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

[coyoteclaw11]

God,,, self deprecating author's notes in summaries are the worst. Like... just put "Do Not Read This Fic It Sucks" and move on at that point. It's okay to doubt your writing, but you don't make that your reader's first impression of it. Just give them the fic and let them form their own opinions. It's still kinda :/ in the author's notes too, but w/e I tend to skip over author's notes unless they provide background for the fic (ofc this shouldn't be too lengthy, but if they have some worldbuilding they want you to start the fic clear on, I don't mind that. Especially when I rly don't feel like trying to put the pieces together myself).

I wonder who did lyric/poem summaries so unbelievably well that it sparked this trend... I've literally never found one that I've wanted to read without a bunch of tags I'm interested in... I do like poem/song excepts as titles/chapter titles. I think that one works really well to add to the story without taking anything away from it.