This was nice! You have a witty, dry writing style that I enjoy... and after reading this I am determined not to write a "meh" review. This gave me a whole lot more info about reviews, flames, etc. and am now equipped with the knowledge needed to... do... stuff. (Short for words today.) Can you please check out some of my stuff and review? Anything? Please? :)

Hi, I enjoyed reading this, and learned quite a bit in the reading too. Your sense of humour "let the goodwill, mass-reviewing orgy thing" had me giggling throughout. Two comments on reviews: i think it might be helpful to comment on whether or not you liked the writing style, which can be made up of use of adjectives and adverbs - or lack thereof, characterisation, length of sentences, punctuation usuage - or lack therefore, and a whole host of other things. My pet hates are too many adverbs, expecially lots of different ways to say said. By the time I've got through murmered, muttered, mumbled, mimed and all of the other 25 letters of the alphabet masquerading as said, I've forgotten what the story is about. The other thing I think might be useful to comment on is whether the theme of the story grabs you, and if it does why, and if not why not. Some people are great at developing characters, but a bit rubbish at story line, and vice versa. Anyway, that's my two pennies worth - you've got to guess I'm from the UK now. Hope you do read my story, I can't wait for your review - at least I know there will be laughter.

(snerk) I'm starting to really like reading your essays. They're quietly witty but very helpful at the same time. I do my best to answer every review I get, but this is awkward sometimes: if they just wrote "I liked this," I'm often not sure what to say other than "thank you." Also, I do believe I'll now go search for the King of Id, on the basis that they have an interesting pen name.
(So yes. It does work.)

Wow! This was great! Honestly, I never thought about all those different kind of reviews that way. I never really thought of answering someone's review before, but considering how no one ever really reviews people's stories anymore, I think it's a great give-and-take idea!

I'm making a habit of returning reviews, regardless of whether I end up deleting my stories or not (I'm really critical of my own writing and lately I'd rather read what everyone else is writing than write my own stories anyways). I just appreciate whenever someone takes the time out of their day and show any kind of interest in my work. Whether you review anything I post or not, I don't mind, this was helpful.

This was a very informative essay. I've just recently begun to thank people who fave, alert, and review my work. I should be more grateful when people show an interest in my stories.

Thanks so much! This has been really helpful to me, I've favorited both the 'story' and you. I'll try to use the information in my stories from now on

Hurricane Tea Cup

Two words: Thank You

I really appreciate your insightful essay and I saw some of my habits in this. I always thank my reviewers through PM and/or review their work. And I hate when people don't respond back. I can only hope more people read this and get better review skills. Thanks again :)

This was really interesting. Even though it states lots of the thing I already do in my reviews, I could learn the one or the other thing from this. I have experienced that if I give the kind of reviews that I would like to get, it will often get me very nice and helpful reviews in return instead of just 'meh'.

Wow, this was helpful! As this is the first time I've joined a writing community like this, I was seriously confused about how I was going to go about the task of writing a helpful critique and not something like "gj keep up the work".

So, thank you!

This was very helpful.

Wow, this was very enlightening (as someone who only recently joined the site) and definitely good advice. Especially avoiding cliches and reviewing as you go. I've had english teachers break some of these review guidelines (namely the repetition of the same critique such as they're/their/there). I would add, however, that people shouldn't bee afraid to erase part of their review, especially on the cliche or confusing bits, if that aspect to the story changes later.

Lol, I'm glad someone finally wrote this. reviews are a bit of a touchy topic on an online publishing site this, as most people have varying opinions on what constitutes a 'good review'.
Anyways, good job!
-Claire

I love the way you set this out, and you're very good at explaining things on a realistic level. I have no CC to offer you, simply because I find no fault.

I am a bit of a 'meh' reviewer and I'll remember to give better reviews from now on, thanks to you.

PS: I would love to be in Pay it Forward.

This was a very informative guide, however, I would like to know more of why returning reviews is considered a good thing. I myself usually thank my reviews, but I hardly ever return reviews to them. Am I doing something wrong? I do review a ton of people who have work in the just in section though.

See-

-((To attract reviews, returning reviews is usually a good policy.))

Kitty