tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1674510287177469473.post7700997229319582207..comments2023-06-06T08:13:43.101-07:00Comments on Vanessa Gebbie's news: Reviewers: Readers or writers? And allied questions.Vanessa Gebbiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00833187671441310234noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1674510287177469473.post-21058286149904595892008-05-20T01:37:00.000-07:002008-05-20T01:37:00.000-07:00Do writers praise more? I think I'm probably harde...Do writers praise more? <BR/><BR/>I think I'm probably harder. I read a novel called The Memory Keeper's Daughter last week, and although it was interesting, I found myself skimming.The writing was occasionally praiseworthy, but all the characters had the same imaginative flights in their internal thoughts... so they were the writer's, not the characters'. The writer had won awards for her short fiction, but the novel didn't work on the same level, for this reader. <BR/><BR/>Reading reviews, and wanting to understand why it had become a runaway success, it appears to be the premise, and the plot. Not the work as a whole.Vanessa Gebbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00833187671441310234noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1674510287177469473.post-52523013935749084312008-05-20T00:55:00.000-07:002008-05-20T00:55:00.000-07:00It does make a difference whether the reviewers ar...It does make a difference whether the reviewers are writers or not, I have found while working with the thirty or so reviewers who review for The Short Review. They have many compunctions about negative reviews, they put themselves in the writer's shoes, they know how that would feel. Does this lead a reviewer to praise more? To be more analytical? <BR/><BR/>I don't require that my reviewers be writers, but I will shortly be publishing a review of a short story collection by someone who never reads short stories let alone writes them. It was a risk - this reviewer liked the writer's longer works, and found that they just weren't satisfied with the shorter works. Is this purely a length issue? Can we measure if this is a "valid" response? Is this really about the books "readability"? I don't think it is possible to answer these questions, to separate one from the other, to set a checklist for reviewing. The beauty of reviews is their utter subjectivity, to me anyway. That's why The Short Review always always gives links to other reviews of the same book. <BR/><BR/>On a personal note, I agree, V, I'd like to be reviewed positively both by writers and readers and hope they - well every single person who might read my stories - get something from them, whatever it is.Tania Hershmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15781460794034586895noreply@blogger.com