How to Give an In-Depth Review… Sort Of

How to Give an In-Depth Review… Sort Of



Don’t know exactly what an in-depth review is? Well there are many different things that make up an in-depth review so there's no one cut and dry answer. Want to see some different styles? Go look at the Public Review Page. You'll know when you hit an in-depth review.

It doesn't really matter if the piece is a short story or a chapter of a novel – it all comes down to the same things. Short stories show you everything from start to finish, all together. A novel – well, it's broken down into chapters. In the chapters you learn about the characters and hopefully strive towards some goal. Conflicts arise and hopefully are solved… and that creates you're novel. In-Depth Reviews can be done for any and all of them.

In-Depth Reviews - everyone loves getting them, but can just anyone give them? My opinion: sure, with a little bit of training – call it a learning curve if you want. Once you get into the groove, you rarely want to go back. And you'll see that your reviewing style, and your writing, are constantly evolving into something stronger because of it. It doesn't matter if you're terrible at grammar and your spelling is based on your spell-checker – you can still do in-depth reviews. A lot of it is based on your thoughts and feelings, and being willing to help another writer to try to improve their piece as best you can.

One of the biggest things you have to remember is that there is a diverse group of people who place their work up on WDC. Some are students, some are dabblers in the art of writing, and some are aspiring writers who hope one day to turn professional. In all of these groups you have what can be called newbies – or people who are just starting out. In some ways they are more fragile than most because some tend to take things said about their writing personally. So – how does one cater to all without knowing which group someone really belongs to? Easy, you learn how to make a review that will not 'hurt' or 'crush' someone when they read it (and I use those terms loosely).

Remember some of the keys to good reviewing are being helpful and being 'gentle'. By this I mean that you don't tell someone their piece is terrible and then go through and tear it to pieces. Of course don't do the flipside of the coin either, don't tell someone something is great if you really don't like it. Try to be honest.

Step One: First and foremost people really want to know what you thought of a piece and how are they going to know that unless you tell them. So – first time through, read the piece and jot down what you think of it. Did it stir your emotions, did you feel connected to the characters, did it make you laugh or cry – or think of things in a different light. Did you want to turn the page to find out what happens or could you have cared less. It's kind of the 'did you like it and why?' All of this I put under a heading that I usually start off with called: My Opinion.

Okay – so now you've read the piece once. You have some ideas about it. But are you really ready to give an in-depth review of the piece? Well maybe… but a second read would probably be better – to catch all those little nuances of the writer. So – go ahead and do a second read. Some people like to let it stew awhile in their minds before they do a second read, some don't – it's all a matter of preference. Stewing does have its place, and it does work very well here – though I realize that not everyone has time for this all the time.

Step Two: Second read through: Look for things that are out of place. Sure there's the normal: spelling error, grammar error – but then there's the more complex. Did the writer stay true to character or was he out of character based on your own understanding of the players in the story? Did things make sense or did something confuse you? Were there places where you would have liked more description? Or the converse, was there too much, making you forget the point of everything? Were the transitions between paragraphs rocky, or did they fit together perfectly? These are the things you look for on your second read and mark as you go.

Along with looking for things that are out of place, look for things that are great! Places where the characters really came alive, a description that really jumped out as excellent, or an action scene that you could picture perfectly. (You'll need these later for your writer's praise…)


Okay, now you have all your markups – good and bad… and your overall thoughts on the piece. So are you ready to do a good review – YES!

Step Three: The actual writing of the review…

The more information you give the better your reviews will be. Did the piece move you? IE did you react to what was happening in the piece (be is 'short' story or chapter), did it evoke emotions – or did it feel dry and flat (2D), rather than 3D and alive? Remember the writer's goal is to make the reader interact with the page – so did they do that. Did they draw you in while you read? Did anything seem to be missing? Were things confusing or awkward to read – or did everything flow well and you loose yourself in the piece? But don't just point out the bad, remember to point out the good here as well. Some people even put in a section entitled 'What I loved'.

You don't have to paste in the whole piece, referencing it (ex: when Harry & Sally were in the Bar talking…) if it's long is usually enough.

If you really feel the need to tear something apart – do so, but remember to give praise at the same time. Find something that was good – or look at the whole 'idea' being presented – maybe the writer just didn't present it appropriately but the general concept is good. Honesty above all else will have people coming back to you and asking if you would review something else that they're working on.

Another good way to boost a writer's mood, especially when everything you have to say about their piece (or a large majority of it anyways) seems to be bad or less than perfect, is to put in our own faults so that the writer doesn't feel its so much of a personal attack. One example of this might be: . "The characters felt a little flat in the action sequence, but it was probably due to the fact that through the slower sections of the book, you caught their expressions and moods beautifully and were so caught up in the action, that these details were forgotten. LOL!! I do the same thing too. I can't write an action scene the first time around and actually KEEP the characters 3-dimensional. Sometimes, mine will even fall OUT of character. Ugh!" Or something like that. When the person reviewed sees that you're sharing your own failures, it creates camaraderie.

So remember, if you're going to tear something to shreds be sure to put in some of those praise factors -- those things that you liked, or mentioning your own faults -- so that it doesn't feel like all you're doing is tearing something apart. Destruction is best taken with a spoonful of sugar, not a drowning in syrup.

On a final note – before I go over some of the different formats. When doing reviews, try not to base your rating on grammatical errors or formatting. Examples of this would be:

Sometimes when someone is starting out, they don't realize that for internet posting, paragraphs should be separated by an extra line break because normal books are not.

if you notice lots of spelling errors, ask yourself, are these really spelling errors? Or are they differences in English that vary from one location to another (most common idea of this would be British vs. American English: realise vs. realize, colour vs. colour). Another possibility might be that English is not really the writer's primary language. Remember WDC is a world-wide-community. People who don't speak English every day don't know all the little nuances that native speakers do. Perhaps send the person a quick email asking them about this and pointing out some of the things you notice before you do your review. Or read their blog at the top of their main port – sometimes they will mention these things there.


Many people who do in-depth reviews try to stick to a format. Formats are wide and varied; here's some of those breakdowns that people use and how you can try to incorporate them. You don't need to use all of them, or maybe you'll combine, but once you get the hang of it you'll discover it will make your reviews stronger.


Plot – tells where something is going – that good old conflict/resolution thingie - you can always put in what you see as the plot or idea of the piece be it chapter or short story. It's not uncommon in books that each chapter or block of chapters contain a subplot that eventually further along the main plot.
         State your understanding of what’s going on. Is it believable as presented?
         How does it flow?
         Does it need work?-specify what work!!
         Does it fit in with the previous/following chapter, stanza?
         Does it hold your attention?
         Does it make you want to read on?

Setting –it's really just saying where something (chapter/short story) takes place and did the writer do a good enough job presenting it IMO. If not – perhaps give suggestions on what might help…
         Can you IMAGINE the entire scene?
         Can you SEE where the action is taking place?
         What’s moving in the background?
         Where is the action taking place globally?
         Where’s the sun, moon, is it dark, morning, night, inside, outside, shadows, reflections?
         Do you HEAR the background, movement?
         Can you FEEL the wind, rain, heat, and cold?
         Can you SMELL the air, flowers, etc.?
         Can you TASTE food, water, blood, whatever is ingested?

Structure/Mechanics – this for me is the general flow of things. Did the paragraphs flow together perfectly, or were the transitions rocky? [these are usually things that throw you when reading, not the 'Oh my god, I didn’t see that coming' but the 'where in the heck did that come from' type feeling you get sometimes.] *Pointing these out to the writer is extremely helpful because many times they won't see what's missing. To them everything is there. They won't realize they dropped one important point that connects everything together, and can usually be corrected with one or two simple sentences.

Characters - main, support, *antagonist, *protagonist, *background people
What do they LOOK like, hair, facial, pale, tall, short, plump?
         What are they wearing?
         Do you like or dislike them?
         Does the character FIT in the scene?
         Are their emotions visible to you?
         Do they feel real?

Consistency- of actions, speech, language
*emotion, *reactions, *mannerisms, quirks

Grammar - spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, etc.

Overall opinion
Did you like it?
Was it interesting? How?
Strong points.
Unique? How?
Did it confuse you? How?
*Weak points.
*Would you recommend it to others?
*Would you buy it?

Suggestions
This is where most people put any errors that they find and their suggestions for correcting the problems they've pointed out from the parts above. Sometimes just pointing out a problem isn't enough, if you can find a way to give suggestions to fix the problem (without rewriting the entire piece in your own words) then do give suggestions. Sometimes it's just what another writer needs to understand what's wrong and allow him or her to see different ways to fix it.




Now you've read it all – go get writing…err reviewing

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