Just Passing Through
The Wildcard
I didn't read much of the reviews to be honest, just a couple of paragraphs, and my initial reaction was a whole lot of negative. I had to read a couple of sentences more than once to parse some sense from them but...
Well, anything I could say would be repetitive (it's all be pointed out here) and thus redundant and harsh.
But then I remembered some of my first reviews. They sucked. They stank. They had many of the same errors that yours had. The biggest mistake I made was trying to write 'cool', the so called witty style that seems like a freewheeling stream of consciousness. The off the cuff conversational style that seems fine when you speak, but on paper looks like guff.
There's been a lot of good advice, about structure, about layout, about investing in a thesaurus and proof reading.
My advice...
1. Perseverance. The only way to get better at writing is to keep writing. The more you write the more experience you get at what works and what doesn't. It's a gradual improvement as well, not overnight. Your tenth review will be marginally better than your first, your hundredth strikingly better with any luck.
2. Concentrate on the basics. Forget about 'developing a style'. get the basics right, your spelling, your paragraphs, your structure, your readability. The style comes by itself, it's natural, and you can't fake it or force it.
3. Cheat. Spellcheck is your friend. M$ Word is my writing tool, and I use spellcheck constantly. It not only sorts out any glaring typos, but it also takes a look at your grammar for you. When you start out, follow it religiously. Your documents will look like every other Word doc that's been through the process, but they will be readable, and it can pick up on some tortuous prose and help you out. Once you're comfortable with your writing, and can anticipate its grammar check 80% of the time and correct yourself, it's then you're ready to start ignoring it, and get creative with your grammar, after all some rules are made to broken.
4. Proof Read. I try to stay well ahead of my deadline, as much as a week if possible. Simply because when I write a review, I want to forget about it straight away. If the process of writing it is fresh in my mind, then I'm too close to it to proof read. Instead, I leave it on my hard drive to mature, ferment and brew. I leave the proof reading to just prior to publishing, or posting. Then it feels like I'm reading someone else's work, and I can be more brutal with it. Also, you may sound like an idiot, but read it out loud. Not just mumbling either. A full throated oratory, or as if you're reading a bedtime story, savour every word and make sure you follow the accent of the punctuation. You will pick up on 99% of the typos, and you will appreciate the flow of the prose, and spot any clumsy passages that spellcheck missed out.
5. EDIT. Don't be afraid to edit. Rip superflous sentences out, whole paragraphs if need be, move stuff around, rewrite if you have to.
That's all I can think of.
Well, anything I could say would be repetitive (it's all be pointed out here) and thus redundant and harsh.
But then I remembered some of my first reviews. They sucked. They stank. They had many of the same errors that yours had. The biggest mistake I made was trying to write 'cool', the so called witty style that seems like a freewheeling stream of consciousness. The off the cuff conversational style that seems fine when you speak, but on paper looks like guff.
There's been a lot of good advice, about structure, about layout, about investing in a thesaurus and proof reading.
My advice...
1. Perseverance. The only way to get better at writing is to keep writing. The more you write the more experience you get at what works and what doesn't. It's a gradual improvement as well, not overnight. Your tenth review will be marginally better than your first, your hundredth strikingly better with any luck.
2. Concentrate on the basics. Forget about 'developing a style'. get the basics right, your spelling, your paragraphs, your structure, your readability. The style comes by itself, it's natural, and you can't fake it or force it.
3. Cheat. Spellcheck is your friend. M$ Word is my writing tool, and I use spellcheck constantly. It not only sorts out any glaring typos, but it also takes a look at your grammar for you. When you start out, follow it religiously. Your documents will look like every other Word doc that's been through the process, but they will be readable, and it can pick up on some tortuous prose and help you out. Once you're comfortable with your writing, and can anticipate its grammar check 80% of the time and correct yourself, it's then you're ready to start ignoring it, and get creative with your grammar, after all some rules are made to broken.
4. Proof Read. I try to stay well ahead of my deadline, as much as a week if possible. Simply because when I write a review, I want to forget about it straight away. If the process of writing it is fresh in my mind, then I'm too close to it to proof read. Instead, I leave it on my hard drive to mature, ferment and brew. I leave the proof reading to just prior to publishing, or posting. Then it feels like I'm reading someone else's work, and I can be more brutal with it. Also, you may sound like an idiot, but read it out loud. Not just mumbling either. A full throated oratory, or as if you're reading a bedtime story, savour every word and make sure you follow the accent of the punctuation. You will pick up on 99% of the typos, and you will appreciate the flow of the prose, and spot any clumsy passages that spellcheck missed out.
5. EDIT. Don't be afraid to edit. Rip superflous sentences out, whole paragraphs if need be, move stuff around, rewrite if you have to.
That's all I can think of.
