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Review Rubic/ Message from x3_strucked

Saturday, January 22, 2011 @ 3:37 PM

Dear readers, from x3_strucked

Okays, so just recently I have been accepted to be one of the staff for the AWESOME site, Lemonswirls :P It has only been opened recently, at the start of this year I think? But anyhow, I’m totally in love with the site, it’s simple yet sophisticated and fresh yet unique x) So the first thing I would like to say is a BIG thank you to Angela who accepted me as a staff and also a BIG thank you to Lemonswirls for accepting me as one :) By the way, I also want to say a thank you to all the requestors who requested from this site, because without you guys, there would be no Lemonswirls, hahas.

Well anyways, enough about my ranting, let me formally introduce myself, I’m x3_strucked but you can also call me Rebecca! I’ve started reading fanfics once upon a time and I’ve been reading it ever since x) I have only started writing it a year ago and may I just say that writing just feels so exhilarating! And now, I’m a reviewer, I hope my honest reviews can help you authors to realize your hidden writing skills, to realize your mistakes and learn from it, and to realize that writing is FUN!

So remember, no fanfic is perfect, in my opinion there is no such thing as a bad fanfic and a good one. Each fanfic has its own positives and negatives, much like a human perso

n. I hope my reviews can help direct you to a good path, to inspire you as a writer and to help you strive! Because there are only two fanfics in the world, lazy and active. It just depends who you’re going for.

My reviews are quite simple, I separate my review into 3 categories each with its own sub categories. I feel that writing it in this way, the review can look more simple and easier to understand for authors. This is my review rubic system :

First Impressions (First category)

- Title : /5

- Poster: /5

- Foreword: /10

This category is what I like to call the gateway to your story, like a real gateway, readers go through this to “enter” your story. And this is where the importance comes in, when readers come across your story, they may choose to leave or enter. The main importance of this category is grabbing their attention, heightening their curiosity so that when they go through this “gateway” they won’t leave it. This is where the title, poster and foreword comes in, why this is important is that as the gateway of the story, it HAS to be gripping, creative and appealing in order for readers to take interest in your story.

A Closer Look (Second category)

- Originality/ Creativity: /10

- Flow: /15

- Plot: /15

- Grammar/Punctuation/Vocabulary/Spelling: /20

As the main category of this review AND your story, this is by the far the MOST important part of any fanfic. This is the cream of the cake, the heart of a person, the engine of a car, without an even balance with the originality, flow, plot and grammar of the story, the result can be disastrous. And this in turn can affect many things, your readers, your writing and you as an author. The most important part of this main category is the plot, this is what drives the story, it’s like the engine of a car, it doesn’t have to be original but it has to be “working” at least because without a good plot that motivates the story, readers won’t be motivated into “reading” your story. The flow of the story is what impacts the plot, you could say it is the oil that runs the engine, without good quality oil the engine will deteriorate. And this goes the same for the plot. If the flow of the story is too slow, too boring and too dull, it can affect the plot quite significantly.

Final Conclusion (Third Category)

- Characterisations: /10

- Writing Style: /10

As the final category of my review, this is also the least important out of the three categories but in way it can impact the story overall. An important feature of a fanfic is its characters and the way you depict the characterisations. Not only does a story need to have a good plot, it needs to have good characters, and I certainly don’t mean your biases. For a story to have good characters, they need to have personalities and traits that not only fit the plot of the story but help motivate it as well, this in turn is called an effective use of characterisation. Like actors in movies, characters in stories have to be acted well, they need to fit the story, they need to be deep, alluring and interesting and they CAN’T be boring. Because nothing impacts an interesting plotline more than a boring character.

Total: /100

Overall Impression

This category is a bit of a bonus, but it is completely an opinion based feedback that I won’t give it a score. As this category goes, this is my overall impression of your story, it is COMPLETELY my opinion, so you don’t have to take it seriously. This category may contain my likes and dislikes, other ways in order to improve your story and what I may think of you as an author. Sometimes even if I review a very good story (plot, flow, and character wise) it may still not be of my liking.

What you need to know is that every reader has their own tastes in reading, sometimes a story can be ridiculously bad but still likeable, sometimes a story can be ridiculously good but still boring. There’s a difference between well written and well liked.

Well anyway, that was my review rubic system, I myself think it’s quite easy to understand and easy to read. Well anyway, if you guys need reviews, do please request from me or from Maria, her review structure looks AWESOME.

x3_strucked signing out.

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