Fanfic summaries

[prillalar]

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

Comments

[ladysorka]

I think my favourite summaries are the one's that are basically a line of text from the fic - they're the most likely to "hook" me and make me want to click on the link.

And that's how we always played truth or dare - you had to pick first, so that you wouldn't be able to evade the question or get out of the dare. You took your chances.

[pearl_o]

That's how I always knew truth or dare, too. Then if you didn't answer the question or do the dare, you had to pay a penalty. Or drink, in the drinking game version.

[resonant8]

If the summary contains "ponder", "muse", "reflect", or other synonyms thereof, I will not venture in.

[giggle] Good plan.

I'm with you -- I want the summary to give me a sense of the story's (and the author's) sensibilities. I don't have any warning words, but a summary with a question in it usually means 'approach with caution,' and I rarely open a story whose summary says, "I suck at summaries."

In my childhood Truth or Dare games, you had to decide first, before the question was asked. (It may have been kid cowardice, though; the other way is much more revealing.)

[glossing]

As a reader, I'm with you. I like summaries that don't summarize *content*, but more the tone of the fic. Ones that could almost be opening or closing lines, or that expand the title. I really dislike desperately tantalizing summaries: "A new girl's in town. What does this mean for Faith's baby? And will Tara ever stop mending the socks?" Just...*blech*.

As a writer, I *loathe* writing them. I tend to wimp out and use quotations, from essays or poetry or whatever. Definitely cryptic, usually two sentences or shorter.

Keywords I avoid - um. More like punctuation marks I avoid - the question mark, the exclamation point, and the ellipsis. All tell me that it's not a fic I want to read.

I always played Truth or Dare by having to choose a question or a dare *first*.

[tzikeh]

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.

Huh, that's not how we played at all. The player is asked "Truth or Dare?" And then chooses either Truth or Dare. They then either must answer a question truthfully or carry out a dare. If they choose not to (which really, you were LAME if you did that), you were penalized or ostracized or basically made fun of for days, in public.

[pauraque]

That's how I knew the game, too.

As for summaries, a line from the story is usually a good choice.