ONC Book Club 2023 by TeamofDreams

How to Give the Best Feedback

For those of you who have already been in book clubs and have experience with reviewing, we're not going to make you read this entire chapter. Instead, this first part (up until the chapter divider) is for you guys. Here, we'll give a quick overview of the kind of reviews we are (and aren't) expecting from you. After the chapter divider, we'll go into more detail with examples.

For every chapter you read, we'd like you to at least write an overall outline comment on what you thought of the chapter. This outline comment should be at least 5 sentences long and should include comments from the following areas: Writing mechanics (spelling, punctuation, verb tense, writing style, etc.), characterization, plot development, descriptions and/or world-building, and an overall impression of the chapter. Comment on each of these and you've hit five sentences; it shouldn't be difficult. Feel free to add any other constructive feedback you feel is relevant, too; you don't have to limit yourself to five sentences.

We'd like you to use the "sandwich method". This is a method for giving critiques in a nice way. It looks like this: start with a positive comment (something they did well), then mention something they could improve on, and finally end on a positive note again.

Very important: be specific in your comments. Try and give suggestions wherever you can. Don't just say, "I liked this chapter." Instead, explain why you liked it. What was good about it? What was it that kept your interest? Don't just say, "The characters aren't very convincing", but explain what wasn't good about them. Maybe the dialogue doesn't sound quite right, or their personalities aren't convincing because they don't have strengths and flaws.

Remember: There's always something good to say about a story. Always. On the other hand, there's also always something to improve. Nobody is perfect. If you go through an entire book without giving the author anything they could improve, you're probably doing something wrong.

On a final note, it is highly recommended that you use inline comments. This is not mandatory, but is extremely helpful, especially for spelling/grammar errors. You are allowed to refer back to your inline comments when you write your final outline review. For example, if you notice halfway through the story that a character suddenly seems to have a different personality, just mention it inline. When you get to the outline review, you can refer back to your inline comment and say, "I noticed that there were a couple of instances in which Bobby acted completely different from his usual personality. I've mentioned one such instance inline, but there were a few more times where he suddenly started dancing, while he usually seems like quite a reserved character."

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This section is for those that are new to critiquing. We'll go a bit more in-depth about what we expect from your reviews. We do this by showing you a whole bunch of examples.

There are a lot of different areas in which you could give feedback. Here, we'll give an overview of the most common areas, but if something else stands out to you, just comment on it. As we mentioned, being specific is very important, so these examples will all be specific to the story.

Writing mechanics. This can include things like spelling, grammar, punctuation, verb tenses, tone of voice, etc. An example: "Your spelling is nearly always on point, great job there! However, I think you're doing something wrong with the punctuation. Yours looks like this: "That's not right." He said. While it should look like this: "This is correct," she said."

Characterization. This is all about the characters' personalities and how they change over the course of the story, but also how their personality is shown through dialogue, thoughts, and descriptions of feelings. An example: "Your characterization is fantastic! You do such a great job at showing us their personalities, especially through the description of emotion. One that particularly stood out to me was when you described Lisa's feelings after her boyfriend said goodbye. It was so touching!"

Plot development. This is all about the plot, whether everything makes sense, whether there are any plot holes, but also how well the scenes flow. An example: "There was a plot twist in this chapter, where John suddenly made the decision to leave town. For me, this seemed to come out of nowhere. I don't understand why he made that decision because he seemed to be so happy with Laura. I think it's important to add some foreshadowing in previous chapters; maybe he has a conversation with James in which he confesses that he's not happy. Or he has a fight with Laura, or something like that."

Descriptions and/or world-building. This is all about the descriptions of the physical world in which the story takes place. For genres like fantasy and sci-fi, this part is extra important because there's likely a lot of world-building going on. An example: "I really love your descriptions of the city. Especially the one about the tavern really painted a vivid picture in my head. On the other hand, I'm confused about how this world works exactly. Why wasn't Amy allowed to sleep in this tavern? I feel like there might be a hierarchical system that you haven't quite explained well. Try and expand on that a bit."

The above examples should give you an idea of what we expect to see in your reviews. Other areas you can comment on are:

Cliffhangers

Tension building

POV (Point of View)

Flashbacks

Pacing

Overall comment on enjoyability and interest to continue as a reader

As mentioned, we'd like you to use the Sandwich Method in your reviews. This means starting with a positive note, then mentioning something the author can improve, and then ending on a positive note again. An example:

"A very interesting first chapter! There was so much mystery and tension here. I love how you showed us Winston's feelings and how uncomfortable he was with Ravenna. It really helped me relate to him. I really loved the cliffhanger at the end; it kept me on the edge of my seat and made me want to scroll down to the next chapter immediately!

I do believe things are kept a little bit too vague, though. I often found myself wondering what exactly was going on. For example, rather than this being a planned meeting (which I thought at the start) it seemed more like they happened to bump into each other. In fact, the meeting turned out to be planned for later. Little things like that can really help readers understand a scene better. Also, we didn't get to see much of Ravenna's thoughts and feelings here, even though she was the main character in this chapter. Adding some detail would help us relate to the characters even more.

What I really loved in this chapter were the character interactions. I could just feel the tension between them. The dialogue did a great job adding to the details in Winston's body language. The discrepancy between the two made things even more interesting. Great job so far, and I'm excited to find out more!"

Just to reiterate, it is very important to be specific in your comments and give suggestions whenever you can. As you can see in the above review, every time we said we liked or disliked something, we gave an explanation of why and often an example of where this happened. So, when we said things were kept a bit vague, we then gave an example of what exactly was too vague. If you say the author doesn't use enough descriptions, give an example of where in the scene you were missing some descriptions.

If you have any questions about any of this, please don't hesitate to ask either inline or via PM.