Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the story

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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby Dumbledork » Mon Jun 12, 2017 1:27 am

This summary REALLY doesn't inspire me.

Regaining Control by Videl Exumai reviews
Mere hours before the first task of The Tri-Wizard Tournament, the three male champions buckle beneath the pressure of the games. Realising that they might die within the next few moments the three boys decide to take action, since no man wants to die a virgin. Graphic depictions of Rape – Gangbang – Mind Fuck.
Rated: M - English - Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 2,061 - Reviews: 2 - Favs: 7 - Follows: 11 - Published: 17h ago - [Harry P., Cedric D., Viktor K., Fleur D.]
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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Mon Jun 12, 2017 11:30 am

Dumbledork wrote:This summary REALLY doesn't inspire me.

It inspires me, but to pie-throwing rather than reading.
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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby Spica75 » Mon Jun 12, 2017 1:26 pm

Agreed, that was just beyond awful.
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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby Makoto » Tue Jun 13, 2017 4:57 pm

On the contrary. It's very inspiring. It inspired me not to read the story. :roll:
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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby Spica75 » Wed Jun 14, 2017 12:11 am

Makoto wrote:On the contrary. It's very inspiring. It inspired me not to read the story. :roll:


That also works.
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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Wed Jun 14, 2017 6:33 am

Now that I think of it - I started reading a story once, from a recommendation. I loved it, and recommended it to people. But when they read the summary, they went all "ish!" and refused to read it. So I wrote the author, and (he?) changed the summary to remove the ish. Paraphrasing Freud, sometimes a bad summary is just a bad summary.
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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby Dumbledork » Wed Jun 21, 2017 3:06 am

Oh boy. This one... I haven't read it, but I think it's quite obvious we have a Mary Sue, and possible a self insert. Wouldn't surprise me.

The Black-Rosier Will be a Potter  by Welshreaper reviews
I am a Black, Called a Dark Witch. I am a Veela So I will be every male's wet dream. Of course Being a Metamorph shows the truth. Being both means I have no choice but to do what I believe is right. Being betrothed to The-Boy-Who-Lives has mostly sealed my fate. Nevertheless I will Die to defend him. Bring it on Death Eaters!
Rated: M - English - Humor/Adventure - Chapters: 20 - Words: 35,545 - Reviews: 18 - Favs: 126 - Follows: 157 - Updated: 9h ago - Published: Mar 16, 2016 - [Harry P., OC] Daphne G., Tracey D.
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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby Pata Hikari » Wed Jun 21, 2017 3:08 am

That reminds me.

You add on some extra modifier to a character in the summary like Dark!Harry or Smart!Ranma.

Thanks for telling me you replaced the main characters with Mary Sues of your own creation with their names! I will not be looking any further at your awful story.
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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby AxelTheBunny » Wed Jun 21, 2017 12:40 pm

Agree there, it's one thing to develop characters through events in a story, but when you just scrub the personalities to what you think they "should" be it's not particularly appealing.
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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby Spica75 » Wed Jun 21, 2017 5:54 pm

Pata Hikari wrote:That reminds me.

You add on some extra modifier to a character in the summary like Dark!Harry or Smart!Ranma.

Thanks for telling me you replaced the main characters with Mary Sues of your own creation with their names! I will not be looking any further at your awful story.


Beware of that assumption. Lots of writers use tags like that to show where a story is going, no Mary Sue's present and start with perfectly canon characters.
And while "Smart!Ranma" usually DO mean an OC with the name, there's any number of ways to end up with "Dark!Harry" realistically. Yes, there ARE sadly plenty of just what you describe, but using tags like that is only becoming more and more popular, so there's plenty of good stories with them in the summary as well.
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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby Pata Hikari » Wed Jun 21, 2017 6:33 pm

Spica75 wrote:Beware of that assumption. Lots of writers use tags like that to show where a story is going, no Mary Sue's present and start with perfectly canon characters.
And while "Smart!Ranma" usually DO mean an OC with the name, there's any number of ways to end up with "Dark!Harry" realistically. Yes, there ARE sadly plenty of just what you describe, but using tags like that is only becoming more and more popular, so there's plenty of good stories with them in the summary as well.


It's literally like adding a character named "Mary Sue" into the story. Sure, you can say she's not actually a Mary Sue and just happens to share the name, but that doesn't mean I'm going to bother to look when I can read stories that don't make me wary already.

The point of a summary is to give a reader the basic idea of what happens in a story, if this summary is misleading in that fashion then that's the fault of the summary.
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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby Spica75 » Wed Jun 21, 2017 10:14 pm

Pata Hikari wrote:
It's literally like adding a character named "Mary Sue" into the story. Sure, you can say she's not actually a Mary Sue and just happens to share the name, but that doesn't mean I'm going to bother to look when I can read stories that don't make me wary already.

The point of a summary is to give a reader the basic idea of what happens in a story, if this summary is misleading in that fashion then that's the fault of the summary.


I think you don't understand how people use those tags. At all. Your above statement is outright ridiculous for at least a third of the stories i've read with those kind of tags. Just, does not compute.

Seriously, tags denote that a character's development will go more or less in a specific direction, something that already happens in EVERY SINGLE DAMN FANFIC ALREADY, because if it doesn't, it's not a fanfic anyway. *sheesh*
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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby Pata Hikari » Wed Jun 21, 2017 11:08 pm

Spica75 wrote:I think you don't understand how people use those tags. At all. Your above statement is outright ridiculous for at least a third of the stories i've read with those kind of tags. Just, does not compute.


So in other words if I see a story with those tags it only has 1 in 3 chances of being at least passable.

Yeah not going to bother it with those chances.

Make a good summary without an "OUT OF CHARACTER" sign instead if the story is actually good.
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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby Drawde » Fri Jun 23, 2017 4:26 am

Pata Hikari wrote:Make a good summary without an "OUT OF CHARACTER" sign instead if the story is actually good.

Most sites have limited space for their summaries (I've seen FFN ones stop mid-sentence). Tags are a way to let potential readers know whats in a story while keeping the actual summary part as big as possible. Especially since the summary itself usually doesn't tell you what characters will be like later in the story.
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Re: Fanfic summaries that don't inspire you to read the stor

Postby Pata Hikari » Sat Jun 24, 2017 3:53 pm

Drawde wrote:Most sites have limited space for their summaries (I've seen FFN ones stop mid-sentence). Tags are a way to let potential readers know whats in a story while keeping the actual summary part as big as possible. Especially since the summary itself usually doesn't tell you what characters will be like later in the story.

Maybe you shouldn't use tags that are spoilers to character development at best, and more likely giant Mary Sue Character In Name Only signs.
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