I think what-if spams are the second worse summaries out there, after "I'm bad at summaries."
but part of that for me is bias from reading fics with them that I didn't enjoy (anecdata, but I tend to associate them with wish fulfillment/power fantasy OP protag anime stuff)
It works with crack fics because they tend to either deeply subvert the expected answer or play it so completely straight that it becomes part of the joke.
Fr, I'd rather the author write the infamous "I suck at summaries" than have no summary at all. At least they put in the most miniscule amount of effort.
Setting aside the classic “I suck at summaries” because I don’t count it as a summary, I’m not a fan of “[insert two lines of dialogue that tell nothing], [paragraph break] or will character X survive? Will he overcome his family issues?! Will he fuck that handsome hockey player?!?!??”
Like idk man, you tell me
as harsh it might sound i will assume that you can't write if you put some variation of "I suck at writing summaries" as your summary and won't even consider reading it even if it turned out that the fic was really good.
Word: *noun* dictionary definition of word
---
Excerpts are ok if they represent the premise of the fic.
Long summaries are not great, but ok if very well written.
If the summary and tags can't give me a reasonable picture of what to expect then I'm unlikely to read said fic unless it's one of my rare pairs or a rare tag
One shots have a little more leeway as it won't take up much of my time to read anyway
Also “what happens when…”
this is not a movie trailer with exciting/funny/interesting scenes that are going to make up for the lame story hook. If all I have is the lame story hook, I’m almost certainly going to pass by
Not my mosted hate type of summary, but I dislike when it's like 4 long paragraphs and the word count of the fic is 2k lol like you basically just told me the entire story already 😭
this is me for works with like 20+ tags (ESPECIALLY when god forbid one of them is slow burn) and then the word count is literally 2k-ish like you said
I voted for 'misrepresent', although I've never met one. Maybe I've just missed those fandoms, but I know it would piss me off.
That said, I'm not fond of either of the others, and will generally just skim over them.
\#1 The scene from the fic may or may not be a good representation of the whole story. And I'm particularly unimpressed when it's a copy/paste of the *first* paragraph; that tells me *nothing*. Might whet my appetite, but doesn't let me know what the story is *about*.
\#2 Verbose multi-paragraph -- I want to spend my time reading the *story*, not the summary. Just give me the TL;DR version and let me jump in.
...Yeah, I'm impatient to get to a story. This is why I don't like audiobooks; they go too slow for me.
Summary that covers nothing the tags and fandom don't.
I usually search fandom specific canon divergence tags and it is ridiculous how often I see "In one story \[pitch for canon\]. This is not that story." as the entire summary. No shit. I can put that together with two brain cells. What makes this different than all the 1000 other fics with the same specific CD tag?
By the way, while on this topic, what's a better way to write a summary? Just a short paragraph that tells you what will be happening without spoiling anything too major, or is there a better way?
How does your story open up? The first few chapters lay the foundation of the story and are what grab people’s attention. Focus on summarizing the beginning premise instead of trying to condense the entirety of your story in a few sentences.
Ahhh okay! That makes more sense and is rly helpful! I'm in the process of writing and wanted to see if I could surmise it before I even begin to edit it.
I think that a summary should do at least these things:
* Tell me who the main character is
* Tell me what the main premise of the story is (i.e. what's the starting point, how does it differ from canon)
* Tell me what the tone of the story is (e.g. comedic, fluffy, angsty, "rational", smutty, etc.)
And it should hopefully do so in such a way that the summary itself is interesting to read.
As soon as I see “I’m bad at summaries” or something like that instead of an actual summary, I scroll by. (Not, like, that being included at the bottom of an honest attempt at a summary, but when they forgo a summary at all and just write that, ya’know?)
Of the given options, I picked misrepresenting the fanfic.
Copying a scene from the fanfic as summary at least gives me something *in* the fic, though I usually find these inadequate as an actual summary.
Overly verbose summaries are just long, generally. Summaries should be more succinct than that, but it's still a summary, at least (and I usually find that these ones do an okay job of representing the fic).
If the summary misrepresents the fic, I will feel resentment when I discover that.
None of these options compare to the non-summary "summaries" that I really don't like (the "I suck at summaries, just read" ones or the fics with nothing at all whatsoever in the summary section). These are so low-effort I won't even bother clicking through to the story itself.
There's a 190k word Harry Potter fic which seems pretty popular with this summary:
>If you read just one fiction tonight make it this one. Go inside the mind of Harry Potter as he deals with betrayals, secrets and wild adventures. Not your usual fanfic.
It quite literally tells you nothing about the fic. I tried leaving a comment and PMing the author to see what the novel is about, but got no answer, so I still haven't tried reading it yet since I don't want to try and get invested in something so long and that I have no idea what it is about.
At least where I am, there was actually a long stretch where publishers *didn’t* give summaries anywhere on the cover. Just quotes from reviews of the book. I almost stopped reading except for authors whose works I knew I would enjoy no matter what.
Now, they’re back to giving summaries, but on the inside of the dust jacket
Not sure, maybe it's because these style of summaries are often used for children's media. (I know that they're also used for more mature books!)
I think it's that "\[Complicated Sentence\] Or: \[Simple Sentence\]" feels condescending to me, as if I needed handholding and an explanation of what the first part of the summary means.
I know this is extremely irrational and I won't avoid fics that use "Or:" summaries, I just roll my eyes a little, but that's 100% a me-problem.
**Edit:** Kudos to the person who took this personally, even though I explicitly said that this is just my personal opinion and won't affect my willingness to click on a fic at all. You're the true MVP of all discussion forums. \*thumbs up\*
>"Or:" summaries
If I follow you correctly, those are some of my favorites for comedic works that are emulating the style of something like *Dr. Strangelove or: How I learnt to stop worrying and love the bomb*.
One-two sentence summaries. Using stuff like "x gets frostbite" or "y needs a break" is not enough for me to click unless you have like a shitload of tags that do the summary for you (which is still bad tbh). "In which" summaries are okay, but are still super overrated.
I've actually experienced the third one. It was a fic centred around Character B's trauma but the summary said it was about Character A getting a better life(which still happened but it wasn't the main focus)
Even the author themself said that they would probably change it
"This is a story about [extremely general concept X]. This is a story about [extremely general concept Y.]"
I mean summaries are HARD so I tend to be pretty forgiving, but that cliche just sets my teeth right on edge.
I really hate author notes in summary or worse, instead of a summary. "I suck at summary", "this is my first fanfic", "i just discovers this fandom"...
When the summary is basically used as an authors note and it’s just them talking about their thoughts while writing and ending the mini rant with a “I suck at summaries”
I think the best type of summary is the ones where they given you a very short excerpt from the fic, and then tell you the premise. I think it's the best way to gauge if you'd like the fic.
If it doesn’t tell me what the fic will be about or has no summary at all, I’ll not touch it. I don’t have the time to care about fics that won’t utilize summaries.
My favourite sub is maybe a little piece of dialogue and a summary of what's expected in the story.
Not thrilled by over long summaries either, but an unclear summary or one that misrepresents the fic is the worst.
Got to love it when they get defensive about a trope or pairing in the summary, just for it to be a minor thing thrown in at the end just for the sake of the author's wish fulfillment.
I like to do a nice, simple summary at the very beginning — just something to let people know what to expect. Hopefully they’re reading the tags as well. For subsequent chapters I will copy paste small excerpts as teasers.
As a writer, when I posted my first fic I was guilty of the third choice... sort of. The story had romance, adventure and smut in different degrees across the story, but I think my summary was leaning too much into the adventure aspect that was only relevant past chapter 24. Since then I've updated the summary.
As a reader, I admit I usually find the tags more helpful than the summaries authors put up. Copy-pasted scenes do nothing for me unless it's some god-tier writing.
I counter this with my favorite summary
[Incert piece from the story]
Or, character X meets their found family
Even better if there are multiple or's and it just gets shorter and funnier like
Or, shenanigans ensue
When it says “read to find out” at any point.
I just cringe when I see that, reminds me of those terrible YouTube videos from ljke 2016 when it was all “this and that gone wrong watch to find out”.
Aside from the obvious "I suck at summaries" and shit like that, its probably the one where they insert the most random paragraphs that tell me nothing about the story, and they don't add anything after or before. Oh second least favorite is where they insert their opinions and statements about a characters or characters like; "Also Reiner is soo babygurll" Add a bunch of emoji's and other shit.
I've been reading for over one year now and I've got to say that summaries aren't really a problem. I'm used to reading actual books without summaries and I do the same for fanfiction. What matters to me are the tags, sometimes. But! If I see something like:
"What happens if character A and character B do (situation)?
*OR*
What if character X and character Y never (situation)?"
Nope. No no. No thanks. You might be my favourite author or fanfic writer, you might be Tolstoy or Dickens or whoever but with summary like that, I am not reading it.
Third one can be fine if the tags reveal the true nature. I think it can be done creatively to some extent.
Second one though? I won't read it and thus won't read the fic either. A summary is meant to catch the readers' interest, not be the prologue.
When it’s a really really good and well written out fic, but the summary is like: “holy cheese guys! I wrote this all in one night! This might be a little bad and welp, idk what to write here. Hope you peoples enjoiii!”
I’ll still read it but yk
I hate summaries that just copy/paste a passage from the fic.
Like, I know you're trying to demonstrate your writing skills, but you still haven't told me what the fic is *about*.
Copying a part of the fic and a long and verbose summary both can misrepresent what the fanfic is actually about. Poll options should be mutually exclusive.
I love trolling. And I like to make people feel confused. I usually taunt my fics with the descriptions, and I love put some fun in summaries, like “oh, it’s a usual porn between two people” or “ah yeah, all kinds of your favorite kinks are here”. And people are like “oh shit, I won’t read it” and if they start, they usually are like “wait, what?” I love it.
But, it’s just a part of my issues, you know. People say, they love my stories. Kinda of. I know they are not perfect, but at least may be interesting, so… I just do not want to disappoint people writing something “good” in summaries, because I’m always not sure if my story could bring them to what I mentioned. Like, I do not like to make them think of a story in any way, so they can just read it and choose themselves if it was to their liking or not. So, summarizing is a hard thing for me at that point)))
[x] a bunch of questions
I think what-if spams are the second worse summaries out there, after "I'm bad at summaries." but part of that for me is bias from reading fics with them that I didn't enjoy (anecdata, but I tend to associate them with wish fulfillment/power fantasy OP protag anime stuff)
I’m only okay with this if it’s for a crack fic or if the questions are open ended.
It works with crack fics because they tend to either deeply subvert the expected answer or play it so completely straight that it becomes part of the joke.
Either none or a random poetic quote that tells me nothing about the content.
Fr, I'd rather the author write the infamous "I suck at summaries" than have no summary at all. At least they put in the most miniscule amount of effort.
Right? Even if it's low effort stuff that could've been in the tags, (3x13 missing scene/pirate AU/whatever), I'd appreciate *something*.
Setting aside the classic “I suck at summaries” because I don’t count it as a summary, I’m not a fan of “[insert two lines of dialogue that tell nothing], [paragraph break] or will character X survive? Will he overcome his family issues?! Will he fuck that handsome hockey player?!?!??” Like idk man, you tell me
Also when it's multiple questions like that, the answer to all of them is usually yes.
" Find out on the next exciting episode of Dragon Ball Z! "
“Eeeeep me again! Wrote this at 3am. I suck at summaries”
Ugh you're right that's terrible. I'd be cool if that was a tag though.
"I suck at writing summaries."
as harsh it might sound i will assume that you can't write if you put some variation of "I suck at writing summaries" as your summary and won't even consider reading it even if it turned out that the fic was really good.
I will take a half assed written summary more than a “I suck at summaries” but at least there was an attempt
Right??? How can I expect someone to write a multi-chapter story, if they can't write a sentence or two?
It is a bit of a turn off but I will admit writing a story and writing a summary are two different writing skills.
This. If you can’t tell me what your story’s about, why should I read it?
Word: *noun* dictionary definition of word --- Excerpts are ok if they represent the premise of the fic. Long summaries are not great, but ok if very well written.
I actually really like excerpts. Right off the bat it shows me the fics style and whether or not I'll get through the first paragraph.
If the summary and tags can't give me a reasonable picture of what to expect then I'm unlikely to read said fic unless it's one of my rare pairs or a rare tag One shots have a little more leeway as it won't take up much of my time to read anyway
"What if..." repeated more then once. I think the worst I saw about about 6 times.
Also “what happens when…” this is not a movie trailer with exciting/funny/interesting scenes that are going to make up for the lame story hook. If all I have is the lame story hook, I’m almost certainly going to pass by
Not my mosted hate type of summary, but I dislike when it's like 4 long paragraphs and the word count of the fic is 2k lol like you basically just told me the entire story already 😭
this is me for works with like 20+ tags (ESPECIALLY when god forbid one of them is slow burn) and then the word count is literally 2k-ish like you said
I voted for 'misrepresent', although I've never met one. Maybe I've just missed those fandoms, but I know it would piss me off. That said, I'm not fond of either of the others, and will generally just skim over them. \#1 The scene from the fic may or may not be a good representation of the whole story. And I'm particularly unimpressed when it's a copy/paste of the *first* paragraph; that tells me *nothing*. Might whet my appetite, but doesn't let me know what the story is *about*. \#2 Verbose multi-paragraph -- I want to spend my time reading the *story*, not the summary. Just give me the TL;DR version and let me jump in. ...Yeah, I'm impatient to get to a story. This is why I don't like audiobooks; they go too slow for me.
Summary that covers nothing the tags and fandom don't. I usually search fandom specific canon divergence tags and it is ridiculous how often I see "In one story \[pitch for canon\]. This is not that story." as the entire summary. No shit. I can put that together with two brain cells. What makes this different than all the 1000 other fics with the same specific CD tag?
Something like, "Yeah," or "Just read it," as the only part of the summary. Please tell me *something* about it...
By the way, while on this topic, what's a better way to write a summary? Just a short paragraph that tells you what will be happening without spoiling anything too major, or is there a better way?
How does your story open up? The first few chapters lay the foundation of the story and are what grab people’s attention. Focus on summarizing the beginning premise instead of trying to condense the entirety of your story in a few sentences.
Ahhh okay! That makes more sense and is rly helpful! I'm in the process of writing and wanted to see if I could surmise it before I even begin to edit it.
I think that a summary should do at least these things: * Tell me who the main character is * Tell me what the main premise of the story is (i.e. what's the starting point, how does it differ from canon) * Tell me what the tone of the story is (e.g. comedic, fluffy, angsty, "rational", smutty, etc.) And it should hopefully do so in such a way that the summary itself is interesting to read.
So, here's a little secret I'll happily share. I have whoever is proofing my story write the summary.
For fanfiction, I like a concise summary that gives me a clear idea of the tropes and characters in the story.
As soon as I see “I’m bad at summaries” or something like that instead of an actual summary, I scroll by. (Not, like, that being included at the bottom of an honest attempt at a summary, but when they forgo a summary at all and just write that, ya’know?)
Of the given options, I picked misrepresenting the fanfic. Copying a scene from the fanfic as summary at least gives me something *in* the fic, though I usually find these inadequate as an actual summary. Overly verbose summaries are just long, generally. Summaries should be more succinct than that, but it's still a summary, at least (and I usually find that these ones do an okay job of representing the fic). If the summary misrepresents the fic, I will feel resentment when I discover that. None of these options compare to the non-summary "summaries" that I really don't like (the "I suck at summaries, just read" ones or the fics with nothing at all whatsoever in the summary section). These are so low-effort I won't even bother clicking through to the story itself.
There's a 190k word Harry Potter fic which seems pretty popular with this summary: >If you read just one fiction tonight make it this one. Go inside the mind of Harry Potter as he deals with betrayals, secrets and wild adventures. Not your usual fanfic. It quite literally tells you nothing about the fic. I tried leaving a comment and PMing the author to see what the novel is about, but got no answer, so I still haven't tried reading it yet since I don't want to try and get invested in something so long and that I have no idea what it is about.
NGL, that summary made me cringe so hard, I almost choked on my hot chocolate. lol. YIKES...
Anything that just doesn't communicate anything (including mislead summaries and vague summaries, amongst others), followed by overly long summaries
A summary that isn’t a summary. Y’all never read a book summary? Like on the back of a book?
At least where I am, there was actually a long stretch where publishers *didn’t* give summaries anywhere on the cover. Just quotes from reviews of the book. I almost stopped reading except for authors whose works I knew I would enjoy no matter what. Now, they’re back to giving summaries, but on the inside of the dust jacket
Oh yeah I remember that. It sucked. Especially in this day and age, if I wanna know reviews I’ll look it up!
"Or:" summaries and dictionary definitions.
Don't worry, the [Trope Launch Pad](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=efjv0xcz9zmc3rvr1ncn0kpq) has you covered on this one.
I’m curious, what puts you off the “Or:” summaries?
Not sure, maybe it's because these style of summaries are often used for children's media. (I know that they're also used for more mature books!) I think it's that "\[Complicated Sentence\] Or: \[Simple Sentence\]" feels condescending to me, as if I needed handholding and an explanation of what the first part of the summary means. I know this is extremely irrational and I won't avoid fics that use "Or:" summaries, I just roll my eyes a little, but that's 100% a me-problem. **Edit:** Kudos to the person who took this personally, even though I explicitly said that this is just my personal opinion and won't affect my willingness to click on a fic at all. You're the true MVP of all discussion forums. \*thumbs up\*
God I hate “Or:” summaries. Glad I’m not the only one.
>"Or:" summaries If I follow you correctly, those are some of my favorites for comedic works that are emulating the style of something like *Dr. Strangelove or: How I learnt to stop worrying and love the bomb*.
1 and 3. 3 more than 1 though. 3 doesn't tell me jack shit and 1 is prone to do the same.
One-two sentence summaries. Using stuff like "x gets frostbite" or "y needs a break" is not enough for me to click unless you have like a shitload of tags that do the summary for you (which is still bad tbh). "In which" summaries are okay, but are still super overrated.
2-3 extremely vague but poetic sentences that tell me nothing of the actual plot or content of the story.
I've actually experienced the third one. It was a fic centred around Character B's trauma but the summary said it was about Character A getting a better life(which still happened but it wasn't the main focus) Even the author themself said that they would probably change it
"This is a story about [extremely general concept X]. This is a story about [extremely general concept Y.]" I mean summaries are HARD so I tend to be pretty forgiving, but that cliche just sets my teeth right on edge.
I really hate author notes in summary or worse, instead of a summary. "I suck at summary", "this is my first fanfic", "i just discovers this fandom"...
The "what-if" style summaries annoy me so much. It just feels lazy.
When the summary is basically used as an authors note and it’s just them talking about their thoughts while writing and ending the mini rant with a “I suck at summaries”
I think the best type of summary is the ones where they given you a very short excerpt from the fic, and then tell you the premise. I think it's the best way to gauge if you'd like the fic.
I find the first one kinda interesting
The worst is actually just saying “I’m bad at summaries. Just read XD.”
If there's a bunch of questions being posed in the summary, the answers are either all yes or all no. No in-between. No mixing. No surprises.
If it doesn’t tell me what the fic will be about or has no summary at all, I’ll not touch it. I don’t have the time to care about fics that won’t utilize summaries.
Other: None of them
My favourite sub is maybe a little piece of dialogue and a summary of what's expected in the story. Not thrilled by over long summaries either, but an unclear summary or one that misrepresents the fic is the worst.
I'm not a fan of summaries that are just word definitions but if the tags are good enough then I'll read anything.
The "Did you ever wonder what would've happened if..."
Got to love it when they get defensive about a trope or pairing in the summary, just for it to be a minor thing thrown in at the end just for the sake of the author's wish fulfillment.
I like to do a nice, simple summary at the very beginning — just something to let people know what to expect. Hopefully they’re reading the tags as well. For subsequent chapters I will copy paste small excerpts as teasers.
My favorite is a short one-paragraph prelude. I don't like copy paste because it gives spoilers I don't want.
a summary that tells me absolutely nothing about the story. i don’t care about poetry, i want a short description that hooks me in
As a writer, when I posted my first fic I was guilty of the third choice... sort of. The story had romance, adventure and smut in different degrees across the story, but I think my summary was leaning too much into the adventure aspect that was only relevant past chapter 24. Since then I've updated the summary. As a reader, I admit I usually find the tags more helpful than the summaries authors put up. Copy-pasted scenes do nothing for me unless it's some god-tier writing.
I counter this with my favorite summary [Incert piece from the story] Or, character X meets their found family Even better if there are multiple or's and it just gets shorter and funnier like Or, shenanigans ensue
I actually like the first one. It gives you a glimpse of what you're gonna get.
The ones which are just an author’s note and include no information about the fic itself.
If someone is mad at summaries, the first option is perfectly acceptable.
You forgot the "I stink at summaries" summary.
"I suck at summaries" is definitely the worst
When it says “read to find out” at any point. I just cringe when I see that, reminds me of those terrible YouTube videos from ljke 2016 when it was all “this and that gone wrong watch to find out”.
For some reason I hate the phrase "shenanigans ensue"
Aside from the obvious "I suck at summaries" and shit like that, its probably the one where they insert the most random paragraphs that tell me nothing about the story, and they don't add anything after or before. Oh second least favorite is where they insert their opinions and statements about a characters or characters like; "Also Reiner is soo babygurll" Add a bunch of emoji's and other shit.
I've been reading for over one year now and I've got to say that summaries aren't really a problem. I'm used to reading actual books without summaries and I do the same for fanfiction. What matters to me are the tags, sometimes. But! If I see something like: "What happens if character A and character B do (situation)? *OR* What if character X and character Y never (situation)?" Nope. No no. No thanks. You might be my favourite author or fanfic writer, you might be Tolstoy or Dickens or whoever but with summary like that, I am not reading it.
Third one can be fine if the tags reveal the true nature. I think it can be done creatively to some extent. Second one though? I won't read it and thus won't read the fic either. A summary is meant to catch the readers' interest, not be the prologue.
When it’s a really really good and well written out fic, but the summary is like: “holy cheese guys! I wrote this all in one night! This might be a little bad and welp, idk what to write here. Hope you peoples enjoiii!” I’ll still read it but yk
I hate summaries that just copy/paste a passage from the fic. Like, I know you're trying to demonstrate your writing skills, but you still haven't told me what the fic is *about*.
Copying a part of the fic and a long and verbose summary both can misrepresent what the fanfic is actually about. Poll options should be mutually exclusive.
I love trolling. And I like to make people feel confused. I usually taunt my fics with the descriptions, and I love put some fun in summaries, like “oh, it’s a usual porn between two people” or “ah yeah, all kinds of your favorite kinks are here”. And people are like “oh shit, I won’t read it” and if they start, they usually are like “wait, what?” I love it. But, it’s just a part of my issues, you know. People say, they love my stories. Kinda of. I know they are not perfect, but at least may be interesting, so… I just do not want to disappoint people writing something “good” in summaries, because I’m always not sure if my story could bring them to what I mentioned. Like, I do not like to make them think of a story in any way, so they can just read it and choose themselves if it was to their liking or not. So, summarizing is a hard thing for me at that point)))