So you want to write a summary that doesn't suck...

[silvercaladan]

So you’ve taken the fall. You’ve posted your first attempts at fanfic on fanfiction.net, or dipped your toe into the much smaller lj circle. But you’re not getting reviews! Obviously, no one likes your story, right?

WrongThey just aren’t reading it

Comments

[firafoxx]

Yay!! Such good advice.

[liliaeth]

I agree with everything but not telling the pairings.
Now in Sky High fics, I generally don't care what pairing a fic is, since the pairings don't make that big a diff to the overall story of the series. But in a lot of other fandoms I do. It might be biased, but if I'm reading Buffy fic, then I want to to be sure I'm not starting to read a B/A fic (hate that pairing) or anything involving Willow... Or if I'm reading Highlander, then I don't want to accidentally start reading a Duncan/Richie fic. It's because some pairings utterly go in against everything a reader could believe the chars to be...

Knowing a pairing can be very important for a person's liking of a story, because we all go into them with our own thoughts and expectations of what the chars are like.

[silvercaladan]

Yes, but that's part of the adventure to reading fanfic, right? If a story is good enough to hook you before a pairing develops--and all good stories have pairings that develop--then shouldn't the author write the pairing believably

[liliaeth]

I guess for me it depends on the fandom. Might be mostly because Buffy fandom is really really polarized. I've just run into to many B/A fics that bashed Spike to take the risk anymore. I just often feel that to me, Buffy seems ooc when put in B/A fanfic, though B/A-ers would probably think the same of Buffy in B/S fics*g*

The problem is that the majority of fanfic authors, don't take time to develop a pairing. They believe in their pairing so they assume that their pairing is practically self evident.

And of course then there's the scary pairings like Dawn/Spike, Buffy/Giles, HP/SS, Ginny/Lucius Malfoy that really really need a warning in my pov*g*

[saturniia]

Fair enough, but I'd argue that maybe the pairing could go at the top of the story's first chapter with the disclaimer, rather than right in the summary. That way, people get drawn into clicking on the story's link, but are given the opportunity to back out before any nasty surprises occur if they decide that Medulla/Boomer preslash is not to their liking.

I think reading a fanfic is a little more like purchasing a perfume than reading a novel, mainly because when reading a fanfic, you already know the characters. You know what you did or did not see in the movie, and while you may be open to new interpretations or pairings (for example, I didn't even consider Bash Slash until I read Star's "Smoke" in the Mighty Ducks fandom), you also know what you definitely do not want to read. In the perfume metaphor, the characters are scents

[topazwings]

Whoa mate! Very good, detailed and charismatic! Get people to laugh and they're more likely to listen. Laying down about summaries is something that can definitely be listened to. Mate....I have the urge to draw a title cover now....

[nova_bright]

Excellent advice piece

[smercy]

you are certainly worth more than enron stock.
when they figure out how to do it, I'm telling you sweetheart.
lots and lots of babies.
and they won't be writing-impaired either.

and one day
we will start a place
where authors can write
and it won't be crap.

and we'll be totally elitist about it.