Fictional Fans

No apologies needed, and funny thing is, your take is very close to mine! I totally agree about #2 for example, "one-shot fluff without plot." I often skip over those because at this point I've read enough Merlin fic (and Merlin/Arthur fic, which is practically the same thing in that fandom) that I really want to see something I haven't before, or which just does really well at whatever trope they're using.

So what caught my attention about that one is that, normally, that trope would indicate a h/c fic centered on illness (which is not my thing). However from the sound of it, it's either not going to be Arthur taking care of Merlin or it's going to be Merlin maneuvering him into it. And that is a bit different, so I was curious.

That's also very true about #3. In that case two things interested me about it -- the fact that they were doing a supernatural AU but still in an office setting, and M was going to be an important character. In the various Q/Bond fics I've read so far they are set after her death, and I quite like her character so I wanted to see a story with her in it.

With #5 this was actually not a setup interest (because does anyone need another coffee shop AU, though in this case it's not) although I have read a few stories in the past where Merlin, Arthur, or both are writers and I've enjoyed them so I shouldn't say that this aspect wasn't a draw. But the fact that this line was chosen for the summary suggested to me that there was some factor of a frustrated professional aspiration there, which is not something I've seen in almost any fic. (It's almost like one rarely ever sees a story about unrequited love). I also liked the writing of the line, with the description of the sugar packets.

Break anything & I wanna see the process they go through to set it right

Yes, #6 definitely seems to be following the advice of "describe the conflict in the story"

I agree with you about #9 -- the trope is clear, though what sets it apart is not. However this was probably just enough to get me to click through and look over the first page which must have gotten me to download.

The key phrase to me for #10 (besides the fact that it was a Princess Bride fusion which I have actually already seen in this fandom) was "obliges in their own idiosyncratic asshole way." That made me curious -- how was this canon going to be adapted? The setup of the summary suggested to me that this was going to be a story about the fandom itself as well as Merlin and I tend to like those meta-ish tales.