fandom angsting and moaning

[lettered]

I also posted The Eighth Tale on AO3 herePeople say I suck at summaries, so I probably didn't adequately explain that fic. It deals with timey-wimey and time paradoxes, possible futures that might also be possible fanfics, Harry/Draco sex, and then a sad ending. The fic was actually the summary of a fic that I'm not actually going to write, so I

Comments

[snickfic]

As I think I've mentioned before, I usually like your summaries. They don't necessarily tell all that much about a story (although sometimes they do - see the summary of 70k pub fic) but they do a great job establishing tone, which I think is huge, and also that you can write, which is especially important with authors I don't know.

That said, yeah, I didn't get time-wimey signals from your Eighth Tale summary (although I figured it out fast enough once I started, and would have faster if I actually, you know, knew the canon).

I have this whole theory of good summary writing that has to do with suggesting tone, characters, era (sometimes), any enticements that don't come up in the warnings (amnesia, permanent injuries, timey-wimeyness), and the fact that you can write. (Reader confidence from the get-go is key.)

Actually, I think I might post a post on Monday, asking folks to tell me which of my summaries they liked or that stuck in their mind. I've been thinking about summaries, too, because I need to come up with a good one for my big bang fic in time for the artist claim next week. :)

As for your "window" in which people read a fic, I think that's only true of people reading it from any given link. Like, if something gets linked to the Herald, then I expect to get the bulk of my readers from the Herald in the first three days. But if, say, someone randomly opens up a Buffyverse post-apocalyptic comm next week and allows posting of old stories, then I'd definitely post all of mine there, and almost certainly get new readers, even though most of my post-apocalyptic stuff is over a year old at this point.

[lettered]

They don't necessarily tell all that much about a story (although sometimes they do - see the summary of 70k pub fic)

Several people commented on the inadequacy of that summary, though.

suggesting tone, characters, era (sometimes), any enticements that don't come up in the warnings (amnesia, permanent injuries, timey-wimeyness), and the fact that you can write.

These are good things. I tend to suck at suggesting tone, at revealing the enticements, and at revealing the fact that I can write in anything but an entirely flippant manner.

As for your "window" in which people read a fic, I think that's only true of people reading it from any given link.

Oh yes, definitely. But if no one reads it after you initially post it, then it's never going to get linked, unless you repost it again yourself.

Good luck on your big bang summary!