Review Writing Struggles

Okay, so we all know Katie is awesome about writing awesome reviews and articulating her thoughts. Me, on the other hand? *WOMP WOMP*

So, rather than just whining about how awesome she is and my lack of awesomeness I wanted to look at why I struggle to write reviews. I came up with a list. No excuses, mind you, because for every book I’ve read since my last review went up I have a review started. I just have to edit it so it is possible to understand my ramblings and sounds a bit more articulate than simply saying “read this yesterday” or “never touch this.”

So, here we go. The list.

  1. Series – I am a series addict. Therefore, I run into the issue of wanting to read the series and then, wanting to tell everyone about the amazing moments in the series and realize, mid-sentence, mid-review, I am spoiling the entire book or in some cases major plot points in the series. Literally, for me, to encourage someone to read sometimes the only thing I can say, without spoiling is “massive plot twists ahead, prepare yourself.” And that, while true, isn’t a full, proper review. But for series that go on for more than 4 books you run into the issue of wanting someone to understand how amazing, how mind-blowing the series is as it grows but you don’t want to ruin it.
  2. Timing – if I don’t write down my thoughts quickly I lose what I wanted to say. This is rather inconvenient when I’m reading right before bed (or when I’m procrastinating on going out cause I’d rather stay in and read), listening to an audio book while at the gym or driving, etc. So, not ideal timing. And, in some cases (driving, lifting heavy things, etc) not safe to literally stop what I’m doing to write it down.
  3. Memory – see above. I lose what I want to say. Also, with series, when I binge through them I honestly forget what happens in each book. I just know the story arc and I’m obsessed. Also, I tend to run into the issue where I am convinced a certain plot point happened in book number three when it happened in book five. This ties into my binge reading series books.
  4. Editing – I’m a perfectionist. So right now, this article has been edited within an inch of it’s digital life. So imagine how long it takes me to edit a proper review. Yeah, there are problems here.

So my question is, for anyone else who writes reviews, what are your struggles? Am I just lazy? Or, just too much of a perfectionist?

Currently working on several reviews and actually posting them so (hopefully) I can get my act together. No time like the present.

About author

Brittney Soban

Brittney is a writer, reader and general lover of all things that end up printed on a page. With a few published poems and a lot of unpublished stories and novels she spends her days doing a nine to five job while wishing she was home working on the worlds she loves to create. As “punishment”, her and her brothers were banned from watching television for a week, leading to Brittney deciding that the free books at the library were better than TV and, in a very Matilda fashion, she took home loads of books every day and has never looked back. A reader of all types of literature, she will read practically anything put in front of her as long as something within it, no matter how small, sparks her interest. Give her high fantasy, science fiction, mystery, it doesn’t matter, but her love does lie within the fantasy and YA genres. A series junkie on top of everything else, she picks and chooses when to begin a series based on how many standalone books also await her attention in her to be read pile. Once she starts a series she will read every installment available back to back until she finishes a series or is forced to wait for the next publication. Called a book dragon by her boyfriend, the term is fitting as she owns more books than anything else and is quite sure her obituary will state she died under an avalanche of books. She truly wouldn’t have it any other way.

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