This week: Make Reviewing a Regular Activity! Pt. 1 Edited by: Jayngle Bells  
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| Hey, it's Jayne, one of your regular Contests & Activities editors. I've reflected on reviewing over the last few months, and thought it was time to revisit this important activity. Since series have become my thing, ta-da! it's another series. |
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I’m going to be upfront with you: I’ve been a terrible WdC reviewer.
My reviews themselves are competent. I adapt my style to the type of item and purpose of the review, and do my best to be honest, encouraging, and helpful. I’m always striving to get better at what I do, quality-wise.
Quantity-wise? After four years on the site—my review numbers are downright embarrassing.
There, I said it. I own it.
Only, I didn’t understand why.
I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time these last few months contemplating reviews and reviewing. Time, that, yes, I could have used to review things instead. But that’s not how my brain works. I wanted to figure out why I wasn’t reviewing.
To be clear, I’m not projecting my issues onto anyone else. There are many reasons you may not review, provide brief reviews, only give positive reviews, or rate nothing less than four stars. Time crunches, group affiliation, review purpose, and familiarity with genres and writing styles all affect what’s getting accomplished by any one reviewer.
However, I discovered some weird things about myself:
1)I didn’t believe I had the right to ‘critique’ anyone’s work. It’s not exactly imposter syndrome, but it has set up shop in the same Writer’s Insecurities outlet mall.
2)I really don’t like getting hate mail. I’m far from a people-pleaser, but I also don’t believe in tearing people down. So, when I complete a review in good faith, and get a rabid negative response from the writer, I can’t say I enjoy the experience.
3)This led me to want to give watered-down reviews. I dared not make a mistake in a mechanical point or subjective understanding. I certainly did not want to risk a potential argument over what I saw on the page.
4)Watered-down reviews were unappealing to me. I didn’t like 1 and 2, but I liked 3 and 4 even less.
Narrowing it down to these four critical points, I discovered my compromise was to not review at all.
I suffered from review avoidance.
Thinking this through further, I realize fixing this issue has nothing to do with anything or anyone external to me. I had to draw the line of what was acceptable for me within the expectations of Writing.com’s guidelines.
First, I gave myself permission to admit to not knowing everything about writing. News flash: I won’t continue to learn if I don’t push past my current capabilities. Might I make a mistake? Oh, I will definitely make a mistake somewhere. It’s not the end of the world.
Second, I accepted if I keep up my end of the bargain, and provide a thoughtful, kind and encouraging review that is also honest - I cannot be responsible for the writer’s response to it. Most importantly, I don’t have to engage with hostile replies.
With all that in mind, and a little help from Satuawany  , I devised a reviewing philosophy. I understand some folks can keep this stuff straight in their head—but for those of us who can’t, I consider my document a roadmap of sorts:
This is the type of reviewer I am. If I fall into old patterns, I have my trusty map to get me back on course.
Maybe you suffer from review avoidance like I did. Perhaps your reasons are different, but the avoidance is the same. You could be in a reviewing rut and want to change up how you approach the activity. If finding time is an issue, what about a new template can help you focus on your greatest reviewing strengths? It can reduce how long you spend on each review. The same is true if you want to branch out into new item types or even new genres.
Whether you have review avoidance, time constraints, or simply want to up your reviewing game, I hope this new series will provide you with the tools you need to take part authentically in this important WdC activity.
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| Is there anything specific about reviewing you'd like to see covered in the series? Let me know with a comment or suggestion! |
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Contests & Activities: July 20, 2022 Issue [#11472]
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