Masamune

What Makes a Good Review:
1. Earnest emotional reaction to the story.
Criticism is appreciated, but I'd also like to know what my readers felt when they read. Did it make you sad? Did it make you horny? Did you get excited or scared? This is basic feedback stuff, but it's surprising how often it's omitted from a review.
2. Earnest intellectual reaction to the story.
What did you think about it? Sure, maybe the sex was hot and you chuckled a few times, but what did you actually think about the story? Did you buy the premise? Was the plot compelling? Were the characters fleshed out and unique? How about the presentation / narration? More basic stuff that often gets left out, especially when people focus on their emotional reactions!
3. Tell them what was good (Strengths)
4. Tell them what could be improved. (Weaknesses)
5. Tell them what you think / feel / want to happen in the story's future (Speculation)
6. Thank them for writing! Seriously, it's not easy.
I know that this is a shit ton to ask of any one reviewer. Just getting a review, even if it's a simple "please write more", is always a great feeling for most writers. But, when you really want someone's input, you'd want it on all of these things, I imagine. You want to know if your story is smart, if it evokes strong emotions, where it can be improved, where it's already strong, where people think it is headed. And, of course, you want some support.
Criticism is always a good thing, but it's not the only thing.
Years back I wrote a story that was a rather silly, smut oriented Gundam Wing fanfic. I came up with a title and made several edits very quickly before posting. It was called "Naughty Vodka", but I'd forgotten to change the name of the liquor from Bacardi, even though I'd replaced every instance of the word 'rum' with 'vodka'. Well, I got a bunch of reviews on that story that were hardly anything more than "Bacardi is a rum, not a vodka". Seriously. That's criticism, sure. I deserved it, sure. But that's always stood out in my mind as an example of how criticism can often be quite useless, and that an ideal review has much more to it.
Yeah, I'm done ranting. Hope this helps.

What Makes a Good Review:
1. Earnest emotional reaction to the story.
Criticism is appreciated, but I'd also like to know what my readers felt when they read. Did it make you sad? Did it make you horny? Did you get excited or scared? This is basic feedback stuff, but it's surprising how often it's omitted from a review.
2. Earnest intellectual reaction to the story.
What did you think about it? Sure, maybe the sex was hot and you chuckled a few times, but what did you actually think about the story? Did you buy the premise? Was the plot compelling? Were the characters fleshed out and unique? How about the presentation / narration? More basic stuff that often gets left out, especially when people focus on their emotional reactions!
3. Tell them what was good (Strengths)
4. Tell them what could be improved. (Weaknesses)
5. Tell them what you think / feel / want to happen in the story's future (Speculation)
6. Thank them for writing! Seriously, it's not easy.
I know that this is a shit ton to ask of any one reviewer. Just getting a review, even if it's a simple "please write more", is always a great feeling for most writers. But, when you really want someone's input, you'd want it on all of these things, I imagine. You want to know if your story is smart, if it evokes strong emotions, where it can be improved, where it's already strong, where people think it is headed. And, of course, you want some support.
Criticism is always a good thing, but it's not the only thing.
Years back I wrote a story that was a rather silly, smut oriented Gundam Wing fanfic. I came up with a title and made several edits very quickly before posting. It was called "Naughty Vodka", but I'd forgotten to change the name of the liquor from Bacardi, even though I'd replaced every instance of the word 'rum' with 'vodka'. Well, I got a bunch of reviews on that story that were hardly anything more than "Bacardi is a rum, not a vodka". Seriously. That's criticism, sure. I deserved it, sure. But that's always stood out in my mind as an example of how criticism can often be quite useless, and that an ideal review has much more to it.
Yeah, I'm done ranting. Hope this helps.