Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Guide to Reviewing with Cody and Izzy ❯ Chapter 1

By Time Lady

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[The setting: A small auditorium with a stage. A cart with a projector sits in one corner. A rolled up screen hangs in front of a curtain backdrop. On the stage is a desk with a desktop computer. The computer is connected to the projector via a long wire. Towards the side of the stage is a chair. A woman steps out on stage, followed by Cody and Izzy.]

Time Lady: Welcome all to my first guide. I've asked Cody and Izzy to be the instructors.

Tai: Hey! How come they get to be the instructors?

Time Lady: Because I said so.

Tai: But. . . [notices Time Lady's patented withering glare] . . . right. I'll just go sit down until I'm needed.

Time Lady: Thank you. And now, Cody and Izzy! [goes to sit in a chair on the edge of the stage]

Cody: Greetings.

Izzy: Welcome to what may be the first of many guides.

Cody: Based on several factors. . .

Izzy: Including reviews both read and received by our illustrious author here [Time Lady waves] and various discussions on the Fanfiction.net Digimon forum and elsewhere.

Cody: Time Lady decided that there was a definite need for a guide on "how to write a review."

Izzy: One needn't be an Elizabethan bard to produce quality critiques of the written word. . .

Audience: IN ENGLISH!

Tentomon: [popping his head out from behind the curtains] He means you don't have to be Shakespeare to write a good story review.

Davis: Then why didn't he say that?

Tai: You know Izzy. . . he loves long words.

Time Lady: Keep it simple.

Izzy: All right, all right. First, what is a review? A review is a way to convey a reader's thoughts and feelings to the writer of the story.

Cody: A review is a courtesy, not a necessity. You don't have to write a review to read a story. But if you're going to write a review, be a responsible reviewer.

Izzy: After a few examples of what not to do, we'll discuss elements of a good review. We will now proceed to discuss different types of reviews. Armadillomon, Tentomon, if you please?

[Armadillomon pushes a cart with a projector onto the stage while Tentomon pulls down the screen. Cody sits down at the computer.]

Izzy: First, the ambiguous review.

Cody: [pulls up a review from FFN. The word "Okay" appears on the screen.] This is an actual review received by our author. One word.

Izzy: And does this review tell us anything? Absolutely not. Does this word mean the reviewer thought the story was "okay" or was it an "okkkaaaayyy"? How could we revise this so the author actually knows the intent of the reviewer.

Cody: [typing into the computer] If the reviewer thought the story was "okay," then they could have added a couple of more words to clarify the statement: [the review changes to "the story was okay."] If the intent was confusion, this comment could be changed to "okay, I'm a little confused." However, since we don't know the original intent of the review, we can't go further into ways to improve this.

Time Lady: In summary, use more than one word to review.

Izzy: Thank you. Next, let's look at the overly enthusiastic review.

Cody: [pulls up another review] This is another review received by our author on the same story.

[the screen reads: love it! It's So cute! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It! ]

Audience: O_O

Izzy: By about the third "I Love It!" I'm fairly certain that the author knows the reviewer's intent. Only two comments on this review. First, brevity. Second, why do you love it? Another author wrote of the same story: [Cody adjusts the screen: "YAY!! That was a great fic! Had all me fave pairings too. KUDOS!!!"] Enthusiastic yes. A small typo, but otherwise nice and concise. The author knows this reviewer liked the story because their favorite pairings were included.

Cody: Short, sweet, and to the point.

Izzy: Now that we've looked at an overly enthusiastic positive review, let's look at something that's a bit more negative.

Cody: Remember, good authors provide warnings of controversial content in their summaries. . .

Time Lady: Which will be covered in a possible future guide on writing a good summary.

Cody: Yes. As I was saying, this next review was written by someone who obviously ignored the warnings: [The screen reads: "oh god, that wuz disgusting!!! eww! eww eww! ewwwww!!!!!!!! *shudder* oh god, eww!!!!!!! ewwww!!! eww eww eww eww eww eww!!!!!!! *makes some disgusted sounds* *makes a whole lot more disgusted sounds* ugh, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sick! sick sick sick!!!!!!!!!! ewwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"]

Izzy: [pointing with his laser pointer] Aside from the lack of capitalization, this reviewer could have easily have stopped before going into the additional "eww" choruses. After the first statement, the author knew the reviewer didn't like the story and why.

Cody: Again, keep to the point.

[Suddenly, the computer announces "You've got mail." Cody opens the message.]

Cody: It looks like our author received another review. [He puts it on the screen: "lkvbuej"] I don't quite know what to say on this one.

Izzy: Hmm. . . it looks like a kindergartner wrote it.

Time Lady: My kindergartners write better than that.

Matt [from the audience]: Actually, I think it was someone younger.

Izzy: What makes you say that?

[Matt points to the corner of the stage, where Big Fat Baby was pounding on the keys of Izzy's computer]

Big Fat Baby: Googie doobie woo!

Izzy: MY COMPUTER!!!!! HE'S GETTING DROOL ALL OVER THE KEYS!!!!

Yolei: What is Big Fat Baby doing here anyway?

Time Lady: Okay, okay, I was watching Histeria this morning. So sue me.

Cody: [sweatdrops while Izzy tries to wrestle his laptop away from Big Fat Baby] People, do not let younger sisters and brothers, even pets, review stories for you.

Izzy: [holding a drool covered laptop computer gingerly] Let's move on to how to write an effective review.

Cody: All right. [types into his computer and pulls up a Power Point presentation] First: tell the author what you're thinking. Tell them you like it, don't like it, etc. [He glances at Izzy, who is wiping off his laptop.] Next: tell them why you feel that way. For example: "I liked this story because you have a very interesting plot" or "I don't like this story because I don't like this couple." And if you're being negative, be polite. "This story sucks" just doesn't cut it. Izzy, anything to add right now?

Izzy: Why did it have to be my laptop?

Davis: [raising hand] I think I have something?

Time Lady: Go ahead.

Davis: If you still want to say "it sucks," tell why you think it sucks. Like "this story sucks with all the Davis bashing."

Time Lady: Good. Someone around here is paying attention. Cody, please continue.

Cody: Right. When you're reviewing, try to use decent grammar. I'm not saying it needs to be perfect grammar, but it should be readable. Avoid netspeak and cuteisms. You know, using "wuz" because you think it's cuter than "was." Finally, keep to the point. You can be creative, but make sure that the author can still understand what the review is about. If the author can't figure out your meaning because of everything else you added into the review, you need to rewrite before posting.

Time Lady: Here's a suggestion - write your review with the same care you would write your story. For some people that's a stretch, but hopefully it will help your writing all around.

Izzy: [cleaning his computer] Remember, use constructive criticism. A few helpful comments go a lot farther than plain old flames. That way, the author can take note of your comments and put them to use.

Time Lady: [stands and walks center stage] Thank you Izzy and Cody. Let's give them a round of applause.

[Audience applauds.]

Tai: [muttering] I think I would have done a better job.

Time Lady: Now, go out there and write some quality reviews. . .

[With a loud rush, the audience stampedes out of the auditorium and runs home to their computers.]

Armadillomon: You'd think they could have waited till you said "good-bye."

Time Lady: Sigh. . .

-The End-

Author's Notes: Just a little something inspired by some of the reviews I've received over time.