Still only doing reviews and not any creative writing; am now eighteen books ahead of schedule for the Goodreads/Kindle reading challenge. I’ve read 38 books so far out of my planned 45 year total goal. And another book started earlier tonight… late last night? (Er, since it’s officially after midnight, that is.)
Once upon a time, a female named Emma worked for Inkitt Publishing, and Emma did her homework before requesting this reviewer to read some of her clients writings. Not all of the work submitted was four or five star Amazon review material in this reviewer’s eyes, but Emma and I had a decent working relationship. Alas, then Emma stopped sending this reviewer anything… she had apparently left Inkitt. She was replaced by Kevin. Kevin, it would seem, not only does not review what his reviewers want to read, he also apparently does not read the books he sends them to review. Since Kevin started sending me requests, I have read more trash than I can remember ever reading. Tales with no plots. Stories that are told and never shown. – Writer’s remember, show, don’t tell! Writings that twist and turn to try to keep excitement going but never answer the questions they posed. Narratives so full of grammar, punctuation and spelling errors it makes a readers eyes bleed.
Hence my title for this piece. As a reviewer, my hope is that my critique will offer one persons viewpoint in the hopes of improving a piece or exchanging ideas. As a reviewer, I desperately try to critique in the way I was taught – comment on a positive for every negative mentioned. But, the last – three? Four? – stories Kevin sent me, I was hard pressed to find a single good thing to comment about. The stories were told. There were errors galore, including way too many tense issues. The writers seemed to change their plot or theme once they began their tale. Their characters were flat and one dimensional; two-dimensional characters almost seemed an improvement. Dialogue was stilted and unnatural sounding, often just repeating what the narrator had already told readers, over and over and over again. I don’t want to be ‘that mean reviewer’ that gives one or two star Amazon reviews… but that is what I’ve been reduced to. Thanks, Kevin.
I’m taking a break from Inkitt and reading writer requested stories. Hey, that’s how I found my newest fav paranormal romance writer, Tamsin Ley, after all! M’kay, back to reading my latest author requested tale, so I am so outtie….