Yuffie's Writing How-To's

How to be MORE CRITICAL OF WRITING Pt. II

Just found this blog and it's GLORIOUS.

http://readingwithavengeance.tumblr.com/ (also linked to in the EXTERNAL LINK)

This is basically Reasoning With Vampires, minus the snappy graphics, for a TON of popular books. The blog's owner, Whitley, goes through YA books line-by-line and breaks the whole novel apart in a snarky voice reminiscent of one of our favorite Twilight reviewers, Dana from RwV.

I only just skimmed through a few posts, but I already learned so much just from her breakdown of the first chapter of The Hunger Games. For example, Katniss hid her hunting bow in the forest. Wooden bows, I just learned from Whitley, need to be oiled, otherwise they'll dry out. Katniss's bow should snap the moment she tries to draw it if she leaves it in the forest. Whitley points out numerous errors like this in just the first few pages of the story.

Whitley also analyzes more big-picture mishaps as well. We can learn a great deal about what works and what doesn't in writing by looking at the negative reviews and the criticisms. Some people may bash a book for no reason--those are haters. But critics like Dana and Whitley actually go into great depth explaining why something didn't work. Those comments are called CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. We may not agree with all of them, but it's good to be aware of a different opinion which is backed up by explicit evidence. Even though she may not be commenting your writing specifically, a lot of criticisms are general enough that they can actually translate to your own writing. I promise you will learn something worthwhile about writing or even the subject you're writing about by looking at criticism of other works.

So check this blog out and let me know if it's helpful to you as writers and readers!