What NOT to Do When Reviewing Books

Reviewing books is not as easy as it sounds. There are things that you should avoid doing if you want to be read at all. Balance is key: you can’t gush all over the book and tell everyone how perfect it is; and you can’t rant and claim how you want to burn it either. Here are a few tips that you can look at and use as your guide while writing your book review.

1.Don't just write a summary. Amateur book reviewers often tell the story and forget to judge the book. If you want to tell the story again, write an abstract. If you want to be a reviewer, you need to provide insights into a book. You are a reviewer, not a parrot.

2.Don't give away the ending! Spoilers abound in many an amateur review. Don’t make yours part of the crowd, even if it seems funny.

3.Tantalize. Don't tell. You may not give away the ending, but you might find yourself giving away plot points left and right. Avoid the temptation to tell your readers all about the book. Aim to get your readers to pick up the book and judge it for themselves, whether or not you actually like the book.

4.Give reasons for your judgment – don’t just rant or rave. You might love the book and you may start whipping out your thesaurus to look for all the terms that mean “good”. On the other hand, you could hate the book immensely and have your temper fiery hot in every single word of your review. Whatever your emotions are, justify them. You need to tell your readers why the book is good or bad. The key word is “why.”

5.Watch your grammar! It makes no sense to critique a book if you can’t write well yourself. Start with basic rules of grammar and work your way into better writing.

6.Always consider the author's background; don’t separate the book and writer from each other. Some reviewers pick a book apart as though it were an inanimate thing. What every author knows is that a book is like a friend, even a baby that you slowly give birth to as you write and edit it. Authors always color their work, so do research on the author before writing your review. This is not to make you pity them and therefore write a good review. This is to help you understand why they write certain things, or in a certain way.

7.Don’t sound like you’re shouting your review out from the ivory tower. Reach out to your readers. Use simple words to describe how you feel about the book. If you start sounding boring and academic, step away, and then edit your work.

Pick a Winner...

Whether it’s the Oscars or Cannes, the Berlinale or the Venice Film Festival, award-winning films never fail to make the headlines. It may be their content and their ground-breaking stories, or it may simply be hype and glamour. Which is it? In this review activity, you are going to be the judge.

This exercise is meant to enhance your critical eye, especially when it comes to art that has supposedly passed through the hands of experts and has been deemed excellent enough to be awarded. Does a film always deserve its bevy of awards? Is there something in the film worth exploring above and beyond its ability to gather statuettes? Does a film earn money because it gathered lots of awards; or does it fail at the box office, and often unfairly?

Pick an award-winning film, preferably one that was judged best picture at the Oscars, Cannes, the Berlin Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, or the BAFTA. Watch it, review it, and keep on asking yourself: does this film truly deserve its awards? Why AND why not? Remember, you need to be balanced, and you need to look at all angles of a film to see if and how the film congeals into a coherent whole.

Happy watching and happy reviewing!

Who are Your Neighbors?

The best characters in any story or novel are those that seem so real, you swear they were your neighbors. How can you fashion good characters? By knowing people well, and by knowing and be willing to tell their stories.

So, who are the people that you know? Be creative and put them (among other things) into the blanks below. You can copy and paste the statements into your word processor, or you can print them out. Whatever the case, fill in the blanks and have some fun!

1. The worst person I know is __________ because he/she is a real _________.

2. The world would be better if there were fewer people like ___________.

3. I wish ___________ would disappear.

4. I wish I would never see ______________ ever again!

5. I hope ___________ will understand me one day.

6. _____________ and _____________ should never have gotten married.

7. _____________ is the complete opposite of __________, although they do go well together.

8. I think ___________ is not as ___________ as I imagine, but I know ____________ is inevitable for him/her.

9. When I think of _____________, I feel ____________.

10. No one should be hurt by _______________.

Let's Get Cheesy!

You have two hearts, one made of milk chocolate, the other made of white chocolate. They are placed side by side. They are speckled with candy sprinkles. They have to be at the heart of your story.

You have a thousand words (or less) at your disposal, and your choice of plots and characters. You can choose to turn the hearts into the main characters, or they could be a plot tool. In any case, your story has to involve these two hearts. If your story turns out too cheesy, don't fret! It's yet another exercise in using photos to get yourself a plot.

When you are done, post your story in the Comments section, or post a link to it. Good luck and happy writing!

It's Time for Some Cartoons!

Many older movie viewers tend to shy away from cartoons because they think animation is “kids’ stuff” or even “immature.” However, it takes a lot of manpower to make a cartoon: today’s animation is far from simple, and the storylines are far from naïve and whimsical. Cartoons have evolved to cater to a much wider audience than before, and they are no more fairytales than they are stories simply translated to non-human form.

Your job is to review a cartoon. You can go old school and pick something like Fantasia or Bambi; or take newer, more animation and technology-heavy fare, such as Up or Cars. Which cartoon you pick is your choice, as long as you take on a full-length animation film. By reviewing a cartoon, you also wake up a critical part of your brain; you need to answer the question: Why was this filmed as a cartoon and not with live characters?

If you recall, some of the entries in this site recommend that you ask yourself: is my setting appropriate to my story? Would my story have happened anywhere else? Think of those questions as you evaluate the cartoon. You may also want to evaluate the plot of the cartoon itself. Is it too thin, or is it rich and full of insight? Is the movie all about showing off animation, or is the animation secondary to the movie’s ability to tell a story?

Be as balanced as you can, whether you like animated movies or not. Happy watching and happy reviewing!

Pick a Winner...

The Nobel Prize in Literature is an award prized like no other. Writers in this category have not only written well; they have made a difference in the world because of their writing. You can find a complete list of the winners from year to year at http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/.

Your job now is to pick a winning author from the list, pick a book from that author’s list, read that book, and review it. Ask yourself: why did this author win the Nobel Prize? What is special about this book that makes it unlike any other that I have read? What are the high points of this book? What are its low points?

You might also want to do more research on the author and see why he or she wrote the book, and how his or her life and times influenced his or her style. Be sure to include your own insights on the author when you write your book review.

Remember, even if the author won a Nobel Prize, the book that you hold in your hands is far from perfect. You have to be fair in making your judgment, and you need to be critical. Every book deserves a critical and questioning eye, so don’t scrimp on the criticism. However, you still need to be balanced, so don’t hold back on the praise, either.

Good luck, happy reading, and happy reviewing!

Another Triad for A Rainy Day

Incorporate the three elements below into your story, but make it a happy one.

1. A teardrop
2. Rain
3. An awkward phone call

You have only 1000 words at your disposal. You can pick any plot, as long as your story ends up happy. Don't forget to paste your story in the comments section, or provide a link to your story. Good luck.