Tips to write a Good Summary for your Fic

I just give the premise. What's the plot, and - I'm a worldbuilding/minor character gal - what's the fic trying to explain or expand on. AO 3 is more conducive to my usual flowery style of doing so, but I can shrink it down to FFN size with a bit of patience.

Hail Martin Septim!

So... Do you guys want to see if we can write up a list we can, if not agree on, at least accept as something to be considered? There's more than one way to split a watermelon, after all.

I'd say the one we all have pretty much unanymously agreed on is No Summary Sucks.

More than that, though, would require at least a bit of discussion, though.

Maybe we can do sort of like a debate thing, bringing up a point and having someone argue in favor, and someone against, it.

Like, I dunno, I bring up "Trigger Warnings", and then someone argues about why they should be used, and someone else states their reasons why they shouldn't be used. Not responding to each other, merely stating their reasons. Then I can copy paste both sides of the argument into the OP, so people can decide for themselves.

Other things, though, like blatantly lying in the summary or the whole Summary Sucks thing, are probably unanimous and all of us probably agree are things that shouldn't be done, so they wouldn't even require discussion.

himitsu keisatsu seifu chokuzoku kokka hoanbu na no da himitsu keisatsu yami ni magireru supai katsudou torishimari

No problem. Seems like a sound idea.

Thinking it over, I think that the OP's statement should be amended as follows:

Because, frankly, as you're writing the fic, aspects you thought were minor may end up having a greater impact than you thought, and elements once thought major become superfluous. Or, experiences in your own life or suggestions from Beta-Readers may take the story in new directions. So you should probably revisit your Summary every few chapters.

Now, that isn't to say that you can publish your story before it's substantially complete. You shouldn't. But, again, a trusted Beta-Reader should be an excellent sounding board for ideas while you're writing. But, just in case, keep your original outline close at hand; and, if you have time and the original plotline is still viable, write it out too. At the worst, it'd be a good exercise; and maybe your original idea might be better after all.

In essence, don't Railroad your fic to fit the summary, rewrite the summary to fit the (evolved) fic.

With regard to Crossover and Shipping tags, they should be included, so long as the elements are:

1. Important to the story
   • Which is vastly different from importance to the Author
   • Midnight Rambler covered this point in their critique on "Familiarity with X not required"; and
2. not spoilerific.
   • though there is an exception for First Act Spoilers (Unknown Light alluded to this),
   • Late Arrival Spoilers in the case of Recursive Fanfiction should be minimized apart from a "Sequel to Y" Tag
   • LAS to the source Franchise(s) might be unavoidable depending on how important spoilerific plot elements are to the fic and should be tagged.

I was going to include a third criterion that they develop organically, but, really, the ones that don't have an even greater need of being tagged thusly.

edited 16th Oct '14 1:28:56 PM by DonaldthePotholer

What if you don't have a beta reader or a strict plot outline, and if you only write about one or two chapters ahead?

Because going from what I've read as well as my own experiences, a number of fanfic writers don't seem to use beta-readers.

Hey now, some of us write Seat Of Your Pants style and like it that way. Currently I have only one story that's written ahead of my publishing ... because I haven't published any of it yet. Because, speaking from experience on both sides, it's hard to keep a beta reader around for a long period of time. Especially if you're only writing a chapter every couple of weeks, and often your beta has their own issues in RL and/or writing to deal with.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

Do not write your summary as if it were a shitty movie trailer.

"Watch as ABC and XYZ go on a thrilling, epic adventure of romance, intrigue, and mystery!"

yeah.... no. I'll be the judge of your fic's epicness, thank you very much. This tells me nothing about what's happening and makes me completely uninterested. Might as well plaster "THIS IS A GOOD FIC PLZ READ" all over it.

just give me a most basic setting summary and a general direction the plot is heading. Let me know what's different from canon, and leave enough open-ended to make me curious.

"Bob wonders why Alice suddenly left work without warning. He gets in over his head when he catches up to her..."

If it's describing the fic as "epic" in the humorous/sarcastic sense, that's the only reason I'll read it.

Truly epic fanfics have never stated their own epic-ness.

@Donaldthe Potholer

The summary you make 'first' is more for the author than it is for anyone else. It's basically a statement of what you're trying to write.

The one that goes into FF.net's summary space, though, is the one you write 'last'.

himitsu keisatsu seifu chokuzoku kokka hoanbu na no da himitsu keisatsu yami ni magireru supai katsudou torishimari

Are mine too minimalist? (in which.... XXXXXX... is what I do for them...)

My AO3. Results may vary

Now I want to actually do that.

This is only my first ever fanfic, but I think I did a pretty good summary for it:

The summary tells you:

• This story takes place three hundred and thirty five years after an important event.
• Someone does something cruel that resurrects a pain Elsa had gotten over long ago.
• Elsa is reluctant to take Shepard's help.
• Elsa is keeping secrets, and this mission might reveal them.
• Shepard is roughly Paragon.
• Shepard wants to recruit Elsa for his squad.
• This takes place during Mass Effect 2.

It also implies that Elsa has lived longer than three hundred and thirty five years, which is true.

edited 21st Nov '14 1:36:13 AM by GeekCodeRed

They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!

I find author-summaries a pretty good way to outline. For some reason, I tend to take my stories very seriously, but my chapter summaries, not so much. For instance, my main WIP's two big death chapters are summarized as follows:

Our hero finally groks winning friends and influencing people; quickly resolves never to try it again.

A cautionary tale against self-publishing, vanity presses and any combination thereof.

I have no idea who I was trying not to spoil when I wrote this outline - it was definitely a factor - but hey, comes in handy where this thread is concerned.

edited 21st Nov '14 5:57:46 AM by DomaDoma

Hail Martin Septim!

It also implies that Elsa has lived longer than three hundred and thirty five years, which is true.

When I read that, I assumed it was a Frozen crossover. But I guess there's a character in ME named Elsa, right?

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

I don't...think so? Unless I'm forgetting about someone here.

Oh God! Natural light!

It is a Frozen crossover, yes.

They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!

The story I'm going to preview is part of a larger Verse that Phoenix Knight 6 and I are collaborating to create. The idea is to create a series of stories within a massive shared universe incorporating a myriad of fandoms ala {{The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, }} if it was done with anime. The Nasuverse, The Naritaverse, and Gargoyles play the biggest parts in establishing the world, but other worlds (including Puellea Magi Madoka Magica, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)also play important roles in establishing the world.

In collaboration with PK 6, I am writing a crossover that primarily combines the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and Clannad (the other worlds in the mega crossover will also play a role). In his second year of high school, Tomoya Okazaki ends up sharing a class with Haruhi, and is intrigued by her rather bizarre interest in the super natural. Much like Kyon, he eventually ends up roped into joining the SOS Brigade, where the central cast of characters engage in increasingly bizarre adventures. Over the course of the story we intend to focus on character development and the relationships between the characters. and like I said earlier, creating interesting adventures for the characters to embark on.

We have a finalized version of the first chapter ready to be published. However, we're still working on a title and admittedly a plot summary as well.

With the information above in mind, can you think of any summaries that would be good for this story; or maybe the best way to go about writing one?

Now this I like. It gets the important points across without being dry or boring about it. I'd change the last sentence, though: a summary is supposed to leave the reader with questions, not answers. Maybe try something like "he's there to recruit her for a mission – one that may turn out to be much more dangerous than it seems."

Mache dich, mein Herze, rein...

I barely managed to fit it in the FF.net summary limit as is.

But "Suicide Mission" in the context of Mass Effect means one thing: It's set during Mass Effect 2. The whole of that game is setting up and getting ready for the suicide mission.

They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!

That's right. It's less of an 'answer' and more of a chronologic position indicator. It means "Takes Place Two Years after the events of ME 1"

himitsu keisatsu seifu chokuzoku kokka hoanbu na no da himitsu keisatsu yami ni magireru supai katsudou torishimari

Here's an example of what not to do:

I'm not sure if it's a parody of fanfics in general or if it's just that bad, but a few lines in and I think it's the latter. Don't pretend it's a movie trailer on TV, guys. The thing about movie trailers is that there's actually something to look at on screen while the voiceover does its thing... with this kind of summary, it tells me absolutely nothing. Except that the author thinks his own work is totally awesome, which probably means it totally sucks and he won't admit to any spelling/plot/characterization errors.

edited 15th Jul '15 7:44:58 PM by willyolio