About Me
- Satima Flavell
- Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- I am based in Perth, Western Australia. You might enjoy my books - The Dagger of Dresnia, the first book of the Talismans Trilogy, is available at all good online book shops as is Book two, The Cloak of Challiver. Book three, The Seer of Syland, is in preparation. I trained in piano and singing at the NSW Conservatorium of Music. I also trained in dance (Scully-Borovansky, WAAPA) and drama (NIDA). Since 1987 I have been writing reviews of performances in all genres for a variety of publications, including Music Maker, ArtsWest, Dance Australia, The Australian and others. Now semi-retired, I still write occasionally for the ArtsHub website.
My books
The first two books of my trilogy, The Talismans, (The Dagger of Dresnia, and book two, The Cloak of Challiver) are available in e-book format from Smashwords, Amazon and other online sellers. Book three of the trilogy, The Seer of Syland, is in preparation.I also have a short story, 'La Belle Dame', in print - see Mythic Resonance below - as well as well as a few poems in various places.
The best way to contact me is via Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/satimaflavell
Buy The Talismans
The first two books of The Talismans trilogy were published by Satalyte Publications, which, sadly, has gone out of business. However, The Dagger of Dresnia and The Cloak of Challiver are available as ebooks on the usual book-selling websites, and book three, The Seer of Syland, is in preparation.
The easiest way to contact me is via Facebook.
The Dagger of Dresnia
The Cloak of Challiver, Book two of The Talismans
Mythic Resonance
Mythic Resonance is an excellent anthology that includes my short story 'La Belle Dame', together with great stories from Alan Baxter, Donna Maree Hanson, Sue Burstynski, Nike Sulway and nine more fantastic authors! Just $US3.99 from Amazon.
Got a Kindle? Check out Mythic Resonance.
Follow me on Twitter
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For Readers, Writers & Editors
- A dilemma about characters
- Adelaide Writers Week, 2009
- Adjectives, commas and confusion
- An artist's conflict
- An editor's role
- Authorial voice, passive writing and the passive voice
- Common misuses: common expressions
- Common misuses: confusing words
- Common misuses: pronouns - subject and object
- Conversations with a character
- Critiquing Groups
- Does length matter?
- Dont sweat the small stuff: formatting
- Free help for writers
- How much magic is too much?
- Know your characters via astrology
- Like to be an editor?
- Modern Writing Techniques
- My best reads of 2007
- My best reads of 2008
- My favourite dead authors
- My favourite modern authors
- My influential authors
- Planning and Flimmering
- Planning vs Flimmering again
- Psychological Spec-Fic
- Readers' pet hates
- Reading, 2009
- Reality check: so you want to be a writer?
- Sensory detail is important!
- Speculative Fiction - what is it?
- Spelling reform?
- Substantive or linking verbs
- The creative cycle
- The promiscuous artist
- The revenge of omni rampant
- The value of "how-to" lists for writers
- Write a decent synopsis
- Write a review worth reading
- Writers block 1
- Writers block 2
- Writers block 3
- Writers need editors!
- Writers, Depression and Addiction
- Writing in dialect, accent or register
- Writing it Right: notes for apprentice authors
Interviews with authors
My Blog List
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Favourite Sites
- Alan Baxter
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- Guy Gavriel Kay
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- Inventing Reality
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Blog Archive
Places I've lived: Manchester, UK
Places I've lived: Gippsland, Australia
Places I've lived: Geelong, Australia
Places I've lived: Tamworth, NSW
Places I've Lived - Sydney
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Places I've lived: Barre, MA, USA
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Write a review worth reading
Wednesday, May 25, 2016 |
Posted by
Satima Flavell
I love writing reviews! Reviewing has been the main form of writing for which I've been rewarded, either by cash remuneration or some kind of perk such as free books or theatre tickets. From 2004-2012 I was Reviews Editor for The Specusphere, a webzine for the SF community that is now, sadly, defunct. My reviews of theatre, dance and music have also appeared in The Australian, The West Australian, Music Maker, Dance Australia and many other journals. I now write for the Artshub website Over the twenty-odd years I've been writing them, I've learnt a thing or two about reviews, and what will make them shine. Note that in what follows I've focused on book reviews, but performance reviews require a similar approach.
Review writing is a marvellous tool for sharpening
our skills in observation and critical awareness. More importantly, it can also
help us to develop empathy and compassion – but more on that later. Let's start
with the nuts and bolts.
First, know your genre. You can specialise if you like – in books, I review mainly historical fantasy and
humour, for example – but it helps to develop a general knowledge of all genres and of writing or performing generally. A reviewer with a broad
general knowledge will usually do a much better job than one who has not read
widely in both fiction and non-fiction, or who is not a regular theatre-goer.
Second, in structuring a review, the following pattern is pretty standard and is worth sticking to
because it works.
1. In the
first paragraph, be sure to mention the author's name and to place the book
or performance you're reviewing in the context of his or her work or within the genre
generally. For example:
Pigs with Wings, A. Swineherd's ninth book,
follows up the themes of mud and glory that characterised his previous works.
or
Felix Ninelives's latest offering is firmly set in the tradition of such
classics as Cuddles' Cats in a Continuum Cradle and Fluffy's Tomcat's
Adventures in Space, in that it deals with issues of feline infidelity and
what this means for space travel.
You can go on for a paragraph or two in this vein,
depending on whether or not you have in-depth knowledge of – or interest in – the
author or the genre. If you have no such knowledge at all, see if you can get
some by Googling.
2. In the next
paragraph or two, tell us a little about the plot – only a taste, because
review readers hate spoilers – and discuss the main characters. A discussion of
themes can also be included here. When you are reading, look out for references
that hint at themes. In Sean Williams's Saturn Returns, for example, we
can guess from the title that this is about a person who is being forced into
maturity. Why? Because when a person is about 29 years old, the planet Saturn
returns to the position in the heavens that it occupied at the individual's
birth. Astrologically, this is said to mark the beginning of a search for true
adult maturity and if the subject is not actively seeking self-knowledge,
circumstances may well thrust it into consciousness.
Look closely at the names of the main characters.
Here again, using Saturn Returns as an example, we can surmise that our
protagonist, Imre Bergamasc, is something of a tricksy, deceitful character,
since the word 'Bergamasc' is said to refer to the natives of
Bergamo, a town in Italy whose citizens were noted for these characteristics.
And, of course, the fact that the word ends in -masc suggests that we're
dealing with someone who has more than one face. It might also refer to the
scene at the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream when the rustic men who
have just presented their play before the duke ask if he'd like it followed by
a 'Bergamasque dance'. Indeed, Williams's character in some of his
manifestations did lead some people on a not-so-merry dance of deception and
even betrayal. Without stretching credibility, be on the lookout for such
references and mention them if they seem appropriate. Do you see why a broad
general knowledge is so valuable?
As an aside, I have learnt from the author that he
did not know about the origin of the word 'Bergamasc' and had only
the 'mask' connotation in mind. This happens quite often – a writer
can be carrying unconscious knowledge which s/he applies in the right place!
Sean Williams also explained that the name Imre wasn't an accident, either.
Here's what he had to say about it:
His first name gives even stronger clues to another theme in the book:
that of power, one's relation to it and the way it can be expressed. 'Imre' comes via 'Emmerich' and 'Almaric' from
words meaning 'work, labour' and 'power'. It's also similar
to 'Imrie' ('my utterance'), 'Imran'
('host') and even 'I'm' or 'I am'. So this Imre
we're following is an expression of his original self's authority, in a way, as
well as being a mask trying to discover what true face lies behind itself.
3. In the next
section, say what you liked about the book or performance, whether that was characterisation,
style, plot or whatever. If you're reviewing theatre, mention the set, the costumes, the lighting - all the elements that make up the whole. Comparisons with similar works can add variety and
interest. Be analytical: be sure to explain why you liked certain
elements of the book or performance.
4. In the next
bit, say what didn't work for you and why. Again, comparisons can help, but
make them tactful and kind.
5. In the
second last paragraph, sum up your opinion and mention who is likely to enjoy
the book – young adults; space opera fans; romantic fantasy readers, lovers of Shakespeare, ballet students etc. As
reviewers, our job is not just to express a well-informed opinion but to entice
the kind of reader who would enjoy the book or performance into spending a bit of their hard-earned cash.
6. In the last
paragraph, include a URL for the author's (or the production's) blog or website.
7. And I don't
need to remind you, do I, to run spell-check and to consider carefully your
grammar, syntax and punctuation. Or to avoid inane adverbs and adjectives such
as good, interesting and nice. A chatty style is fine, but
don't overdo the colloquialisms. They were created for conversation, not
writing, for which they are seldom specific enough or clear enough.
OK, that's the nuts and bolts done with, so let's
move on to more in-depth matters. Remember I said reviewing can help us to
develop empathy and compassion? Do I hear your eyes skid to a halt here while
you say 'Huh? Empathy and compassion? How so?'
A good reviewer needs empathy and compassion for three different people: the writer, the publisher and the reader.
This is because a review serves three purposes, all equally important.
One is to help and encourage the author. You might
be surprised how often reviewers get thanks from writers or performers who say a review has
made them take stock of their work and see areas where it can be improved.
Working on the premise that this is best accomplished through a balance between
measured praise and constructive criticism, it's a good idea not to let the
latter overwhelm the former. Writers, like all artists, are sensitive souls.
I've seen well-known authors utterly devastated by one bad review. I can
understand that. It must be like putting your kid in a baby show only to be
told to take the ugly little bastard home.
Another thing we can accomplish with reviews is to
let readers know whether or not this is a book they would enjoy reading. That
the reviewer didn't necessarily enjoy it is neither here nor there. In any
case, the reviewer's opinion of a piece will not be the same as that of many
readers who might have completely different taste. Therefore, soften criticisms
with phrases such as 'It might be seen as ...', 'Perhaps it
would have been better if ...' and 'Some readers might think ...'
rather than jumping in boots and all with a strongly worded opinion that reads
like a dictum from on high. It's fine, even necessary, to hold opinions, but
not to express them as if they were fact. Complete objectivity is impossible
and perhaps not even desirable, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't aim towards
it, for otherwise our opinions will get in the way of our compassion.
The third thing a review does is help to publicise
the book. To this end, it's a good idea to put in at least one pithy,
complimentary quote that the publisher or manager can use in publicity. I always get a
warm fuzzy when I see a quote from one of my reviews in an ad or on a cover
because it means I've succeeded in that part of my job, at least.
The very first essay I ever read on
criticism – yikes, over fifty years ago now – taught me something I've never forgotten.
It said something like 'A man is a better critic than you are if he can
see in a piece something of beauty that you have missed.' While ignoring
the sexist language of the fifties, I try not to let myself forget that
sentiment. Whenever I write a review I remind myself to imagine how I would
word my criticisms if I had to offer them to the author verbally, face to face.
Not only do I not want to hurt their feelings, but there's always the chance
that I could run into them socially or at a convention sometime. There's no point in alienating our subjects when in fact a different choice of words might actually help and
encourage them. Remember that to get published or performed at all a work must have a fair
degree of merit. Try to figure out what beauty the publisher or director saw in it that
you, so far, haven't seen – and help the reader to see it, too.
Should a reviewer read other reviews? Yes, of
course, but for my part, I try to avoid reading reviews of a work until my own
is finished and on line. The only exception might be in a case where I
absolutely dislike the book or performance or can't get into it. In such a case I do one of
two things:
a) Pass it on to another reviewer or
b) Do some research, which
might include reading other people's reviews and asking the opinion of friends
who have read the book or seen the performance. Sometimes, this will give me a new perspective,
allowing me to concede that there is, indeed, some beauty in the work!
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