NEWSLETTER REVIEWING & RELATED TOPICS

Re view RE VIEWING
Seeing again the word art before you.

THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT ANGLES OR VIEWS FROM WHICH A PERSON CAN SEE

Reading a writer's word art once is like glancing at a picture or other artwork. You get a general idea but, oh what you are missing. I know from my experiences in life and especially my experiences here in our WDC community, that there is a lot of activity and there are many things to do like reviewing. Ok, alright already you've read a ton of stuff about reviewing, great!

Have you climbed into a review? Have you embraced the reviewing process? Have you focused on the creative art brought forth by a WDC member and had it stir you?

You are about to have the journey of a lifetime. Reviewing isn't just throwing together a few thoughts after reading someone's masterpiece. Reading is taking in the complete story and allowing it to wrap you up so that you can feel, hear, taste, touch, smell, and see all the details. This is what the writer is showing you and sharing. Writing and sharing take courage. Reading and reviewing take courage. The writer benefits from your review. But, what do I get besides a lot of work to do?

Well, think about this:

In order to do a review, you need to find something to read. I recommend finding something that aligns with your interests. Reading deliberately that is with a focus on being able to ferret what you like, don't like, makes you feel emotions, keeps you interested and wanting to know more, being able to picture in your mind the story or not, and other things that you think of or respond to in order to let the writer know about your reading experience. Yup, that's a huge amount of work, but you will get:

to be a better reader, writer, reviewer, and maybe some ideas about a few things you could write about.

I've found that the more I review the better I understand what I read. Often I step out of my comfort zone and review a genre that is new and unfamiliar to me. This helps round out my experiences with various reading and writing challenges gives me some insight into different writing voices, and allowed me to better review. When I review I'm reading, writing, and learning how to experience these activities.

Even when I get a simple review that doesn't have a lot of content or useful information I get insight. The review shower that someone read my word art. They understood or didn't understand what I wrote, and they felt it was important enough to review my writing. When I get a scathing review I welcome it. All fluff and no constructive criticism is nice but having suggestions to help me do more editing of my work is valuable.

Reviewing is a very important WDC activity which I endorse and highly recommend. The benefits are more from the reviewing efforts of the reviewer than the writer or sometimes the other way around but everyone gains something. Experience had taught me that what you put into something you get out or better.

Reading deliberately, writing focused on improvement, and reviewing to help yourself and the writer are what make WDC so wonderful and powerful for everyone in our community. Now I'm off to read, write, and review carefully and intently.

Safe travels and many blessings everywhere.