"Summary Writing: 101
The best way to get more readers for your stories is to write a really good summary. However, a lot of people seem to have trouble with that part. I thought I would try and help out. Here is a list of 5 (in no particular order) ways to write better summaries, and get more readers.
1: DON'T write, "summary in profile." That is the worst thing you can do. It deters almost all readers. People want to know the summary as they're scrolling through the page; they don't want to have to search for it. I understand fanfiction doesn't give us that much room to write a summary, which is why you, as the author, have to really know your story so you can make a summary that fits within the character limit.
2. DON'T begin your summary with, "what if". Maybe it's just me, but I don't like summaries that start that way. "What if" implies a hypothetical situation. And all fanfiction is hypothetical, so it seems redundant to state that your story is a hypothetical situation. Or maybe I'm just nit picking...
3. Use correct capitalization. I personally don't read any stories where the summary is either all capital or all lower case letters. It looks sloppy, and makes me think that your story is written the same way.
4. Spell-check. If you have a lot of spelling errors in your summary, especially with the names of the characters, then again, I infer that your story is written in a similar style. It only takes a few moments to fix this problem, and unless the language you're writing in isn't your first language, you shouldn't have any problems with this.
5. DON'T end your summary with "read to find out!" Again, this part should be implied. "Bob meets Jane and a friendship blossoms. But the closer they become, the more dangerous their relationship. Because Bob has a dark secret."
It is implied that I have to read the story to find out what Bob's secret it, so I shouldn't have to say it. It would be redundant.
Again, it's possible that I'm just nit-picking, but I really think that if you can write a really good summary, you will earn a lot more readers to your story. You could have the best story out there, but if your summary sucks, the majority of people won't know because they won't read it."
1: DON'T write, "summary in profile." That is the worst thing you can do. It deters almost all readers. People want to know the summary as they're scrolling through the page; they don't want to have to search for it. I understand fanfiction doesn't give us that much room to write a summary, which is why you, as the author, have to really know your story so you can make a summary that fits within the character limit.
2. DON'T begin your summary with, "what if". Maybe it's just me, but I don't like summaries that start that way. "What if" implies a hypothetical situation. And all fanfiction is hypothetical, so it seems redundant to state that your story is a hypothetical situation. Or maybe I'm just nit picking...
3. Use correct capitalization. I personally don't read any stories where the summary is either all capital or all lower case letters. It looks sloppy, and makes me think that your story is written the same way.
4. Spell-check. If you have a lot of spelling errors in your summary, especially with the names of the characters, then again, I infer that your story is written in a similar style. It only takes a few moments to fix this problem, and unless the language you're writing in isn't your first language, you shouldn't have any problems with this.
5. DON'T end your summary with "read to find out!" Again, this part should be implied. "Bob meets Jane and a friendship blossoms. But the closer they become, the more dangerous their relationship. Because Bob has a dark secret."
It is implied that I have to read the story to find out what Bob's secret it, so I shouldn't have to say it. It would be redundant.
Again, it's possible that I'm just nit-picking, but I really think that if you can write a really good summary, you will earn a lot more readers to your story. You could have the best story out there, but if your summary sucks, the majority of people won't know because they won't read it."
Chao- Nicely done! Glad to know that some users don't like having to search for summaries. Seriously, authors are there to share their stories, not have readers hunt for something that may or may not interest them. And while people took a look at that advice, this author found some other advice to share.
Ideas to Consider:
- Practice giving summaries for well-known stories like fairy tales
- Look at summaries written for your favorite stories and fan fics
- Note that some published works offer no summary at all! Do you find this to work well or are just annoyed by it?
Chao- Some places on the web or in magazines do have a word limit for stories and summaries, so authors can see writing summaries in the given space as a chance to work with a word limit. But authors aren't require to give a sum up of the plot; instead, they can give a snip it of an interesting introduction or character lines. those can be just as eye catching as well. Hope this helps!
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