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A Lesson On
Summaries |
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Summaries often make or break a story. A bad summary doesn't indicate a bad story, but neither does a good summary make a good story. A particularly lengthy summary is often a turn-off to many readers, and many sites have limits to how long a summary may be.
The first problem a lot of people run into is "What about this banner?!" A lot of people host out of photobucket and pix8 (both great hosting sites) but they generate long URLs. I'm a huge advocate of tinypic, and here's why: Both URLs will generate the same image (for free) but the tinypic URL is considerably shorter. To host your banner using tinypic, go here. It's fast, free, and no account is necessary. Secondly, don't bury yourself in HTML. Summaries including all kinds of <i>, <center>, and <u> tags will take up space. If you feel as though you must use them, use as few as possible to get out the maximum result. For a while, I've noticed some people will write summaries like this: 75% of those tags aren't necessary. Curious to know how I arrived at that figure? 8 of those 12 tags are not needed, and here's why: will generate the exact same thing. Opening HTML tags will leave them open until you close it with the proper tag. It does not go away with a line break or another tag other than it's corresponding </>. So if you must use the good old HTML, use it sensibly and sparingly! (click here to learn more about HTML) Thirdly, think about it. Some of the best magazine ads, movie posters, and television commercials are the ones that are short and to the point and are relevant to your story. Think about the last hilarious (and long) commercial you saw. Did it seem to be relevant to the product? Do you even remember what it was advertising and why without having to seriously sit down and think about it? The best ad or summary is that which can capture your attention not necessarily by its volume but by its content. If you give away the entire plot of your story in your summary, why should they bother reading it? If you post a huge excerpt from your most recent chapter in your summary, what reason does the person reading it have to actually click on your story if they've almost completed it before even accessing it? In short, the shorter the summary the better in many cases. Some helpful hints I have are: - don't give away or hint at giant plotlines running though your story! - don't explain your entire story to the reader in your summary (example) "You/Sirius fic." You start out in seventh year, watch James and Lily fall in love, and get a little love of your own, all while training in an underground magic school in Hogsmeade. Goes from 7th year to the death of Lily and James and Sirius' imprisonment. Includes drinking scenes, slight sexual scenes, and a few dueling scenes. Expect heartbreak, tragedy, and fluff."- don't misspell or use netspeak (example) "hary pottr is n his 6 year at hogwarts and has a cursh on harmione. wat's gona happen?"- don't leave out a summary completely - do add mystery without being vague or off the mark
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