101 Writing Tips from an Exhausted Reviewer

Types of Comments

"Hey, since it's 101 tips from an exhausted REVIEWER, please review my book, thanks in advance."

THE THEATRE COUSIN

To be honest, I'm pretty sure I am the theatre cousin in real life. My musical is in less than a month! I'm excited!

But in terms of comments, this is the person who reacts to all the events in the story. Whenever there is a big twist, or a funny piece of dialogue, or even just intense action, you will be sure to find a bunch of in line comments where they are directly responding to whatever is happening in the story.

Some are quite calm, like:

"Oh my god, I can't believe she just stabbed him with a straw. That's so intense. I'm at the edge of my seat -- your writing was so dramatic and good for this scene."

And then you've got everyone else:

"OH MY GODDD OH MY GODGODGOGDGOO HOLY DOOLEY COW SHE WHAT???????????????"

THE KIND MOTHER

A lot of comments that are written for book clubs across Wattpad can be found here! It's the really thoughtful, interested person who gives a summary of their thoughts on the chapter. However, while they leave it as a critique with feedback -- including things they wish you did better -- it is calm, professional, and honestly, really helpful.

It's basically like receiving a mini-review as a comment! These people are simply amazing. They tell you what they like, what they would do differently, and talk about the characters and storyline in a way that is quite inspiring.

THE NEGLECTFUL MOTHER

While I'm sure a lot of us love our mothers, unfortunately, not everyone has great mothers. As someone who works with kids, I've seen some parents who make me quite sad because it's clear that they're not very encouraging and supportive of their kid. Sometimes, they barely even know their kid.

Like, once, one of my kids had her mother come to her final soccer game of the season, and the mother spent the whole game on her phone. When her daughter ran up to her after the game to tell her that she had scored two goals, her mother brushed it aside. And I literally wanted to cry for her.

Oops. That was depressing.

Another story: I had a mother pull her daughter out of soccer because she didn't like how the other girls in the soccer team talked about Kim Kardashian this one afternoon only. Ridiculous.

Anyways! Focus, Rhea, focus!

This is also a book club commenter, but this person who is supposed to write a thoughtful critique for the chapter instead writes something like this:

"This was really good!"

"Good chapter!"

"Didn't like it. Too much Kim Kardashian."

Basically, comments that were meant to be critiques but end up... being nothing. Like, give me something, bestie. What did you like? What didn't you like? What do you have against Kim Kardashian?

THE DEFENSIVE DAD

You know those dads who like... will beat you up if you talk trash about their kid?

This is that commenter.

I don't know how they do it. It's like they made some sort of deal with Wattpad HQ where, in exchange for some pencil sharpeners, they get a notification every time someone mildly criticises their favourite book.