Fanfic summaries
I hate writing summaries for my fanfic. They are usually short and often cryptic. I have a feeling this might cost me readers but I hate hate hate giving away anything about the story beyond general flavour. And pairing, if any.
When I read a summary, I would rather it gave me some idea of the general tone of the story and the wit of the author than an actual précis of the content. Actually, the title is more of a draw for me than the summary.
There are, however, certain words that will cause me to avoid a story. If the summary contains "ponder", "muse", "reflect", or other synonyms thereof, I will not venture in.
Over to you:
When you're reading fanfic, is the summary crucial in getting you to read a particular story? What kind of summary do you like?
When you're writing a fic summary, what info do you like to include? Are you cryptic or verbose? And do you actually write the kind of summaries you like other people to use?
Are there summary keywords (not talking about warnings here) that will make you click away ASAP?
Also: Every fandom should have its badfic Truth or Dare stories. But get the rules right! Am I misremembering, or aren't you supposed to ask the question first and then the person gets to decide whether to answer it or do a dare? I keep finding stories where you have to decide between truth or dare before you even know what they're going to ask you.
When I read a summary, I would rather it gave me some idea of the general tone of the story and the wit of the author than an actual précis of the content. Actually, the title is more of a draw for me than the summary.
There are, however, certain words that will cause me to avoid a story. If the summary contains "ponder", "muse", "reflect", or other synonyms thereof, I will not venture in.
Over to you:
When you're reading fanfic, is the summary crucial in getting you to read a particular story? What kind of summary do you like?
When you're writing a fic summary, what info do you like to include? Are you cryptic or verbose? And do you actually write the kind of summaries you like other people to use?
Are there summary keywords (not talking about warnings here) that will make you click away ASAP?
Also: Every fandom should have its badfic Truth or Dare stories. But get the rules right! Am I misremembering, or aren't you supposed to ask the question first and then the person gets to decide whether to answer it or do a dare? I keep finding stories where you have to decide between truth or dare before you even know what they're going to ask you.