"Editing is like killing your story and then very slowly bringing it back to life." -jeanoram.com
In my case, or generally in a reviewer/blogger's case, editing is a must. If you simply just press the "Publish" button the moment after you finish writing your review, I'm wishing you good luck. But there's no need to frown, because I used to do this as well. In this post, I'll be giving my best advice and thoughts to how to successfully finish writing a review and make it awesome!
Post your reviews on other social media websites!
I typically use Goodreads, Twitter and Tumblr to promote my reviews, and I suggest using Goodreads and other platforms that you have an account on. The more, the merrier! You will gain publicity, likes and feel confident! Goodreads actually has different lists that they update every Tuesday (I'm sure of) and best reviewers, top readers and top reviewers are some of the lists that they add people on. You seriously feel spoiled!
Edit, edit, edit!
As I mentioned above, editing is a must, though I haven't always done it. And I believe that it's something that someone must do all of the time. It doesn't matter if you're writing a grocery list or a discussion post like this! (Okay, now I'm seriously turning into a grammar nerd!) If it's something really important to me, I even use some free online editors to just try my best and see if the grammar and word choices are good, easy to read and understand. Different posts have different kinds of writing used.- Reviews need to be easy for readers to read, and not used with the most complex vocabulary and thesaurus out there.
- Discussions should go straight to the point and not overboard. You have something that you're talking about, no? A topic seems the best to focus on, and although it's difficult to think of them, try making a list to organize your thoughts so you won't forget.
- Online editors rule, or even if you prefer having someone look it over for you totally works!
- Make sure you have everything that you'd like to include in a review/post: gifs, quotes, different images, the cover, whatever you usually prefer adding to make a reader's experience of your post better.
This is definitely the most important step to me, and a review wouldn't be as good without editing. Not everything is perfect anyways, but it's good to have that professional feel with a clean base to your writing. Many people will be reading it, after all!
Make sure your post is readable!
It has to be readable and intriguing, right? I used to have such horrible, ugly posts (there, I've said it) with no photos and ugly fonts and all of that. Thanks to some awesome bloggers out there who gave out tips on how to have a gorgeous, fresh blog (Ashley at Nose Graze definitely pitched in a ton), I love playing around with fonts, photoshop and different apps to make the viewing experience nicer! Free fonts rule too, of course!
And for that extra step... look around the blogosphere!
I'm such a blog stalker, I know! Get some ideas from other bloggers on how they write their reviews or they way they format them! Just make sure you don't completely copy their idea, because that's just unprofessional. It's like choosing a blog title: you look around, getting some inspiration, but never choosing the exact same name as someone's blog. Find some nice ideas here and there, and you'll be all set! Make your reviews and posts say you, you know?
You're all set!
You're now at the step where you can finally relax, take a deep breath, schedule your post and add labels, and finally, FINALLY press that "Publish" button. Sure, it takes a lot of work to write a review, but setting it up and making it scream 'you' is even more work. There are thousands of bloggers in the bookish blogosphere, and the best thing is to enjoy and find your place!
I'm pretty bad at editing. Generally I write posts relatively late in the day, for whatever reason, so I'm always really tired. Generally I just go through the review and fix any spelling mistakes and make sure all the formatting is correct, it's rare that I'll actually re-write anything.
ReplyDeleteI also find that looking around at what other people are doing is a good help too, especially when I was starting out. It was great to see how everyone laid everything out, how posts were formatted, that kind of thing. Stalking blogs has been a big help to me.
I completely agree with all of your other points too, great post!
Thanks, Killian! ^__^ I'm not the best at it either (sometimes I spot something after the post has been published and I panic) but it's something that I enjoy doing to make myself feel better about my blog too. Yeah, I never re-write anything either! I guess the rare situation where I'll try some idea and it doesn't work out.
DeleteStalking blogs is the best! I don't what I would've done if I never checked some other blogs out! I find myself improving every day as my bloggy friends share their advice! :D
My process of writing reviews varies. Most often though, I'll jot down my thoughts on a little journal then rewrite that on my computer into actual sentences that make sense LOL, then I'll copy it onto blogger, fix up my post how I want it, click the preview button, and that is where I edit, I guess. By the point I copy it into blogger, my review should be how I want it, so I just go back and re-read it in this preview thing and change things that need changing. I don't know, maybe I need to put more work/editing into it, LOL.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a ton of work! LOL but that's such a cool method! I don't think I'd ever have the time and patience to do that, but you're awesome! Yeah, the preview button really helps! Sometimes I just want to take my whole website down when I see a horrible formatting mistake or that something went wrong with the headings! xD If it works for you, then it's great girly! :DD
DeleteOh I NEVER edit my posts, probably because I'm just so tired by the time I write them and so I don't take the necessary steps to revise it. Oops. But anyways, do you have any online editors in mind? I'm trying to think of some that I saw before but they aren't coming up.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post Michelle!
Thanks Val! <3 I totally understand! Some reviews and posts take SO long to write and we all end up sick and tired of talking about the same thing after a while. xD Hmmm, some good ones are Paper Rater, and Ginger Software! I mean, there are tons of them out there and even plugins for Google Chrome or Firefox! :)
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