#BookBlogWriMo Day 13: Your Review Process

Day 13: Your Review Process

Alright today we have my review process. I know I talked about this a little bit in an earlier blog post, but let's see if I can go into more detail. I don't have like a set process really, but here is what I normally do.

1. Read the book (of course). While I am reading if it is a really great book or a really terrible book I usually highlight lots of text. Things I love or hate or don't make sense or are hilarious or whatever. Things I want to remember when I go to write up my review. For the so so book, the alright books, the good books, I don't usually highlight a lot. I am working on this, trying to remember to highlight things that will help me write a review if it is a while before I get to it.

2. After I finish reading the book I usually don't do anything right away. Sometimes I will go in and set up my review post, but not write anything in the review section. If there is something about the story or characters or whatever that I want to make sure to remember I might put in a note or two, but usually I don't do anything. The one exception to this is when I read a book that I just did not like at all. Then I go and make a post for the book and just rant my heart out about the book and everything that made it such a horrible read. Everything I hated or that annoyed me or whatever. I need to get that stuff out of my head as soon as possible, and this instant rant never makes it to the actual review. I never use it as it is really harsh. Much more so than what I actually write for negative reviews. It is bad.

3. After at least a day I go in and start to write my review. I always like to sleep on it before starting as I need time to really process the book. Right after I finish I usually assign it a star rating (more on that tomorrow), but I like to really think through the story. I usually tell my husband about the book I read that day while we eat dinner and that helps me figure out what I want to say about it. I need that. Sometimes it is longer before I write up my review though. Sometimes I just don't feel like writing, or what I am writing is just not that good so I will hold off and let my reviews pile up. At least once a week I will sit down and go back through the reviews I still need to write. Sometimes this takes me a while as I have a bunch piled up, but usually it is not too bad. While writing my review I will first pull up the book and see if I highlighted anything to get those parts in my head again. If not then I just think about the story and start writing. I usually don't have anything specific I want to write about I just see what happens when I start typing. Sometimes I start and by the time I have a review it is way longer and more detailed than I thought it would be. Sometimes nothing really comes out and then the review gets put on hold again until the writing is flowing. I don't outline what points I want to make or anything, though if there is something that I made note of right after I finished the book I will make sure I have included those points once I finish. For negative reviews I do go back and read my ranty rant that I wrote when I first finished and see if there is anything else I forgot and wanted to mention. If so I make them nicer, but still point out whatever it is that I didn't like.

4. Once I have the review written I then go back and format my post with everything else that goes into it. It is busy work that I can do anytime so I don't want to waste my writing time with all the details. When I am in the mood to write I just like to write and get it done. I will then go back and re-read my reviews looking for typos and such. Not that I always catch them, but I always give them at least a once over before posting them. This is usually a day later as it also helps me see if I want to change anything in the review or add anything.

5. Review gets posted and I am done. The review goes up on my blog, Facebook and Twitter. Easy peasy.

So there is my basic review process. I  just write and thoughts come out and it is good.