We know plenty of you are all enthusiasstically trying to fulfill your NYWM goals, but if you consider yourself new to the writing scene and still don’t know where to start, have you ever thought about writing reviews?

Now we know that film reviewing works of two ways – you can either be a happy Jan or a negative Nelly. But that’s the great thing about it – you’re allowed to express your opinion on something you’ve seen or witness and provided your own little spin on it.

Writing reviews is a lot harder than most think – it’s not only about saying something is ‘bad’ or ‘good’ – your viewpoint needs to have a feasible point. Writing reviews forces you to look closer at the picture; see what others do not see and read between the lines. Because of this, writing reviews are great for creatives out there that love to get analytical and symbolic.

So how would you go about writing a review? To provide you with help, we’ll look at the example of a film review.

A quick tip before we properly start – its better to watch a film more than once if you’re going to review it!

Anyway, formulate a structure of how your review will be. A common one is:

1. Shorty and snappy sentence summing up how you feel about the film

2. Brief synopsis about the film

3. What was good about it and why

4. What was bad about it and why

5. Conclusion – a little bit more elaboration about how you felt about the film (relates to first point)

Remember that everything you say in a film review should be substantiated with critical evidence. For example, if you hated the dialogue, was it because of the way it was written? Too cliche? It did not flow well with the rest of the film?

If you ever need any examples of film reviews, there are literally a plethora of them online, especially on news sites and blogs. Check out this one here and here.

Opportunities and events

We’re always on the lookout for writers to be featured as part of NYWM. If you’re happy to answer a few questions about you and your writing, please fill out this form.

Scared to submit your writing and get yourself out there? Let Visible Ink ease your apprehensions with this article about why you should submit your writing. If you’re a fan of their publication, they are also having a fundraiser.

“Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts.” —Larry L. King, WD