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

[slashmarks]

I think it was melannen who said an effective summary should be like a joke set up so the reader will click to get the punch line. That doesn't necessarily mean that it should be funny; but it should make the reader want to know how the set up is satisfied.

Personally, I almost exclusively care about prose style, so snippet summaries are the most likely to get me to click fic that's got an interesting/good voice and the least likely to get me to click fic I won't like. But my preferences are kind of off-center for fandom, I think - I rarely read based on pairing or plot. I tend to try to compromise and pick a snippet from the fic that gives the set up as well as my writing voice.

[melannen]

I was just coming in here to try to remember how I'd phrased that before!

Yeah, the best summaries in my experience a) tell you what the story is about, but b) very concisely (like, 2-3 sentences AT MOST) and c) leave you wanting to know what happens next.

The joke setup is sort of the best way I could come up with to conceptualize that. (Also good models: elevator pitch, movie logline - you don't want the summary on the back of the book, you want the summary in the TV channel guide.)

Absolute worst kind: a song lyric or poem quote. Tells you nothing about what the story is about, *or* the voice or writing style. Second worst: A summary that's actually an author's note.

[lazaefair]

Okay, this is a SUPER interesting thing to model summaries on. Because jokes have a bit of a formalized structure, too - see comedian Jimmy Carr:

The release of tension in jokes. If you think all jokes work in exactly the same way, it’s two stories. In the first story, you force the audience to make an assumption that turns out to be erroneous. The second part of the story it’s the sudden revelation of a previously concealed fact that they’re working that way.

The best kind of fic experience is one where the summary draws you in with an interesting premise and a demonstration of writing skill, and then takes you on a roller coaster ride, right? That's why we're willing to read ten thousand h/c or bed-sharing or huddle-for-warmth or A/B/O fics because every writer gives you a different take on each trope. Maybe good summaries aren't exactly like jokes in that there's not as much of a requirement for an explicit twist, but the audience is still looking to be entertained and surprised.

[coyoteclaw11]

an effective summary should be like a joke set up so the reader will click to get the punch line

Oooh that is a good way of saying it. I like these kinds of summaries a lot! I did once come across a story that was sort of the opposite. The title was actually a "punchline" but you didn't know it until you reached the end. It was rly cool (even tho that isn't rly relevant to summaries or drawing your readers in in the first place dfghj)