 Hi guys, I just wanted to do a quick video here on how to review stuff because, you know, the more time I spend online, the more I'm realizing that there are a lot of people out there that review various forms of media, you know, not just books, but like movies, video games, all that sort of stuff. And they, uh, they aren't particularly good at it. And listen, I'm not throwing shade on anyone in particular here, don't worry. Like I'm not talking shit on any booktubers or anything. But what inspired this was just reading through some reviews on Goodreads. And I'm realizing that a lot of people who write stuff there are just really bad at it, okay? And so, all the advice here that I'm gonna give will, one, it won't just be for books, it'll extend to other forms of media as well. And I think that it should work for written as well as spoken reviews. And uh, well, yeah, I think that's a good intro. Let's just, let's just go right in. This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long. So first on the list, and probably the most obvious, is uh, don't just say, I liked this or I disliked this. Now, that's a pretty big thing on Goodreads, you know, you'll see a lot of one-sentence reviews just saying, I liked this book. It was a lot of fun and this character was cool. And I mean, if that's how you feel, if you don't really have any more complex thoughts on it, that's fine, okay? I'm not judging you for feeling that way, but why bother even writing that if you're not gonna give any actual information? You may as well have just hit the star rating and moved on. So yeah, that's the most obvious, I think, but it still needs to be said, so let's keep going. Uh, next on the list is, say specifically what was good and bad, but not only that, say why you felt it was good or bad. Like again, you'll see a lot of reviews that just say, I liked this character or I liked the character cast or I liked the plot or something like that. And they don't really say why. And the thing is that since it's so subjective, it's more difficult for other people to tell if they would enjoy it. Like for example, if they just said, I liked this character because he's a bad ass and he doesn't take shit from anybody, well, that particular archetype might not be everyone's cup of tea, you know? And he might come across as an asshole to a lot of us. And again, if you like it, you like it, but be more specific about it. Think about how you enjoy things and why you enjoy things. And it helps other people to formulate their own opinion. And likewise, if you just said like, I liked the plot here, well, why specifically? Did you like the plot because it included a love triangle and you love those because a lot of people fucking hate those or are ambivalent towards them? Did you like it because it was super fast paced and it didn't really take time to stop and smell the roses along the way? Well, a lot of people don't like that. So just, just, uh, think about it before you make your review. Just think about it and think about why you feel the way you do and how the book or whatever other form of media portrays that to you. Next up, just be wary of a number or grading system for this. And this is partially just a personal preference, but I think that there are some objective drawbacks to it. Now, let me explain. So if you look at Game Informer Magazine, like they, they review, you know, video games, uh, and they use a numbered one to 10 system to them, seven out of 10 is average. You know, it's, you know, playable. It's good. It's decent, but it's very unremarkable. And a five out of 10 is very mediocre, you know, not really worth playing, not really worth spending your time and money on. Whereas if you look at a different YouTube channel called your movie sucks, he, you know, obviously reviews movies, the name kind of gives it away. But to him, a five out of 10 is, you know, average and unremarkable and maybe worth watching if you're into that sort of thing. Whereas a seven out of 10 is actually pretty good. What I'm getting at here is that everyone's definition of what each number means is kind of different, you know, to some people, a four out of 10 is completely irredeemable and awful, whereas to others it's just sort of mediocre. So we're all going to think something a little bit different if you give it a specific number or a specific grade, because, you know, some people will say like ABCDF. And I'm not a big fan of the five star rating system that Goodreads uses either. Like I only use it because they force you to. Now again, this is partially just personal preference because I feel like you can't really objectively measure the quality of a piece of art, you know, it will always be subjective. You can say like, okay, there's some really good craftsmanship here and even people that don't like it overall can appreciate that. But at the end of the day, it is just going to come down to personal preference for that. And so trying to give it a specific number, trying to quantify it sort of takes away from that and makes it feel like everyone should feel the same way about it. And they won't, they never will. So yeah, in that regard, it is a personal preference, but there are some real, real drawbacks to it. Next up, always try to include the recommendation. You'll notice that this is what I always do sort of in place of a numbered system. I always say like, okay, yes, people will enjoy this if you're into this other thing. Like if you're a fan of science fiction, then you might like this book, that sort of thing. And I try and be a little bit more specific than that because again, there's not going to be a book or anything else out there that will appeal to everybody. It will only appeal to a crowd. It might be a big crowd, might be a small crowd, but it will only appeal to a certain percentage of people. Like for example, The Expanse. I fucking love The Expanse and I'm most of the way done with Tiamat's Wrath and it's great. But the thing is, if someone just hates science fiction, then I'm not going to come out and say The Expanse is for everybody because, well, it's obviously not for them. If you don't like sci-fi, it's probably not going to change your mind. So I would say something more like I would recommend it for people who love really big epic space operas or for people who like books that force you to sort of question humanity's role in the universe and try to question our anthropocentric worldview. I think that's the word anthropocentric. I don't know. I'm not going to do another take of this, but you know, because to a lot of people, myself included, we look at reviews of stuff in order to find out, will this be worth my time, you know? We have a limited amount of time and a limited amount of money. So we got to say, okay, will it be worth that time to buy this book or to buy this game or to go out and see this movie? So to a lot of people, it's important to know more specifically would we like this if we're into this other thing. This next one also feels like it should be pretty obvious, but not everyone does it. So here we go. Don't put spoilers in there without giving warning first. Now when I say spoilers, I mean anything that happens after the first 20% of the story. Exceptions can obviously be made in certain cases because, you know, in certain cases there are books where the summary will give away stuff that happens like two-thirds through or sometimes movie trailers will have clips from the climax thrown in and you can sort of see what was going on there. And you can talk about that sort of stuff a little bit briefly, but there are people out there that will give away major plot points and major moments that happen way far into the story and not give warning or anything beforehand. They'll just say it right out or write it right out. And that's obviously a huge pain in the ass to everyone that wanted to read it or wanted to see it. Now sometimes you might feel you have to include spoilers in there in order to fully talk about it or fully analyze it and that's fine, but just put a warning beforehand. And just say, okay, this is going to be a spoiler section here, so I'm going to talk about some other stuff. If you don't want to see that, then move on. Again, this feels like it should be obvious, but not everyone gets it, so I got to say. And the last one is don't just summarize things, because there are people out there who give reviews of various things, like there's people that give reviews of manga chapters, for example, and those release once weekly. And rather than giving their actual thoughts on it, they'll just summarize what happens. And this kind of falls into the same category of I liked or I disliked this. But it's a little bit worse because they don't even really give their thoughts on it. They don't really analyze it. They don't really say like, okay, this character moment was good. This plot point is interesting. I want to see where this goes. It's just summarizing what happened. And yeah, I feel it deserves to be in its own category, because what the hell? That's not even a review. So that's about all I got for you. Again, this isn't really aimed at anyone specific. So don't don't feel like I'm throwing shade or anything. It's just in general, I feel like amateurs out there and even pros sometimes, they have some things that they could work on. And some of it is just my opinion, obviously, but some of it there are real drawbacks to this. And I feel like as a as a culture, I don't know, is reviewer a culture? I don't know, whatever. But as a culture will say, we could be doing a lot better. So this was not a super planned out video, obviously. This was just something I wanted to do. But obviously, if you're here, be sure to rate the video and then comment and then subscribe. And maybe check out my Patreon page where you can get early access and some other stuff. And that's everything. So bye.