I'm very curious about the Plot ratings that reviewers have given to some stories. Are there any site guidelines as to how to rate plots? If not, would the reviewers care to share what sort of things they personally look for?
AJ
I'm very curious about the Plot ratings that reviewers have given to some stories. Are there any site guidelines as to how to rate plots? If not, would the reviewers care to share what sort of things they personally look for?
AJ
things they personally look for
The more convoluted the plot, the more things that happen (and that means longer stories often get higher scores), the more surprises when things change, the higher the plot score. I don't think a flash story (750 words or so) is going to get a very high plot score. Also the story compares to what I have read recently. The story has to stand out from the other work I have read fairly recently. Lately I have been re-reading some very good stories, new stuff often seems lower rated to me. So I haven't been writing a lot of reviews. Also, other reviewers seem to be doing a pretty good job and there isn't much reason to write a review that repeats what they said. Now if I really disagree with a review I might write something.
Also, other reviewers seem to be doing a pretty good job and there isn't much reason to write a review that repeats what they said.
Amusingly, I also had mostly that opinion. But I'm still quite entertained by having my review referenced by two later reviewers of the same story.
I don't think a flash story (750 words or so) is going to get a very high plot score.
I would have hoped that a reviewer would take the length of the story into consideration when assessing the plot - ie is the detail of the plot right for the size of the story?
If a novel-length story is basically a number of anecdotal scenes held together by sticky tape with little or no overarching consequence or development for the protagonist, I'd expect Plot to get a low rating. (However that doesn't mean its Appeal should also get a low rating).
A quick count of recent reviews shows that when ratings are awarded for Plot and Appeal, the same rating is awarded nearly two thirds of the time.
I've just finished reading a dead-tree novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The world-building is phenomenal and I'd rate the Appeal quite highly. (It won a Clarke award). However the plot is actually quite thin and I'd rate that a lot lower.
AJ
I haven't been on the reviewers list for about a decade now, so you can take that fact under consideration.
However, I looked at 'Plot' as a gestalt score. Creativity, originality, appropriate use of foreshadowing, pacing... basically, all the things other than the words and punctuation that make a story well written.
Quality was simply technical proficiency - spelling errors, bad grammar, tense issues, and poor word choice (like reusing specific words over and over) all resulted in lower Q scores.
Appeal was simply that - whether a story seemed appealing. Mostly to me, but I also tried to specify who I thought the intended audience for a story should be, as well as who should avoid a given story.
As a reviewer, I have my preconceived notions of plot mostly from formal education. To me, it's the skeleton of the story. First a problem is laid out, then conflict is introduced in traversing the problem, then the conflict is resolved. That's the essential basic structure in my mind.
It can get more complicated of course. For example, the structure might contain problem introduction, rising conflict, crescendo, falling conflict, resolution. Additionally, it might contain multiple conflicts arising from multiple problems within an overall arching structure.
How well this is handled is what informs my score. Short, medium or long story lengths generate different expectations. What justifies a 9 for one may only get a 6 or 7 for another.
So to me there isn't just one simple guideline that can cover all cases.