is always something you can take away from 'bad' things.  It is very rare that I can't find something positive to say even about something I hated and I can usually say WHY I hated something, which is very important.  If I don't even know why I consider something bad and I don't even know what other people thought was good about this 'bad' thing that is making millions of dollars, how I am supposed to avoid it?  Sometimes you don't know a problem exists until you come across it. 

...And I am also a firm believer in not knocking it til you've tried it.

So go out there an review stuff, you writers.  It'll help them and it'll help you.
 
Thanks for reading,

Alicia

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That to do list.

- Draw dress up pic
- Phone doctor's on Monday, stop forgetting you twit.
- phone hospital on Monday (don't worry, nothing major)
- Read and review The Medium
- Read and review Oblivion Storm - up to chapter 17
- Redraft Tyrian's book
- Finish other book - up to chapter 4 of ??


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Booked conventions-

Wigan Comic Con - 7th December

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'I'll get a job', she'd thought. 'Earn my own ticket,' she'd thought. Lucinda's parents had agreed that it was a good idea. 'It'll teach you some responsibility,' they'd said.  

Lucinda was currently staring down a dragon, dressed as a man, on only her first day in gainful employment. She suspected her parents would not think it such a good idea if they knew.

~ from Miss Prince

You can read a sample here - tannbourne.com

On Amazon  - www.amazon.co.uk/Miss-Prince-A…
Amazon.com - www.amazon.com/Miss-Prince-Ali…

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"Ambrosia. The Drink of the Gods. Thick, syrupy and vanilla flavoured, for some reason. It also contains enough calories to kill a mortal on the spot, so it's just as well that mortals are no longer mortals by the time they finish drinking it. Like Seralina, for example. She hadn't really meant to become a god. She hadn't taken the warning 'This will make of ye a god' seriously. It was her general policy not to trust any claim beyond 'It tastes all right, really'. She certainly didn't trust anything that sounded made-up or used words like 'dynamic'. Going round trusting words like 'dynamic' could get you into trouble. As it turned out, so could ignoring warning labels."

~ from Eggs, Butter, Sugar and Disaster

You can download a sample chapter of EBSD here: tannbourne.com

Buy it on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/Butter-Sugar-…