Fear: The Roadblock of Life

There are many types of fear that plague humans throughout their lifespan.
It comes in so many forms and at times when we least expect it.

What is fear? Merriam-Webster has a cut and dried answer.
To be afraid of (something or someone)
To expect or worry about (something bad or unpleasant)
To be afraid and worried

Whether it's because the lights flared then snapped off and you find yourself alone in a big, dark office building, or you're jogging through the woods and something is keeping pace with you. How do you know that? The detritus and debris of the forest is rustling in time with your footsteps. Or, you had a nightmare that you were back in school wearing your P.J.'s and are woefully unprepared to take a test that if you fail all your classmates would turn into zombies. We've all had exposure to fear.

The most human of fears comes from our own minds and it stymies us, stops us and dissuades us from trying new things - the fear of the unknown. The feeling of inadequacy and the fear of failure.

Fear is powerful and yet, fear is only as powerful as you let it be. If you feed it.

Now, you're probably wondering where I'm going with this. We all know about some great minds who have explored this topic with much success: Alfred Hitchcock, Stephen King, Bram Stoker - the list is quite long. However, I'm talking about regular people like me and readers of this blog.

Reviewers. Potential reviewers. Want-to-be reviewers.

I wrote about my first review here, My First Review.
Then I explained HOW I became a reviewer here: The Road of Being a Reviewer.

When I was first approached, all I felt was fear. "I can't write a review.", "I don't know what to say.", "I'm not a professional writer", "I'm not good with words.", or, "I wouldn't know where to start."

Only some of those reasons for fear have elements of validity - "I don't know what to say" or "I don't know where to start".

Writing anything, from a school essay, to a cover letter for a job, or a review, all require exercising a mental muscle. It's the one we use for writing Thank You cards, writing notes to teachers, or writing to a best friend far away, whether by snail mail or email. The point being, you CAN write.

Why are readers afraid to take the next step and become a writer of reviews? To share their opinions with other fans of the same author or series or genre?

Some take the urge to share to their own blogs. In that way, they can't be told by anyone that they are doing it 'wrong', they write the way they want to and express how they feel. If they want to be profane, use a ton of current vernacular and explore the dark side of snark, they can. It's their blog, they can do and say whatever they want. And, they're right.

However, in doing so, and I'm focusing on those readers who WANT to review but balk at joining an official review site, they are not facing their fears. They are still hiding. They are not being challenged to be what they could be. Oftentimes they become defensive when they DO try to join because they figure, "I've written reviews for Amazon, Goodreads and my blog. I know how to write a review so don't tell me what to do." And they quit.

Fear.

That's what it is. Fear of rejection, of not being good enough. And while that underlying anxiety continues to lurk in a potential reviewer's mind, they will oftentimes react with anger or defensiveness and may even be close-minded to guidance, suggestions or tips.

In a way, it's sad. True, not all react negatively, but I'm focusing on the ones that do. They're holding themselves back.

Understand this. Most, if not all, review sites are started by avid readers and fans of the written word. They love their romance or mystery or young adult books and want to share that love, passion and joy with the world. If they're lucky, they have business savvy on top of it and can set up a site that develops a solid reputation that is recognized by publishers and authors alike.

That brings me to the benefits of joining such a site. Books. Lots and lots of books. Free books. The price is reading a book that will provide you an hour of two of joy, then maybe another hour's worth of time to write about the things that affected you, both good, awesome or bad. Another benefit of writing for an established review site is the thrill. There are two kinds of thrills that come with reviewing for a professional site: contact from the author in response to what you have written, and seeing your words, YOUR WORDS quoted in or on a book cover.

I've recently had my words quoted ON a book cover. And I mean, where usually other famous author's quotes go, there were MY words. On. The. Cover. Knock me over with a feather! Yes, it was credited to the review site, Long and Short Reviews, but they were my words from my review. It was a major SQUEEE! moment.

Reviews written on a personal blog won't get that kind of exposure and fame.

Another benefit to reviewing for an organized review site are comments from readers of your reviews. True, you can get that on your personal blog. But the reach of a professional review site is exponentially larger. Who doesn't like feedback? Who doesn't like to get compliments?

As far as learning how to write a review? Most good sites offer classes, tips, and assure novice reviewers that no question is considered silly and in fact they encourage questions. If the site has a good rapport amongst its reviewer base, they will usually be very happy, willing and enthusiastic helpers to the newbies. Plus, I humbly present this blog. I started it because there was no place for me to go to learn about writing reviews. There was no place that addressed the kinds of questions a reviewer might have and no place to go to ask questions. That is why the Chrysanthemum Connection was born. To help, to demystify writing a review and to give people the chance to spread their writing wings and fly.

What about if you are a bad speller? Is that stopping you? It shouldn't. First, as I'm sure you are aware of, there are Spell Check programs out there. Second, many quality review sites have editors. It's what they do, polish reviews. And the more you write, the more you become aware of how to correct yourself eventually having less need to be edited. Why do you think the old adage Practice Makes Perfect has been used for decades? It's wisdom. It's true. The more you exercise your writing muscle, the easier it gets. It's not your lack of writing skill that is stopping you, it's fear.

Seriously think about kicking fear to the curb.

Become a reviewer. Be open to tips, guidance and trying new things. Enjoy the thrill of picking out ANY book you want, for free, reading it and shouting out your opinions to the world. Someone somewhere will agree with you. Someone is going to love that book like you do.

Which brings me to another thrill moment - someone will buy the book based upon what YOU wrote. Your enthusiasm can make a difference to a reader - instead of passing on the book, they become intrigued enough to try it out for themselves. That is the power of the written word. And each and every person who is reading this post has the power to do that.

If you love books. If you have the urge to shout to the roof tops about a book that wowed you and you don't have anyone to share that excitement with - become a reviewer. Share what you felt with all of us. That's really all reviewing is. Sharing using words.

If your excuse is "All I can say is I liked it." You are selling yourself short. That statement is only the beginning. It's the reason why you want to write a review.

Do you know what you do next? You interview yourself.
Why did you like it? Was it the characters that were special? Was it the plot? What touched you that gave you the feeling that you couldn't put the book down? Was the villain really nasty? Did you hate him or her as much as the author intended you to? Did you get affected by the love scenes? Were they that good or were they sweet and tender?

When you start interviewing yourself, you are writing the review. Think about what YOU want to know about a book that gets you to read it or buy it. You know what you like, what you expect. That is what you share. That is what you write.

You can be a reviewer. I have every confidence in you. Forget what Nora Roberts would say. I want to know what YOU say!

The Context of Content

The English language is a funny thing. There are so many words that sound the same yet have polar opposite meanings. We even have words that are spelled the same way but how they are used in a sentence or paragraph means they are pronounced differently and mean different things. Talk about confusing!

For reviewers whose English is not their primary language, that can be daunting and quite a challenge. Kudos to them because I'm only a one language person. Even so, writing in the English language can still cause moments of mayhem for those who have used it all their lives. So grammar and spelling issues affect everyone no matter the expertise. Thank goodness for dictionaries in paper and online. But they do fall short sometimes. They can't catch every word because our language is fluid and evolving all the time with advancements in technology and discoveries in nature.

The basics remain the same however and as reviewers we should be conversant in them or at least I believe we should be. That's why I love the Internet - so much information at our fingertips.

I mentioned the use of Spell Check in a previous post and how important it is. But I'm going to explore it further here because there are other issues besides spelling that can make an editor of reviews want to stick his/her head in a vat of chocolate to escape the insanity.

Words out of context. Like "She defiantly agreed" Or "What she feels takes presidents over anything else". Those words are spelled correctly so Spell Checker is going to give it a green light.

Definitely and precedence are the words they SHOULD have been and it's easy to see how it can happen. However, if a reviewer has a propensity to repeat the same thing over and over again, that's just not nice. If it's a matter of habit, I believe it takes making the correction over twenty times to break the cycle and I think it's worth the doing. Refusing to learn or self-correct after repeated editing requests is a red-flag to an editor. What do you think it says?

We are on a learning curve all of our lives because each day brings us experiences we learn from. The same can be said for writing. Authors get better at their craft over time because they learn from their mistakes and editing suggestions. Why shouldn't reviewers??

I found this nifty online gadget that might help with that context thing.

CheckPlus

Or if grammar poses questions no one can answer, this site seems to offer a variety of options: Grammar Tools

I tried out the Spell Check Plus and it actually highlighted the part where it made no sense because the word wasn't used in context. It doesn't offer options to correct it but it can alert a reviewer to its misuse. And even this site isn't perfect. It caught the president but blew by defiant. Yeah, it's a conundrum but still, this and others like it are the kind of tools a reviewer needs to have in his/her repertoire if they have a hard time remembering from review to review.

If you enjoy reviewing, isn't it worth doing well? Knowing your favorite author may be reading your review, don't you want to put your best foot forward? An editor can help, sure, but not all review sites have editors. So arm yourself with the tools you need to do the job right then you can hold up your head with pride in a job well done.

Hats Off to Editors of Reviews

I personally think that editors of reviews have a slightly harder time than other kinds of editors. I want to thank them for doing their job to the best they can and maybe send a bottle of Aleve with the box of chocolates they deserve.

Why do I think they have a more challenging task? I've touched upon it before in previous posts. The fact that many reviewers are readers and many do not work in an industry where writing is part of their job description is the reason I say that. If creative word use is required on the job, a person gets used to being aware of a level of perfectionism required to produce an acceptable product. That includes: editing, rewrites, grammar and punctuation, format, and proper spelling.

There are those of us whose writing challenges in day to day life are no more than writing checks, filling out forms and maybe a "Please excuse BobbyJohn for the day" note to a teacher. All the practicing and demands of school work are long past having any relevancy to your day to day survival. The basics are there but there is no need to stretch your writing muscles any longer.

Unless you are an avid reader. Unless you have a passion of talking about favorite books to your friends with like interests. That can translate into wanting to share more in a different kind of way and you take the next step into a brand new world - reviewing. Reviewing is sharing in written form your love and/or your opinions about a book with others. And that form has almost as many rules as a short essay in high school or college. But this time, you want to do it. This time it's about the subject that you chose. This time, you are in control-but, there are still rules. And that is where editors come in, if a review site is fortunate enough to have them.

Reviews editors have to deal with many issues yet remain polite, firm, professional and have a thick skin. They have to deal with book readers who come from every walk of life that might have no actual training on what writing a review actually looks like. Through disuse, readers turned reviewers have spelling and grammar issues; they're rusty. So,on top of format and content, an editor has to do double duty. Some reviewers are sensitive to any type of suggestion of correction and they sometimes take it personally, so that thick skin comes in handy for an editor.

New reviewers need to understand that they're on a new learning curve.
How can a new reviewing relationship work? First, be open to being corrected. Don't take it personally. Make sure you understand the format. If there is a template provided to write the review, use it. If you have any questions, ask, ask, ask! Don't guess and don't assume. The site Admin and/or editor(s) will be happy to answer questions because they know that helping you helps them in the long run.

New reviewers also need to do one more important thing. LEARN. Oh, wait. Make that two things. Learn and APPLY. Being corrected is no fun the first time around but being asked by an editor to correct the same thing over and over and over? Well, that's just plain frustrating. And silly. I mean really! If that attitude of refusing to learn and improve was adopted by an author, their books would never get published. What a bleak place our world would be! By the same token, the same thing applies to your reviews - eventually they might not be able to use your reviews if they constantly require repeat editing -- not to mention that it takes time away from your ability to continue reading and reviewing other books. Where's the fun in that? So save time for YOU and your editor by LEARNING and APPLYING. And keep the fun and excitement of being a reviewer alive and kicking.

No one expects Pulitzer-type writing-- just genuine feelings about the effect the book had on you. And use the tools that come with most word processing programs. The all important (link) SPELL CHECKER


Spell Checkers are found easily enough on the Web if your computer doesn't have it already. The thing is - writing reviews is similar to writing a book. How? If an author submits a poorly edited manuscript with spelling errors, it either gets tossed out immediately (doomed to fail), or if there were only a few, it may not tank it but the book will absolutely be returned to the author for corrections of every single error. In light of that, reviewers need to understand that they too will have to expect editing requests and they have to take them as they are meant - to make your good review better, to make it shine and to insure your point gets across to other readers of your review.

Are spell check programs perfect? Heck No! Refer to the spell checker link and look at that paragraph to the right. It's a silly poem but it shows the imperfections in the program. It suggests using a language model but I've never come across one to use. In fact, until I read that, I had no clue that even existed! I love learning new stuff. Anyway, that's another reason why an editor is vital. Sometimes the human eye and brain is best. But it starts with YOUR eyes and brain first. Check for those words that look right but are not. Check for the spelling of the author's name and/or the character's names because Spell Checker has no clue about things in Gaelic or Sci-Fi names like Raptalina Argriptos Minor and the Piper Pirates. It's team work even if we only work together through the Internet.

So, Hats off
to editors everywhere. And cut them some slack. Their job is to buff your work and make it sparkle and shine. But you, the reviewer, have to put the figurative wax on your review first. When you make that effort there's a good chance you may not even NEED an editor's input. Or if you do work with one, eventually you'll get the idea of what you have to do and will no longer get emails from that editor. When that happens, you've graduated and become a professional. And I still say that looks great on a job resume.