Comments Please!

A few of us Booksians are trying to get some useful changes to the format of the site. I have taken on the small task of creating a ‘code’ that writers can use to indicate the type of feedback they are looking for. Here is a little rhyme to explain the reasoning and to gather some suggestions.

Comments Please

The question is why do we write,

Is it because we can’t sleep at night?

Maybe because we have a burning issue

Or the need to say I miss you?

Perhaps we need others to take note,

Or share a little tale of a cat a bird and a boat

Or pen a poem or a musical ballad

Or in word paint a picture on a mallard

Are there times when others read,

Their kind remarks your soul they feed?

And other times when you toil and fight

With a work that you want to get perfectly right?

Each of us and each work we create.

From others we look for their opinions to state.

These comments need to be placed with care

Writers by nature lay their feeling bare

It is hard at times for reader to know

How critical with their comments they should go

At times we need others to just say 'I like this stuff'

And at times needing them to be a little more rough

If you are writing just for fun

Kindly sharing comments should come

If you are sharing the depths of you heart

Too vigorous a comment could tear you apart

If you’re writing more seriously

You may wish points to be made more meticulously

If you’re writing and need to improve

Straight forward remarks might be your food.

What I am saying here is we all have different needs

Different purposes in writing and comments to feed

The problem is the reader doesn’t always know

What to put, on which tack they should go.

The golden rule is not to be unkind

Or not to make negative comments unrefined

To find out from the writer first

The kind of response desired for their story or verse

For this the writer needs to be honest with themselves

Ask how deep do they need the reviewer to delve?

The impulse is to say I want people to be totally straight

But too harsh a comment might make you in writing again hesitate

How about this? When you’re filling out your summary

At the bottom you leave a word that’s explanatory

To the kind of remark the work you do wish

So the comments left are more hit than miss

Now I am handing this over for you all to review

A word or a phrase that tells others what to do

Perhaps a scale of one to five

Or code that helps us writers to thrive.

So leave a comment or two

And link this poem for others to read through

The more response, the more suggestions left the better

The clearer the code, be it a number, phrase, word or letter.

If it all goes swimmingly well

Perhaps the idea we can sell

To Booksie Admin

For a drop box to add in

Our request of the kind of review

Something to tell others what to do!