Reviewing with River

I learn from two fronts when I review. First, I see errors that I don't see in my own work, or I see something and think "well, I'm not sure" and often look stuff up. I've mentioned before that I always try to tell the author where my info comes from, and if it's something I had to look up, I say so and give them the link. Then I (hopefully) don't make that mistake myself when the time comes.

I also try to not make the author think they need to hack up their own work - critique is tough to swallow sometimes, and easy to say "I suck, I should trash it." I did that to one of my pieces I received a rather harsh critique on and now I absolutely loathe the piece. It's now what they wanted to write, not what I wanted to write. Their criticism was warranted, but I took the review too personally and I sat down to edit too quickly. I won't edit a piece a now for several weeks after receiving a review, when I can remove myself from the 'it's my baby' stage. What I needed to do was blend the critique of the flaws with my voice, instead of just inserting them point-blank.

Sometimes I will do an edit for a contest within a few days, depending on what my muse is in the mood for. But after that, I take significant time between revisions, for the same reasons as with receiving reviews. Especially if I like the concept but am frustrated with the execution. A lot of the time now, I know where the piece isn't working but can't quite polish it up. And I'll get a review that mentions the same spot, so I take that as proof I'm learning. Before I wouldn't have even noticed something was 'off'.

Self-editing with a love for your own growth and improvement, not out of anger, spite or frustration results in a better job. To stick with the garden theme, you learn what to plant, then how to weed and prune, instead of hack and slash (though on occasion, a chainsaw is still needed, but even that has an art to it).

I'm thinking of sticking that little disclaimer in my review sign-off - something along the lines of 'think it over for a few days before deciding what's right for your piece'.

The second way I learn is when I see something done really well. I frequently find well-written pieces and review them, but I also often dissect them on my own. Why does this work? How did they do that? Where can that foundational item be traced back to? What influences are behind this? And after falling down am internet rabbit-hole, I usually end up with a bunch of articles and some new books in the Amazon wishlist. At it's most basic, it comes down to, "why don't I know how to do that?".

Yes, it slows down my output right now, for both reviews and writing. But I don't view it as killing my muse, what I want is her to be more nimble in the long run. Curiosity killed the muse and cat, but satisfaction brought them back.

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