sixbeforelunch: cabin on a lake, no text (cabin on a lake)
Impossible Things ([personal profile] sixbeforelunch) wrote in [community profile] fictional_fans2019-01-13 04:32 pm
Entry tags:

summaries

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?
yourlibrarian: Buffy wants Spike right now (BUF-SpuffyRightNow-earthvexer)

[personal profile] yourlibrarian 2019-01-15 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
and the work has about nine hundred tags

900 tags for a 10,000 word fic at that. I have literally seen stories with more tags than content.

the summary has an easily answered question like "will they get together?"

Indeed -- if only that question actually had suspense to it once in a while.

And I agree that having a fic excerpt in the summary is one of the better hints that I'll want to read the author's writing.