Hi friends,
Long time without a discussion but today I have a short one for you because it’s bothering me a lot right now!
Can you have review slumps???
We read everywhere people being in reading slumps.Nothing they read seems to catch their interest. I confess that so far I have never had such slumps because I am switching genres to avoid being bored out.
But I never see people talking about review slump!
Yet since one month now I seem to have hit such state.
What I mean is that I used to write long reviews, enthusiastic and with punchlines or word games or…
Now, it’s like my mojo left me!
I can’t seem being able to write more than: “I liked this”and “the characters were like that” and “maybe this didn’t totally work out for me”. AND THAT’S IT!
That seems empty and lame to me!
At first I thought it was because the books I read were just meh but recently I have read good books and still nothing!
To the point that I am worrying now…
It’s like my brain is telling me that it wants to just be a reader and not a writer/reviewer. It just wants to be passive and not active!
Have you ever experienced this? How did you get your juice flowing again?
Thanks for reading!
Sophie
I feel like I’m in a review slump. Some books the reviews flow, others like you said – I liked it. I always enjoy your reviews, Sophie.
Thank you Teri!!
Sounds a lot like my writing slump 🙁
Your posts are always engaging, Sophie. Don’t worry, it’ll come back to you. {{hugs}}
You could definitely call it a writing slump Jacquie! And thank you for the praise!
Review slumps are definitely a thing! Honestly, I hardly wrote any reviews in 2020 and though I’m trying to write more this year, it still feels like I have to drag the words up from somewhere really deep, it’s just like I really don’t have that much to say. I’m trying to fix that by doing more shorter reviews and mini/combi reviews and I think it helps so far. It still tells other people how we feel about a book, just with fewer words. Or something like a bullet point review could help too. Good luck with your review slump, Sophie!
Thank you Lindsey!
Yep, I feel your pain, Sophie! I am right there with you. I find I struggle so hard with reviews now. Sometimes I feel like I’m just repeating myself and no longer have any new words to get my point across.
Exactly! No new words. It’s like a broken record and I hate that!
Hugs, I’m so sorry! It’s so frustrating when we go through different kind of slumps. My problem lately is that I just want to move onto the next book and then I find myself with 10 books that I’ve read and not a single review written. I was never like that before, but now I’m trying to play catch up. Again and again. ACK!
It’s also part of my problem Jen! I want to read the next book immediately but if I don’t write the review right away I forget!
I do but sometimes i review just to encourage the writer , to show that i red through i just mentioned what ministered the most to me
I do hit a lot of reading/review slumps especially when I read & review nonstop. It’s important to take a break. Usually I watch K-Drama or just take a rest. Work can also be exhausting and just don’t have time to review or manage my blog. I took a hiatus for a month and came back.
I think I should finally try K Drama :-))) But yes taking breaks could be the answer Beatrice.
If you need any recommendations for K-Drama, I can recommend some if you’re in the mood for it. 🙂
Oh yes, I think review slumps are definitely a thing. I go through spells where I just flat out don’t feel like writing them, can’t think of anything to write, etc. When that happens to me, I usually just write a few mini reviews until I come across a book I feel like I really want to talk about more. Then things seem to fall into place and I can write something longer.
I think I’ll go for short reviews for some time too Suzanne! It’s not like I seem to have a choice really 😉
I’ve definitely had times where I just couldn’t write a review. For me, I just let it go and try again later, and my brain seems to reset. I think you should just go with short reviews for now, eventually you’ll probably feel like writing long ones again
You know what happened there, you wrote all those long reviews and you used up all your words. Just kidding! Depending on how many reviews you have to write, it is hard to keep churning out those reviews. I now will only read three review books a week because I found that was my magic number. I don’t rule out the other books if I really loved them, but it’s good to only HAVE to write the three. I mix my format a bit too to keep it fresh.
Well it sure feels like I used all my words :D)
I dont really write long reviews, a few paragraphs at the most but I take notes as I go along and them form them into a semblance of a sentence after!!!
I should take more notes as I read Caro! I used to do it and that’s true that it helped!
It does make it easier for me (my memory is shocking!!)
:-)))))
Yes! I’ve experienced this. I used to write long reviews that took days to write. They were a ton of work, and nobody really looked at them. They were my least popular blog posts by far. That put me in such a bad slump that I quit writing long reviews. Now I just jot down a few sentences about each book I read and put it in my Sunday Post. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to long reviews. They weren’t worth the effort for me. I’d rather put my creativity into Top Ten Tuesday or Discussions.
I get it Aj! Totally. But I still would like to review properly for other readers because I also post on Goodreads where the point is to read reviews 😉
This is exactly what I’m going through this year, Sophie. It started earlier this year. I’m reading just fine, but reviewing? I got so disheartened by the lack of engagement on the Book Blurb website, that, well, I haven’t bothered writing a blog post since.
My top viewed/engagement posts are all my Top Ten Tuesday posts. I hardly had any comments on my reviews so, what’s the point if no one cares or interested in actually reading them. *shrugs*
So, for me, I’m taking a break over the summer to regroup, and just enjoy reading and maybe, maybe, I’ll come back in the fall and start writing reviews again.
Thank you Alex for that feedback! The Sunday Posts and Top Ten Tuesday are the posts I have the most engagement but I still get reactions to my reviews. It’s unusual as you pointed out! But I still want to review not only for readers but also for authors. That’s why I am so frustrated!