Author John Green said, “In the end, what makes a book valuable is not the paper it’s printed on, but the thousands of hours of work by dozens of people who are dedicated to creating the best possible reading experience for you.” In addition to a book’s author, these dozens of people include editors and proofreaders, fact checkers and designers—all working behind the scenes to bring a new book into the world. As Best Peer Review winner for our Novel Writing Competition Inez Singer (Australia) reminds us: “It really is so rewarding to be involved in someone’s writing process.”
Read on to find out Inez’s advice on pushing through editing challenges and learn all about her love for Write the World!
Guest Judge Randa Abdel-Fattah praised your review for balancing suggestions with praise and line-edits with big-picture elements. What was your process for ensuring your review achieved this?
When reviewing someone’s work, I find it really useful to read it through a few times first. It can be really tempting to jump straight into commenting and pointing out anything you see, but this often leads you straight to grammar edits and minor changes without connecting the piece to its bigger picture. If you haven’t read the whole thing, you don’t know what it’s trying to achieve and where it ends up, so you can’t give comments on the piece as a whole. So it’s always useful to read it through once or twice and make some mental notes—where is this story going? How can the reader get there more efficiently? Then you can get into suggestions with an idea of what can best help the author.
What, in your opinion, is the hardest part of writing a review, and what suggestions do you have for working through it?
As reviewers, we’re always super tempted to put our own spin on the writer’s work or let our subjective views get in the way. In my own reviews, I always have to check this—have I made constructive suggestions for the writer, or have I rewritten or changed it to fit my own style? It may well improve with the rewriting, but that’s not the point of a review. So for me, the hardest part of reviewing is remembering that I represent the general community of readers, not just myself and my opinions. To get around this, I always reread my reviews to see where I’m making personal choices, then adjust this according to whether it’s something most readers would notice and not just me. A way to check this: when I read the story with the edits I’ve made, do they adopt my own preferences? Or (hopefully) do they help the writer’s original writing shine more?
What is the best/most rewarding part of writing a review?
Reviewing is awesome! I always love it when my suggestions help the writer and they continue to draft—peer feedback is so important in my own writing process too. It’s great knowing that you have helped someone, not necessarily to have changed their work but to have seen their writing from a different perspective and to take that perspective with them as they continue writing. When I receive a review, even if I don’t agree with some of the suggestions, I always value the new take on my work and I hope others feel the same way. It really is so rewarding to be involved in someone’s writing process and help them out.
What is your favorite writing moment/memory of 2020?
Joining Write the World would have to be it! Sharing this space with so many amazing writers and reviewers is a daily inspiration for my own writing, and it keeps me refining and rethinking my work when before, I’d not even consider continuing it. Within Write the World, there are so many little writing moments that fill up my days—I could never choose! I’m just content to be awestruck at all the amazing writing on here. I really look forward to seeing it in bookshops in a few years time!