Ready, Set, Review-A-Thon; Hollie Speaks

Hey Guys!
So today I have a wonderful guest post for you all by the amazing, Hollie from Music, Books, and Tea! (My blogger spotlight!)
She has been participating in the RSReview-A-Thon this month and has written a post on her lack of motivation for reviews.
Hope you enjoy!

As a book blogger, reviews are pretty much the backbone of my blog. Let’s face it; no-one is going to just read a blog full of memes. And I like the thought of expressing my opinions on the books that I’ve read. So why do I find it so damn hard to write them? Why do I procrastinate so badly on them?

I love writing reviews. I really do. The thought that someone is reading my thoughts on a book, and that my review might convince them into reading the book, like so many reviews have done for me is kind of exhilarating if you ask me. When I first started out blogging, my reviews were horrible. Just horrible. I didn’t have a clue what to write about, but I just wrote about what I’d want to read if I was reading the review myself. (Did that even make sense?!) Eventually, I worked out what was necessary in my review. And that was great.

My next problem is my lack of inspiration. I go into review writing with all guns blazing, excited to get into my blogging mode. But when I open up Windows Live Writer and load up my review template, my inspiration just leaves. It quite literally seems to go up in a puff of smoke. Which is incredibly frustrating. I never know how to start my reviews off, so I normally waste nearly an hour trying to figure out the perfect opening paragraph, instead of just leaving that to the end, after the rest of the review is written.

But it’s not only inspiration for my opening that I lack; I also have a thing about not planning my reviews. Sometimes, I draft my reviews before I write them. These reviews are the quickest reviews I’ll ever write, believe me. Everything is planned, all my points are set out nicely, I just need to flesh them out and I’m good to go. But I rarely draft my reviews. And the reason for that is extremely childish. But drafting reminds me of all those English GCSE essays I tirelessly planned, and I really don’t need those flashbacks. Blogging is for fun, it shouldn’t remind me of my stressful school years!

And don’t get me started on reviewing books that I really like. I just can’t do it. I just want to write down all the good points and why I loved each and every one of them, meaning that my reviews would be novels in themselves. I find it a lot easier to write reviews about books that I had problems with, because I can keep them short, concise and to the point. But with those books that I loved, I just ramble on and on and on. Then I have to cull the parts that aren’t needed. Then I rewrite them in because my review just doesn’t look right without them. It’s a vicious cycle I can’t get out of.

So, what’s the solution to all this? Read only books I dislike? No. Try some different form of reviewing? Possibly. Give up writing reviews altogether? Never. No, the solution is to just keep writing them. Eventually, you’ll see improvement. You’ll work out a way to write your reviews. And then reviewing will become a piece of cake. (I’m still waiting to get to that point!)

Thank you Hollie for that post! I hope that one day review-writing becomes a lot easier for you! How do you keep motivated to write reviews? Do you have any tips for us all?

Faye