Writing a book review can be easy for those who follows a set approach but it is never less time consuming. According to many writers writing the first draft is just a warm up and one’s zeal towards achieving perfection with one’s book review mainly lies in rewriting it. According to book reviewer Natalie Walet, revising one’s book review is perhaps even more important than writing it at the first place because when it is published without revision, there is a high probability that the review contains many errors. But then again one just cannot expect to get optimum results from the book review revision without knowing the proper way to do it. Therefore one needs to be well versed in the best suited way to revise a book review.
Steps to revise a book review:
- First of all, one needs to make sure that a proper process was followed to write the book review at the first place. Because if one is not compliant with this then the book review will be loose to start with!
- After one is done writing the first draft of the book review, it is time to concentrate towards the intricacies. And the first detailed scrutiny, one needs to start with is whether the paragraphs contain a single point each or multiple points crowded in them. If it is too crowded so as to strain the reader’s mind or train of thought, then one needs to disperse it.
- One you have dispersed each point for each paragraph, then you need to go in a one on one approach,i.e., to see that the paragraph literally gives out the information that you wanted it to. For example, if a paragraph is about the plot, then you must check that whether you have done a competent enough job to get across your central point to the readers. And if you haven’t then you need to make it more crisp. As a result of this, the plot will be clear to your readers and would make a mark on their mind instead of creating unnecessary confusions.
- Whenever you come across any sentence or a paragraph which makes little or no sense or just plain and simple sounds awkward, it is important that you rewrite it. Editing won’t give such optimized results as a total rewrite will. And always remember that if there is something which separates good writing from the bad, its the process of rewriting. The best way to deal with these kind of fuzzy unclear paragraphs is by beginning with simplifying the entire thing and making it more accessible for the reader’s mind.
- Perhaps one of the most frustrating thing that can happen with a review is when you repeat the same point over and over again. It may easily occur while writing the first draft but you need to make sure to get rid of those when you are revising.
So as per Natalie Walet, revision is an integral part of your book review process and must not be surpassed under any circumstances.