We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week’s topic is: Ways in Which My Blogging/Review Style Has Changed Over Time (submitted by Susan @ Bloggin’ ’bout Books)
I quite like this topic suggestion although, if I can be honest, I almost went rogue today because I didn’t think I could come up with 10 ways in which my blogging/review style has changed over time! I thought that I’d remained fairly consistent over the years and while that’s been mostly true on a structural level, I did notice quite a few significant changes in how I’d present my reviews but also the things that I’d include in them! Will we get a list of ten? Maybe… If I break up some of these answers a bit! 🤭 But before I digress or go off on a tangent, let’s get to it!
Using GIFs — Looking back on some of my earlier reviews, I forgot about how I’d use GIFs quite often to capture the overwhelming feelings I’d have for a read. I guess I thought these reactions more adequately captured how I felt in ways I was unable to express through writing? 😂
Quote inserts — I insert quotes less often these days, simply because I’m terrible at keeping track of them, but surprisingly, I used to include them a lot in my reviews! There’d be a minimum of one but the most I saw were like 5 or 6 quotes, and these weren’t for blog tour reviews either, lol.
Recaps in reviews — Something I didn’t realise I used to do a lot was include short paragraph recaps of what happens in the book within my review. This is something that I’ve stopped doing for a long time now because I felt like it would be all too easy for me to accidentally give something away without realising!
Photo or artwork inserts — Similar to the GIFs, I used to insert photos I’d take of the book (for my bookstagram) or character artwork that I’d find online into my reviews. I didn’t do this for all genres, it was mostly for fantasy books that had many characters and big fandoms, like The Aurora Cycle. I guess I loved doing it but wow, it’s a lot of effort too! 😂
TL;DR — I feel like I’ve been doing this from the very beginning but I started adding TL;DR summaries at the top of my reviews from 2021. I do this for pretty much all my reviews except for when they’re novellas, short stories, graphic novels or mini-reviews. I feel these summaries have been surprisingly helpful when it comes to structuring my reviews!
Stretching out the reviews (just like I might be stretching out this post, lol)… — There were times that I noticed, like with this review, that I really tried to stretch out the review as much as possible. I do like to write long reviews but also, sometimes they don’t need to be and yet, I waffle on. I don’t think I used to do this all the time, but I’m pretty sure I don’t do this at all anymore. 😂
Tagging people and books… — I’m not sure if this was a thing I did often, but I noticed in quite a few of my older reviews from 2019 that I’d often tag accounts (like bookstagram book club accounts) and link to other books in a series within the review. I still link to other blogger accounts today, especially when I’m buddy reading or I’m inspired by those accounts, but not to the books!
In-depth character reflections… — I’ve been more mindful of the length of my reviews in recent years, but I saw that in earlier reviews, I’d go into great depth about all the characters. If there were multiple main characters or even strong secondary characters, I would have a few sentences and at most paragraphs with my thoughts on these characters. It was a lot! 😅
All of the blog tours! — Looking back through my log of reviews, I would say that for several years, the majority of the reviews I posted were for blog tours! That was kind of surprising because even though I know I participated often, I didn’t realise I participated that much. It was kind of shocking, actually. 😂 I’ve decreased my participation in tours a lot in the past 2-3 years!
Fewer reviews… — This is also something blog related not review related but also not related to how I post reviews! I’ve realised that in the past year or so I’ve stopped posting as many reviews on my blog. The majority of what I used to post up until maybe 2021/22 was reviews and while I still review the books I read, I think I find it more exciting to post other book related content on my blog! I might’ve lost the balance a bit though and have been thinking about posting more reviews lately, but 6 years from the start, I’m happy with where my blog is right now!
Have you noticed a difference in how you write or present your reviews over the years? Is it a major difference or just little things like I mentioned?
dinipandareads 
It’s interesting to see how your style has changed. I haven’t participated in a blog tour in a very long time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
At the start, I didn’t think I’d find much that has changed, so I was surprised that there was a fair bit. I’ve stopped participating in tours as much but not sure if/when I’ll stop completely as, for the most part, I’m still having fun!
LikeLike
Oh, I used to use a lot of quotes too!! I totally forget to highlight them now to use later. I’ve stopped using them too because many ARC’s have a warning not to use quotes from an ARC. It’s fun to see how it changes!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha, since I started using Notion to track my reading thoughts this year, I’ve actually started noting down a few more quotes than before. But I still haven’t used them in reviews cos I keep forgetting! 🤭
LikeLike
It’s interesting to see how people’s reviews have changed with this week’s topic. I very rarely get involved with book tours as when I do, I seem to invariably not enjoy the book as much as I was expecting to .☹️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fair enough! I think that’s also the reason why I’ve become more selective with what blog tours I want to participate in. The books always looks so good and synopses intriguing enough to get me to sign up, but over the last few years there have been many disappointments!
LikeLike
Ah, I used to be very into GIFs myself – not necessarily only in reviews, but like.. in every post haha 🙂 Still love ’em, but I try not to use them too much anymore. I also cut down on book tours and I just review a lot less too. It is funny to see how much our review styles do change over time!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha, actually, yeah, I used to use them in a lot of posts as well! 😂 I still do sometimes, but they’re usually in templates that I’ve had from the beginning and can’t be bothered to change, lol. It’s funny to see how few reviews I post now compared to the start. It’s gone from like 90% reviews and 10% other content to the opposite now!
LikeLike
it’s interesting to pause and reflect! You’ve highlighted some significant changes!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wasn’t sure about this topic at first but I did enjoy the reflection 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
One commonality I’m seeing is that a lot of us began with complete book summaries and then shifted away from that to reviewing the book’s style, construction, without spoiling the plot.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s to interesting! I didn’t notice other people mention that but I also forgot that it’s something I used to do until I did this post! 🤭
LikeLike
Oh my gosh, I did the GIF thing at first too! 😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was all the GIFs everywhere! I still use them occasionally (mostly in templates that I haven’t bothered changing over the years) but lol, they’re used a lot less now 🤭
LikeLiked by 1 person
It sounds like you are achieving a more balanced approach to writing your reviews and thinking about the unnecessary steps that took your time but was underappreciated by your readers. Good for you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Anne 🙂 I agree with that!
LikeLike
It’s so interesting to see how the way we do things evolves over time! It’s funny that a lot of ours ended up being opposites too! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha, I didn’t think so much had changed before this post but yeah, things have evolved over the years! 🤭
LikeLike
I used to be big into blog tours, too, but they just got to be so overwhelming and stressful. Not too many years ago, I finally stopped doing them altogether. It was SO liberating! LOL
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve cut back my participation in them by so much! I used to love it but yeah, when it got to be too much it ended up feeling not only overwhelming but very much like a chore. 😂
LikeLike
You have made several significant changes over the years, Dini. I think It is what we are comfortable with and the time we have to devote to our blogs. I still do way too many blog tours and I really think I need to cut back.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I didn’t think I had but I was surprised by how many changes I’ve made! Cutting back on blog tours helped me not to feel so overwhelmed by all the commitments (that I couldn’t resist making because the book sounded so good, lol) but I’m glad that I’ve slowed down. I think you’ll find the right time that works best for you when it comes to cutting down 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think a lot of us cut down on blog tours! 😅 Now I just post the book excerpt for blog tours, it’s just easier. It’s kind of fun to look back on how blogging has changed for all of us over the years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, maybe I should start doing more spotlights but I tend to do those when I can’t get into a book or DNF some of them 🤭 It was fun to look back on how blogging has changed for us! Look how far we’ve come, lol
LikeLiked by 1 person
I loved using gifs! I think I was even on a blog tour where I was to do a gif review. And blog tours. I do none now. I feature less review too. It’s 4 a week, that’s it, and that is directly related to the fact that I request less ARCs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ooh, a full GIF review sounds kind of fun actually! 🤭 I quite like how you plan out your schedule—it’s a good mix of everything on your blog! I’ve come to a 6 a week schedule that I’m quite happy with but I’ve also become less ‘strict’ on myself and if I don’t have anything planned for my non-meme days, I’ve started to feel less guilty about it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I still love gifs! When I first started blogging, pretty much all of my posts were reviews. Now I rarely post individual reviews. I just include them in other posts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I still use them sometimes but not in my reviews. I do love them though 🙂 I still haven’t started doing multiple or mini reviews but I have been meaning to because I’ve been doing really poorly with writing reviews this year! 🤭
LikeLike
I like the TL;DR thing! I don’t always include that in my reviews, but I have been including a list of tropes and specific recommendations at the top of my reviews, which does a little bit of the same thing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The TL;DR thing is so helpful for me and while I don’t do them for shorter reviews, they’re great for when I get too wordy and can’t stop gushing about a book, haha 😂 I like the idea of doing recommendations but I am very bad at them 🤭
LikeLike
I’ve found that I’ve gotten better at adding recommendations as I do more of them! But they’re still sometimes hard.
LikeLike
I think the number of reviews I’ve written has gone up and down over the years. I try to focus my reviews on ARCs and books I’ve read that I feel deserve more attention. While the formating I use has changed, I feel like each review follows a similar pattern.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I feel like I’ve been pretty steady with my reviews over the years but this year especially has been pretty tough. I don’t know why my brain is like “no more reviews!” 😂 But they’ve been harder to churn out!
LikeLike
Yay someone else who is the worst in keeping track of quotes! I have to look your TL;DR thing up, because it doesn’t ring a bell for me sorry.
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2025/05/17/top-ten-tuesday-ways-in-which-my-bloggin-reviewing-style-has-changed-over-time/
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] #TopTenTuesday: Changes in Review Style Over Time […]
LikeLike
NGL I did used to love your gif game in your reviews lol. I do enjoyr your ‘TL;DR’ bit’s though, especially if it’s a book I haven’t read yet so might not want to read the full review. I think I’ve also cut down on my use of quotes, though it’s probably more book dependent for me.
LikeLike
[…] #TopTenTuesday: Changes in Review Style Over Time (Dini @ dinipandareads) […]
LikeLike
Great post! I find it so interesting to look back on how my reviewing style has changed! I also used to post more reviews on my blog, but nowadays I don’t post three days a week anymore, so I only post reviews for favorite books 😄 I love that you’re doing TL;DR summaries! I used to do a short summary at the end of each review, but stopped doing it a while back when I had too many reviews to catch up on 🙈
LikeLike