Tales Post – How I Construct A Review

As mentioned in my UKYABA Blogging Workshop write up here I gave out goodie bags to those that attended the blogging for beginners workshop.

In these bags I included a How I Construct A Review guide and the feedback has been really nice as people found it quite useful.  Therefore I thought I would share it on my blog.

These are just some ideas I wrote down when I started blogging which I refer to and look at when I am constructing a review which give me things to think about and include in my reviews.  It is important to bear in mind that everyone is different and has their own ways of constructing a review so this is by no means a how to more of a this is what I refer to when I construct my reviews in the hope is may help others.

There are many different ways to write a review of a book.

It normally takes a few attempts to find your voice and natural flow when it comes to a review. I feel it is important to be yourself and that voice will come naturally.

It sometimes takes me a while to write a review of a book. Normally 2 – 3 hours per review dependant upon how much I have to say about the book. But sometimes it’s thinking that takes the time. I sometimes ponder how best to word something or express a feeling or emotion and many a time I think my review sounds terrible. Sometimes I even type it walk away and when I go back to it it actually sounds and reads better than I originally thought!

Whilst writing a review I try and consider the following points to help be construct the review which I thought I would share with you.

I always consider these points even when I may not have enjoyed a book so much as I believe being constructive about a book that wasn’t for me is essential rather than being completely negative.

This is not saying that this is the definitive way of writing a review. You should write a review how it best suits yourself, your blog and your writing style and voice. These are just some things I myself consider along the review writing way that may be useful

• What was the story about?

• Who were the main characters?

• Written from who’s perspective / point of view?

• Were the characters credible?

• What did the main character do in the story?

• Did the main character run into any problems?

• Who was your favourite character and why?

• Could you relate to any of the characters in the book?

• Have you ever done of felt some of the things the characters did?

• Did you like the book?

• What impression did it leave on you?

• What was your favourite part of the book?

• Do you have a least favourite part of the book?

• If you could change something what would it be?

• Would you recommend this book to another person?

• What type of person would like the book?

• Rating (if you use a rating system on your blog)
  

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Whilst reading a book for review or that I know I am going to review on my blog I write notes in a notebook or sometimes in the notes section on my phone about thoughts, feelings, favourite parts and quotes etc just so that when I begin to write my review I have some prompts to remind me of how I felt and what I liked. These can then be expanded on. Some bloggers use sticky book markers too to mark key pages to go back to.

So this is how I try and structure my reviews on my blog. I don’t always follow it to the letter, but I use it to get my brain in gear and get the thoughts flowing.

Check out my reviews page to see how I use these ideas in actual reviews – here

How do you construct your reviews? I would love to hear from you!