Whether you are helping out a fellow writer, or writing a review on Goodreads; you should always strive to be constructive with your thoughts and suggestions. (Unless, of course, you're a troll. In that case, you should go eff yourself with a pineapple)
I have always found it hard to begin a good writing critique. That is why I came up with a short list of questions to help keep things in perspective. This is by no means a definitive, end-all be-all list, but rather a guide to narrow down your focus as a reader to specific literary concepts.
Feel free to use these, and/or change them to suit your needs:
-What did you like most about the story?
-What did you dislike the most about the story?
-Was there anything that you didn't understand, or needs to be explained better?
-What scenes need improvements?
-Was the dialogue believable?
-How was the descriptive narrative?
-Should I rework the story in order to get it published? (A good question for writing groups)
-Any other thoughts?
There you have it! Writing helpful reviews/critiques is easy. Just don't be a dick. You'd be surprised how many activities this concept applies to.
If you have any more questions you'd like to add to this list, go ahead and leave a comment.
Skål!
A good list! Those are indeed things every writer/creator wants to know from a helpful critique.
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