Off Tangent Thoughts // Thoughts I have while writing book reviews

Off Tangent Thoughts (OTT) is a bi-monthly meme run by Charvi @NotJustFiction were bloggers express their tangential thoughts on different topics.

This fortnight’s theme is:

Thoughts I have while writing book reviews

Check out Charvi’s post here! I’m slightly late with this one, but I had so much fun writing it that I wanted to post it anyway. So here’s some insight into where my mind goes when I’m writing a book review.

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OK, let’s start with a title. Something catchy that gives a flavour of the review.

Although I should probably write the review first.

The title is going to sound better if I base it on what I’ve already written.

Fine, review now. Title later.

Let’s paste the Goodreads synopsis in and then I can start putting down my own thoughts.

Come on words, words would be good.

But what do I want to talk about?

I know I enjoyed the book but it wasn’t revolutionary.

Why is it always so much harder to write 3/4 star reviews compared to 5 or 2 star ones?

If I loved the book I can praise it to the heavens and if I didn’t like it I can critique it.

But if it falls in the middle then I always want to write “I enjoyed it but it didn’t change my life”.

That isn’t going to make up a full review though.

Ugh why do my reviews end up being so long?

If they weren’t so long, then they wouldn’t end up feeling like so much effort to write.

But when I start writing, they just seem to grow and grow. A Catch-22.

OK, I’ll just watch YouTube videos for a bit while I gather my thoughts.

*goes on YouTube for 4 hours*

Omg I’ve wasted so much time, let’s get this review written.

Let me check the notes I made on Goodreads.

*goes on Goodreads and accidentally scrolls for an hour*

Jeez, get it together Kate.

Right, that’s the intro written. I mean it definitely says “I enjoyed it but I it didn’t change my life” just in sightly different words, but NEVER MIND.

I’ll write about the characters next. Wait. Oh no. What were their names?

*checks Goodreads*

*spends another 30 minutes on Goodreads*

Oh god, today is almost over and I’ve written a grand total of ONE PARAGRAPH.

Ugh, it’s fine, I’ll write the rest tomorrow.

*three days later*

Wow, I better finish that review.

*opens WordPress*

I need to finish the section on characters and start discussing the plot and narrative.

This is good, I’m probably about half way through now.

Oh wait I was going to talk about the character relationships and themes too.

I’m sure I tweeted something about this, let me just check Twitter.

*scrolls through Twitter for an hour*

Not again.

Let’s get back on track.

Oooh I’ve just remembered how much I didn’t like [redacted], let’s talk about their character arc.

This review is almost 800 words and I still have more to say. WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN.

This has taken me such a long time to review one (1) book.

No wonder I haven’t posted many reviews recently, it takes me 473 years to finish writing them.

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What do you think about when you’re writing book reviews? Do you write long or short reviews?