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

[saffronbunbaker]

I llike summaries that are sort of like a tease about what it's about and a pun or two is never wrong. (and I liked princessofgeeks comment that a summary should be a description of the conflict)

I have seen summaries that describes everything that will happen in a fic, including the resoliution to the conflict, and while those are not that common, it they sound interesting enough I'll still read them, despite some hesitation.

what I DON'T like and don't read is when the summary has sloppy formatting; a wall of text, no use of capital letters or incorrect spelling of the characters names.

additionally, if the summary is an author telling everyone how this is their first fic and thanks everyone who helped them write this etc. but don't say anything about what the fic is about and its variation of having the authors notes in place of the summary and have the actuall summary in place of chapter 1, get an automatic pass from me


as with fics that say things like 'omg this is so bad' or 'this is crap don't read this'