Book Reviewing Slumps (and the eternal fight to catch up on reviews)

Don’t let the nice banner fool you, I’m about to throw some serious shade. At myself.

We all know intimately what it’s like to be in a reading slump; the growing loss of interest in your current book, the frustrating lack of desire to begin something new, and the almost unheard of inability to buy a new book. (Almost, I said almost.) These signs are familiar foes to those of us who like to constantly have a book in hand and are akin to the early symptoms of a cold – annoying, unwanted and fear-inspiring.

I’m sure you’ve all had a reading slump at one point or another (I had one that lasted for the entirely of September last year), but you might not be familiar with the lesser-discussed review slump. Like a reading slump, its characterised by a lack of motivation or desire to do the thing you enjoy, but rather than the issue being picking up books, it’s putting words to paper about a book.

Here are some signs you might be having a reviewing slump:

• You start writing multiple reviews but don’t finish any of them
• You write a review but then leave it in draft because you’re just not quite satisfied with it
• You sit down to write a review but end up on Netflix or Youtube instead
• You sit down to write a review but end up writing an entirely different post instead
• You’ve read so many books recently that reviewing them all seems like too much of a mammoth task. Better jut read another book instead.

If you’re feeling any/all of these you might be in a review slump. ‘But Kate’, I hear you ask, ‘you’re not an authority on slumps, how do you even know what a review slump is like?’

Well, I know because I’m in one right now. And I have been since December.

*quietly face-plants into the ground*

Seriously guys, I need actual help. I know I’ve written a few reviews since December, but it’s nowhere near the number that I want to be writing, and yet for some reason I just can’t motivate myself to get down to them.

I want to, but every time I open a draft and start a new review I just leave it unfinished, or write a separate post instead. Prime example: I started out writing a review for my most recent read Lorali, and ended up WRITING THIS POST INSTEAD. I also currently have drafts in progress for these books:

What am I doing?! Send. Help.

To make matters worse, I can pinpoint the time when my reviewing slump start, and the exact reason why:

Time: December 2016.

Reason: I got behind on my reviews.

That’s literally it. The sole reason for this reviewing slump is that I fell behind on my reviews and was reading too many books to catch up. So instead of sitting down and drafting out all the books I was behind on, I just shrugged and read more. *face palm*

So now, I’m trying to do a few little things to get me out of the slump. These include tabbing important quotes in my books so they’re easy to find later, writing notes as I go, and beginning the review draft as I begin the book so when I come to writing it later it doesn’t feel like such a huge task. Hopefully, if these tricks work, I’ll be back to reviewing more books soon!

Also, if you see me slacking on reviews, you have my complete permission to shout at/motivate/nag me on here or on twitter (@katelovescolour) to get writing them.

Have you guys ever been in a book reviewing slump? Got any good advice? Let me know!