This week: The Reasons for Reviews Edited by: Dawn Embers  
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Contests & Activities Newsletter by Dawn
Reviewing is an important aspect of the WDC experience. There are different benefits as the writer and different approaches one can take as the reader when providing feedback. |
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One thing that is often connected with contests and some activities is the possibility to give or receive a review. In many ways, the review is a vital part of what helps make this writing site so great for writers. Granted, it does help to have a place to keep writing aside from having 500 docs saved on a computer, but the access to different readers and the chance for some feedback is a definite benefit.
There are different reasons for providing a review, whether it's part of a contest, required in a challenge, because you are a member of a review group or even just because you clicked on the random option, aka read & review.
Part of Challenge
Reviewing for an activity or a challenge is a good reason. It never hurts to include a little motivation for some reviews beyond the general satisfaction in knowing you are providing something for a writer. An activity is a good little way to provide some motivation to shower people in the community with reviews. It can give people a focal point or method in order to search out people to review beyond the option of the random review link. This can also give some extra incentive since some will offer prizes or rewards for taking part in the challenge. There are some that include the requirement of submitting an entry to a contest followed up by a review of an item for someone else that is taking part in the challenge. Then there have been writing groups that have months focused on planning, writing, and editing/reviewing that asked people to give each other feedback on much bigger projects. These are only two examples of challenges that have include a review portion of the past few years here on WDC. The challenge can give a reason beyond generosity for a review but also some guidance in what to review since this is a vast site with a billion+ options for items to read.
Contest Associated
This can be either as part of a writing contest that requires a review too but most of the contest related reviews are often from the judge. Not every contest provides a review in return, which is something to consider when entering. Yes, it is a nice features with a contest but there are some good reasons for there to be the potential for the contest to not provide such an option. A good example is that of the daily contests. If you are having entries and rounds every single day, it can be difficult to review every entry, every single time. There are also little contests run during NaNoWriMo that may get 50 entries, which can be overwhelming and while a review is nice, at times the purpose of the writing is just to get things going or do some world building, so it may be okay to go without a review in that case. However, often one of the benefits of entering a contest is the review. At times, that review is even more appreciated than the prizes offered for the winners. Doesn't matter if you run the contest or are just helping out as a guest judge (which I appreciate people who offer to be the judge for a round), the review can be a great thing to offer anyone who enters.
Group Activity
One of the big and common methods for promoting the review process is the groups found here on the site. I have been a member of a couple different groups that have a review section in part of their activities. Well, I'm still a member even though I don't always associate my reviews with them. I've been a member of the Angel Army since long before having the moderator status, so it's one I have done reviews for occasionally for many years. It's just one group of so many. Groups help to navigate the site and also get a connection with different people. Since there are so many that use the site, it can be overwhelming and having a group with a particular focus can help to bridge the gaps and make connections easier. Some also have a particular focus, like the group that helps provide reviews on anniversaries (the date a person joined the site is their profile anniversary date every year). Some groups focus on newbies while others might be interested in a particular genre. Either way, taking part in a group can help for many things included the review process.
Other than the sources of purpose behind the review, there are a couple of different aspects to consider when doing a review. How technical do you need to get? Is it necessary to go into editing detail? While it's helpful to provide supportive criticism on what can be fixed within an item, there are also times when a review can be quite simple. I don't particularly recommend writing a review where you just state what the item is about (Yes I've seen them and they would help if it was for the purpose of getting others to read the item but not so help for something sent to the writer who probably knows what it is about). However, at times it can be nice just to give your general reactions to the writing, how it makes you feel or even if it brings up a particular memory. There is much that can go into a review and we'll save the different types of reviews for another newsletter at a different time. For now, consider what brings you to looking at an item here on the site and some possible sources of inspiration that would help for you to provide feedback. Go check something out here, do a little reading and send a review or two. Have fun with it. 
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Do you review as part of an activity or is it something you do for other reasons?
Not too long ago, I wrote for the Contests & Activities Newsletter with the topic that focused on prompts. Here are some comments sent in regards to the use of prompts:
Comment by QueenNormaJean maybesnow?!  :
I do love a good prompt. It can send you off into a different world. Soon you are sailing along with your muse and at the end of the journey a story appears.
Comment by Beholden  :
I survive in WDC by entering contests, so the prompt is pretty important to me. I hate those that lay out the entire storyline - they leave nothing for me to do except provide the contest owner with exactly what they want. And that is the wrong way round, in my opinion - contests should seek to extract creativity from the entrants, not satisfy the desires of the owner.
The prompts that seem to get the best from me are the pictorial ones. Any decent picture or photo should contain details that beg for explanation and, in supplying that, we're telling the story already. Single word prompts are good too - they can ge twisted or deliberately interpreted in unexpected ways and thus produce a story or poem that is totally different from everyone else's. And that's how to win contests!
So, from my point of view, I need a prompt that opens the door to interpretation. And never, never tell me the plot or insist on certain words being used. That just restricts creativity.
As for setting prompts, I hate doing it. It requires thought that I'll never use and just becomes a chore to be avoided if possible. I know it's unfair to be so demanding on oner side and pathetic on the other but hey, writers were never supposed to be easy to herd. ;)
Comment by Turkey DrumStik  :
In that rare moment I give in and run a contest with a prompt, I makes the prompts quite open ended. I want contestants to go hog wild and experiment with their writing (be it in format or content). To try to get some clarity on what can spark ideas for people on the site, I created a poll with different prompt types so I could glean broad preferences. The results I've gotten to this point are surprising but useful.
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Contests & Activities: April 24, 2024 Issue [#12517]
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