me: *writes fic*
me: great! time to post to ao3-
ao3 summary box: *exists*
me:
ao3 summary box:
me:
ao3 summary box:
me:
trying to write a fic summary is like trying to write a scientific abstract, except that every single reader will be looking for completely different things and you can’t please them all… at least scientific journals have templates
anyway summarising your work to make it snappy and clean and immediately appealing is the worst and you have my sympathies
If you’re struggling, here’s an easy technique.
1. Take a snippet from early in the work that gives a sense of what the story and your writing style is like. Dialogue between your protagonists is often good here.
2. Then write your thesis statement. This can be short. It’s just roughly what you might say if your friend asked you what the fic you were working on is about. You don’t have to summarise the whole fic. Just the premise is fine.
3. Remember that your tags will do a lot of the work in helping readers find you and also know what the fic’s about. Tagging Canadian Shack or Alternate Universe – Flower Shop or whatever’s applicable helps. Your summary doesn’t bear the weight of convincing people to read alone. I often write tags at the top of my doc while I’m writing to take the pressure off having to think of all the tags that apply when it comes to posting.
Like this:
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
Lizzie’s whole family is thrown into disarray when Charles Bingley moves in next door, bringing his hot but obnoxious friend Darcy with him.
or maybe this:
Three Men in a Boat (Jerome K Jerome)
George said: ‘Let’s go up the river.’
He said we should have fresh air, exercise and quiet; the constant change of scene would occupy our minds (including what there was of Harris’s); and the hard work would give us a good appetite, and make us sleep well.
Harris said he didn’t think George ought to do anything that would have a tendency to make him sleepier than he always was, as it might be dangerous. He said he didn’t very well understand how George was going to sleep anymore than he did now, seeing that there were only twenty-four hours in each day, summer and winter alike; but he thought that if he did sleep any more he might just as well be dead, and so save his board and lodging.
(That’s it, that’s the novel, tbh)
or perhaps
Sabriel (Garth Nix)
‘I have served ten times as many of your forebears as you have years,’ Mogget replied at last. ‘And though my powers wane with the ebb of time, I always know when one Abhorsen falls and another takes their place.’
‘What do you mean by “fall”? What do you know? What has happened to Father?’
Mogget looked up at Sabriel, eyes half-lidded, meeting her gaze steadily, as no normal cat could.
‘He is dead, Sabriel. Even if he hasn’t passed the Final Gate, he will walk in life no more.’
Sabriel has been called home to the Old Kingdom because her father is missing. He’s trapped between life and death, and she has to learn to take over his role in the meantime, and stop powerful dark magic from rising, with the help of a magic not-quite-cat and a king’s fool who’s slept away the last few lifetimes (and who is maybe, oh no, a little bit hot?)
[If you compare that Sabriel extract with the book, you’ll notice that I’ve edited it back so it’s mostly about the dialogue. This is so it’s not too long, and makes more sense out of context.]
It doesn’t have to be perfect; as a reader, I just want a vague sense of what your fic’s like so I know whether it’s my thing. Sometimes even just a quick excerpt of the fic is all you need! If there’s two fics in my favourite trope for my favourite pairing, and one has a quick two-sentence summary that sounds interesting, and the other has ‘haha I suck at summaries pls read’, I’m gonna read the one with the summary.
Practice honestly helps. Writing summaries for stuff that isn’t your fic, like I did for the novels above, helps you work out how to write them for your own fic. It’s often easier to write summaries for things that aren’t yours because you’re less emotionally attached to them. But again: summaries don’t have to be perfect. I promise. And they do get easier, the more of them you write.
