summaries

[sixbeforelunch]

So here's a question I've often wondered about. What makes for a good fic summary? Is there anything that can get you to click when you might otherwise not have been inclined to?

Conversely, what types of summaries do you like least? Are there summaries that will make you skip a work even if it's tagged with all of your favorite ships and tropes?

Comments

[arinna]

To me, a good summary is a summary that makes me want to know more. Sometimes that's a description of the fic, sometimes it's a blurb of dialogue; sometimes it's short, sometimes it's long; sometimes it's detailed, sometimes it's vague -- but every good summary is one that makes me think "oh, what's this about? let me see" and I think writing a good summary comes down to asking yourself that if YOU read it, would it make you want to click through and read the fic? Or would you just scroll on by it?

As for not so good summaries...

I really hate summaries that aren't summaries at all -- summaries that say "lol i'm bad at summaries, just read the fic" or that have nothing but a quote (not from the fic but from a random book or song lyric or something) or summaries that are totally blank, nothing there at all. I skip over those fics every single time because not only do they tell me absolutely nothing about the story, they don't even try.

I also never read fics where the author insults other fics or other authors who write in the same fandom/about the same ship in the summary (or the tags or author's note) like I've seen some do on occasion. It's a turn off when authors insult their own work, but when they put down other fic writers it just comes off as snide and petty and doesn't make me want to read their work at all.

[coyoteclaw11]

I've never come across authors insulting other people in their fics. That's super unnecessary wtf...