and another thing

[mamajoan]

Since I'm already being snarky today, here's another fanfic pet peeve. I hate it when a fanfic writer just pulls a sentence out from the story and slaps that into the "Summary" field. You get something like: "Summary: 'So he sits there thinking, as the sun goes down.'" Dude, that's not a summary. That tells me NOTHING about the story. (Except that there's a guy, and the sun sets. Maybe that's all that happens, you say? Yeah, but you see this kind of thing on long stories that actually have plot.) A summary should tell me generally what I'm going to get when I open up the story. It should, you know, summarize the story? You know?

I know (believe me, I do) that writing summaries can be hard for us fanfic writers. Especially when you're really concerned about not giving away what you think of as the important plot points. But come on, give it a try, for goodness's sake. You're a writer; be creative. Just lifting a sentence from the story is lazy and unhelpful. You might as well just not have a summary at all.

Comments

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

I disagree completely.

I love putting a sentence from the story as the summary. Picking out one sentence that seems to tell exactly what the story is about without giving the whole thing away... I enjoy doing that.

I also, when looking at a story, am more willing to read one where the summary is intriguing and oblique than one that says, "Clark and Lex have sex and Lex wears lipstick."

As examples from my own work:

For Envious Moon, which is about Rogue contemplating the whole Logan/Rogue/Jean/Scott thing: "I lurk at the edge of their awareness, not yet glimpsed in full. But my time is coming."

For Flirtation 101, which is about Rogue asking Logan to help her win the boy she likes by teaching her how to flirt: "I'm sure Logan can teach you all sorts of stuff about how to be sexy. The man's sex in blue jeans, for heaven's sake."

For Learning to Accept, which is about Logan and Rogue realizing that their love for each other is enough: "It's not the most romantic love, or the biggest epic romance, but we're going to do the best we can with what we've got."

For A Touch of Frost, a retelling of a fairy tale: "But the girl, as is often the case, was under a curse . . . Luckily for her, she had a prince."

For From the Outside In, which is where Chloe realizes what's between Clark and Lex: "Chloe knows she has no shot at Clark."

I think it's a much more creative way of writing a summary than just slapping some generic, non-spoilery text on there like, again from my own stories, "Logan runs. Rogue follows." or "With some help from Shakespeare, Logan realizes he loves Rogue."

YMMV.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Well, part of the problem is that so many of the stories you're talking about are "character sits around thinking" stories, which is another pet peeve of mine that I've posted about before. (And I know you and I disagree on that one too, so maybe our discussion is just doomed. *g*) And if nothing actually *happens* in the story, then yeah, it's gonna be hard to summarize, unless you just say "Chloe sits around thinking."

But aside from that? Yeah, it might be true that the sentence you've picked out gives the essence of the story -- but only *after* a person has read the story. I mean, a reader might read the story and then go back and look at the summary again and say, "wow, yeah, that one sentence really does sum it up." But that's not helpful. Take your "Envious Moon" summary. If I just saw that at the beginning of a story? I would think, "oh, that sounds like a 'mysterious bad guy lurking in the shadows watching Our Heroes and plotting against them' type of thing." In context it probably makes complete sense, but out of context it's not telling me *anything* about the story.

I understand that some people think a plain old "This Happens and then That Happens" summary is boring and un-creative. Thing is, I'm not *looking* for creative in summaries. I'm looking for something to help me decide whether I want to read the story or not. And for that purpose, a sentence like "I lurk at the edge of their awareness..." is just not gonna cut it. Plus, I'm sorry to say this, but it sounds pretentious. Within the story it might work beautifully, but on its own, it just doesn't.

IMO. Obviously. And no offense intended.

[debchan.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't think I've ever used a sentence from the story, but I am fond of using flippant and vague summaries for some reason. Like: Stuffs happens. Things are touched.

Seriously, I wonder if this has something to do with a fear of sounding pretentious or pompous. "In this very special story, you will see characters imbued with lofty ideals so profound that you, dear reader, will be left gasping in awe." But that could just be me. *g*

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Heh. Flippant and vague can be okay, especially if (am I repeating myself) there's not really a lot of action in the story. Or in PWP. You could say, "Stuff happens. PWP." That would be enough. (Heck, just say "PWP" and that's enough!)

The pretentious thing is a part of it too. But really it's mostly about deciding whether to read the story. It's that simple. If the summary tells me at least a little something about what the story is ABOUT, then I can make the decision To Read Or Not To Read. If the summary is just a flowery, out-of-context sentence from the story that tells me nothing, then yeah, my first instinct is "Pretentious, pompous author who can't be bothered to summarize decently. Delete!"

Maybe it's not fair, but that's me. *shrug*