Every Sunday I find a new bookish topic to discuss. Have an idea for a discussion post? Just leave a comment below or email me at christinathebookreader@gmail.com
This week is specific to blogging.
I want to know how everyone goes about writing reviews. So I will share what I do.
When I'm reading the book, if there is something I specifically want to mention in my review, I write it down somewhere. And as soon as I finish the book (sometimes the moment I put it down) I sit down to start writing. I like to have everything really fresh in my head. Otherwise I forget what I want to say.
And so I type in a rather incoherent form. Some of my reviews look a bit incoherent. Just random ramblings and whatnot. And there is a reason for this.
When I'm done writing down my review, it is basically just my initial thoughts. I try to let it sit in draft form for a couple of days before it publishes. Because I often go back and edit what I wrote, add things, make it more... coherent. Because when I first start to write a review I generally have no idea where to start. So they aren't so well organized. And they often don't contain everything I want to talk about.
My ugly looking reviews are generally the ones I didn't have time to let sit. So they got published in first draft form. As a writer, that pretty much kills me. I need to reread and polish. But, alas, sometimes my deadline is right there and I don't have time. And this is why I try to be ahead. I try to write posts at least a week in advance. Some of them are written a few weeks to months in advance.
So how do you go about writing reviews?
I write way in advance, too. I don't really edit, just because time constraints, but I do try to look it over at least once right after or right before publication. I like to write the review as soon as I finish the book because, like you say, I like it to be fresh and get all the initial emotions down. Unfortunately, this does make several reviews really incoherent or really hard to write. If I'm super emotional about something in a good way it'll be a lot of me praising it and so I find those reviews hardest to write because there's only so many different ways to say "I love this book!".
ReplyDeleteI agree! That's why I like to write them ahead of time. So I can let them sit, and if I think of something, I can go back in and add it. I gotta let it stew lol.
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