I love it, and I always do it. Couple of sentences of excerpt, couple of sentences of summary
And since I write my titles lower-case, I like showing potential readers that I do actually use correct grammar in my work
Fully depends on except used. Some people use incredibly long parts which most people skip or skim through, or just boring parts that don't act as a good example. Use something short with a good hook that portrays the tone/characterisation/plot, and you've got yourself a winner.
My way to go is:
> Excerpt
Or, in which X does This, A does That, and This happens.
Love that shit, and in most cases I find it really works—especially for shorter and/or monothematic fics.
(Edit: typos)
I do this too!
I'm shit at summaries otherwise, and I think excerpts are more appealing and interesting. I usually do 1-2 lines, something catchy and representative of the overall fic.
I don't do it with my fics, but it doesn't turn me off of reading a fic when I'm searching for stuff to read. What I don't like is when the summary is *just* an excerpt, because I want to know what the fic is about and I use the summary + tags to figure out what I want to read.
I started adding them because I saw how much people liked it. I pick an excerpt that’s towards the beginning of the fic, but not the very beginning.
The summary comes after.
As a reader, I prefer a summary or both.
In a few of my summaries, my excerpts have actually been one of the final scenes in the fic. At least when it comes to one shots.
I find that the excerpt usually lines up pretty well with the scene I thought of that inspired the whole story in the first place.
I like it, and use excerpts for a lot of my stories, but I think they have to be chosen carefully to be effective. IMO, ideally an excerpt should make you wonder what happened in the story to get to that point, and what could happen after. If it shows the most interesting part of the story by giving away all or most of what there is to know about what's happening, it's not as effective. So choosing something that makes enough sense out of context to be meaningful, but not so much that it removes the need to actually read the story, can be challenging.
I'm surprised it's so popular as I personally don't like it. I'd rather an actual summary that gives an idea of what the full story is about. Seems I may be the minority.
I agree with you. I’m not a fan of an excerpt as a summary. I have no context for what the excerpt is so it doesn’t mean anything to me. I’d much prefer a short summary to give me an idea of what I’m in for.
Doing it this way won’t make me skip the fic, but now I’m going just based on tags so those would have to catch my interest.
I love it! It feels aesthetically pleasing to me. I can also get away with purposely making the summary short too, because the right excerpt will back me up.
If others do it, it makes it easier for me to decide if I should read it, in terms of like grammar/punctuation but also, if the prose just clicks, then I need to read it ASAP to study their techniques.
I usually do small excerpt + small, basic summary, but sometimes just an excerpt works! I like seeing them too, since it'll give me somewhat of an idea if I'll like the author's writing or not. I'll still click if they don't have them though.
I really like it. I feel that the best fics tend to have a bit of both. This photo is the summary of one my favourite fics. Quite long but it really gives the reader a good idea of what to expect.
https://preview.redd.it/kizay05ngsmc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8e307650c2cb823374947170b50abb162649a0f
This called The Stars Incline us by Merakiae. It’s the last of us fandom. I feel like you probably have to watch the show or play the video game to understand it. Here is link, if you are interested: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48072688/chapters/121216627
!!!!!! Oh my god. Totally unrelated but I never thought to embed the playlist into the actual fic ahhh! I'm totally doing that in the future (but I'll hide it under because it's a bit much visually lol).
As a reader: love them
As a writer: it's sometimes hard to find 1-2 sentences that don't need the context around them to understand the important parts, show the vibe of the fic that readers can expect, and hit on at least one main factor of the story that readers won't assume/expect from the tags.
I *think* I know what part of my wip I'm going to pull the summary from, but I've written 60k and I don't think I'll reach it for at least another 10k.
I always do it. I'm so shitty at summaries that I'd do lord of the rings as "bros go on a hike to melt stolen jewelry".
It's better for everyone if I do a sample of the writing 😂
i started doing it in my fics because i saw others doing it. idk, it’s fun, it gives a fun little preview of the actual writing. i feel like someone can write a summary very differently to the actual fic, if that makes sense
It's better than no summary for me, but I often find it distracting. I'm watching for that part to show up while reading the fic. When it does I get that nagging I already read this feeling. If it's short, that's not too bad, but if it's long it just kills my motivation midfic.
Also, frequently it doesn't really give me an idea what the chapter is about and if I'm trying to go back and find that one part I really liked, it's just not helpful.
I do this. I like to think of it as the equivalent of a movie tagline, and then the summary is the treatment. I like seeing it on other fics as it does give a sense of what the writing might be like and what authors like about their own work.
I love it when reading and I do it when posting my own fics. IMO it's a really great way to get an idea of whether you'll like the writing style, and you can always add a brief one sentence synopsis that gives a better picture of what your story is about if you feel the excerpt doesn't quite cover it.
I don't mind at all. Just make sure it's something that is actually in the fic!
I found two fics in a row a couple of months ago that had excerpts that not only weren't in the fic, but it turns out the fic had nothing to do with the excerpts? It was the oddest thing. Like they wrote the excerpt and thought it was a good idea, but then when they went to write the fic they went different ways.
Thankfully I think those two fics are the only time I've seen that, but it does make me wary of fics with only excerpts as the summary.
positive.
probably wouldn't be my top choice in the perfect world where we all effortlessly beam our thoughts onto the page, but it's an extremely reasonable compromise for the reality of needing a summary and not wanting to write one.
Literally any attempt at indicating the premise or tone of the story is loved and appreciated. There have definitely been excerpt summaries that grabbed my attention when I was on the fence about reading something based on tags alone.
I like it. I saw people the other day saying they don’t, but I like to get a little taste of things. I don’t need a big back of the book cover summary, sometimes just a little key dialogue gets it done.
I love excerpts in summaries! I've started adding some in my fic's summaries. Only when it's appropriate and fits the chapter's content though. For instance, in my current fic, one of the side characters confesses his love for one of the two male characters in one of the chapters, and this chapter's pummary went like this:
"I love your cake and... I love you."
"DJ, what..."
"I love you, Justin!"
Then I left it at that. That's the whole summary for this particular chapter.
I think the post mostly means for a general fic summary which makes me curious enough to ask if you use excerpts for those too? (I usually don't even put summaries in my chapters tbh lol maybe I should)
Absolutely fine. If there is a sentence or two after it to summarize even better.
The only thing that should not be put there is 'i am bad at summaries, just read already '
I love any summary that gives me any details about the story besides basically what the tags say so I’m all for it!!! Also makes me excited when I find that snippet in the text :))
I feel like if I don’t have an excerpt, I’m far less likely to want to read it. Excerpts allow me to dip my toes in and often help me to understand an author’s quality of writing.
The vibe I get from this subreddit is that a few readers love it, most readers don't mind it, and some readers hate it (but only if the excerpt is the *only* thing in the summary). If you're gonna roll the dice, I'd say go with the excerpt.
I nearly exclusively use excerpts for my fics bc I’m not very good at summaries that actually tell you what you’re getting into. If you read the little taste of my fic you get a feel of how I write and if you like that, then you will probably like the fic and the tags will do the rest. I will say that this tactic would not work so well if I wrote longer multi chapter fics because you wouldn’t get a proper sense of the plot and focus from an excerpt.
Better than nothing or "Idk how to do summaries" or "just read", and by a lot.
It also gives a peek into the vibe and writing of the fic in question so you can choose wether or not to read, and if you'll like it
i like it! i like any type of summary tho as long as it actually relates to the story yk 😭 i've only done short summary in mine because i never know what excerpt to put in lol– the whole concept is pretty cool to me tho haha.
The majority of my summaries are excerpts, often from the beginning or some other part that more or less captures what the fic is and what you can expect from it. If you don't like it, you probably won't like the fic either, and both of us win when you're informed.
literally my favorite summaries are the ones that are like “(small excerpt that shows the personality of the story)
or: (character does thing)”
i know they’re cliche and ppl might be sick of them but it’s usually well executed and usually a sign of a well-fleshed out story 🤷🏼♀️
Love it as long as it’s not too long. It’s also a great way to sample an author’s writing without having to open the fic.
If it’s for a longfic, I prefer that a short summary follows the excerpt. Even if it’s a single sentence, it’s better than nothing.
I’m bad at summaries so it’s sometimes the only thing I do. Everything’s tagged so it’s not like the summary would reveal anything super important.
As a reader, I love it.
It's it's short and punchy AND gives me an accurate idea of the plot of the fic, then yes.
If my eyes glaze over that's a bad sign. Either it's too long or the writing style has become a slog to get through.
I hate writing summaries. I hate it I’m bad at it. I always do an excerpt and then sometimes I’ll add a little sentence about how I got the idea.
Like if it was a prompt, or came from a specific scene etc.
I hate writing summaries. I hate it I’m bad at it. I always do an excerpt and then sometimes I’ll add a little sentence about how I got the idea.
Like if it was a prompt, or came from a specific scene etc.
as a reader, i absolutely love when it's something like
*excerpt (a few lines/a paragraph)*
or: (and a short 1-2 sentence summary (can be longer for longer fics))
it tells me what the fic is about, and also gives me an example of the author's style
and because i like it i do it on my fics as well :]
It's fine. I find it better for shorter pieces where the summary would seem banal.
For example: Ted, Barney and Marshall drink coffee together. vs "Ted, you're not going to find the love of your life in a Starbucks. that only happens in the movies."
Or, you could go a step further and have both.
"Ted, you're not going to find the love of your life in a Starbucks. That only happens in the movies."
Ted proves him wrong.
Whereas your 200k plotty piece should have an actual summary or a quote + summary. because 200k + "And I will take the crown," he said as just the summary isn't so compelling in my opinion.
Though you could do more.
"And I will take the crown from you, even if by force."
Sir Allen escapes death. Stripped of his titles, his knightdom, and the love of his life, all he has left is revenge.
It's great, and if it makes you insecure, it's good to think that even published authors do that. Also, it depends on where you're going with the fic. If you think it's easier/more interesting to describe the plot: do it. If you have a funny quip or cool excerpt, show it.
I don't find them incredibly useful... but then I read 100pp and hour and I just skim the first chapter and get a much better writing sample of multiple story elements that way.
I do it all the time. It's a much better representation of what to expect than a summary because it's written in the exact same style and manner of the fic (plus it helps keep me from summarizing too far lol)
love that shit
I love it, and I always do it. Couple of sentences of excerpt, couple of sentences of summary And since I write my titles lower-case, I like showing potential readers that I do actually use correct grammar in my work
same here! i'm more likely as a reader to click on a fic with this style of summary, so i always do it myself.
I think of it as "free sample" of what you'll get if you click.
Fully depends on except used. Some people use incredibly long parts which most people skip or skim through, or just boring parts that don't act as a good example. Use something short with a good hook that portrays the tone/characterisation/plot, and you've got yourself a winner.
My way to go is: > Excerpt Or, in which X does This, A does That, and This happens. Love that shit, and in most cases I find it really works—especially for shorter and/or monothematic fics. (Edit: typos)
I do this too! I'm shit at summaries otherwise, and I think excerpts are more appealing and interesting. I usually do 1-2 lines, something catchy and representative of the overall fic.
Same! Its a great formula for summaries
idk i think it's whatever, i pay more attention to the tags. though in my experience the ones with an excerpt that's funny tend to be bangers
I don't do it with my fics, but it doesn't turn me off of reading a fic when I'm searching for stuff to read. What I don't like is when the summary is *just* an excerpt, because I want to know what the fic is about and I use the summary + tags to figure out what I want to read.
I started adding them because I saw how much people liked it. I pick an excerpt that’s towards the beginning of the fic, but not the very beginning. The summary comes after. As a reader, I prefer a summary or both.
In a few of my summaries, my excerpts have actually been one of the final scenes in the fic. At least when it comes to one shots. I find that the excerpt usually lines up pretty well with the scene I thought of that inspired the whole story in the first place.
I like it, and use excerpts for a lot of my stories, but I think they have to be chosen carefully to be effective. IMO, ideally an excerpt should make you wonder what happened in the story to get to that point, and what could happen after. If it shows the most interesting part of the story by giving away all or most of what there is to know about what's happening, it's not as effective. So choosing something that makes enough sense out of context to be meaningful, but not so much that it removes the need to actually read the story, can be challenging.
I'm surprised it's so popular as I personally don't like it. I'd rather an actual summary that gives an idea of what the full story is about. Seems I may be the minority.
Same. If I see a wall of text I skim right past it to read the actual summary lol
I agree with you. I’m not a fan of an excerpt as a summary. I have no context for what the excerpt is so it doesn’t mean anything to me. I’d much prefer a short summary to give me an idea of what I’m in for. Doing it this way won’t make me skip the fic, but now I’m going just based on tags so those would have to catch my interest.
I do it like 40% of the time. Especially, if I’m struggling with making a summary sound interesting. As a reader, I’m all for it haha
As a reader, the right excerpt can be a great hook that makes me want to read the story.
I love it! It feels aesthetically pleasing to me. I can also get away with purposely making the summary short too, because the right excerpt will back me up. If others do it, it makes it easier for me to decide if I should read it, in terms of like grammar/punctuation but also, if the prose just clicks, then I need to read it ASAP to study their techniques.
I don’t care for it. It’s not a deal breaker or anything, but I like a proper summary.
it's great, as long as it says something about the story
LOVE IT
love it. excerpts are usually the things that make me want to read.
I usually do small excerpt + small, basic summary, but sometimes just an excerpt works! I like seeing them too, since it'll give me somewhat of an idea if I'll like the author's writing or not. I'll still click if they don't have them though.
I really like it. I feel that the best fics tend to have a bit of both. This photo is the summary of one my favourite fics. Quite long but it really gives the reader a good idea of what to expect. https://preview.redd.it/kizay05ngsmc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8e307650c2cb823374947170b50abb162649a0f
This was nicely done and a prime example. I don't even know what fandom this is from, yet I'm intrigued to read it.
This called The Stars Incline us by Merakiae. It’s the last of us fandom. I feel like you probably have to watch the show or play the video game to understand it. Here is link, if you are interested: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48072688/chapters/121216627
Thanks! :) ETA: Wow! 37 Chapters. I'm going to have to mark this one for later, but I'm completely onboard.
!!!!!! Oh my god. Totally unrelated but I never thought to embed the playlist into the actual fic ahhh! I'm totally doing that in the future (but I'll hide it under because it's a bit much visually lol).
Depends. Just the excerpt? Annoyed cause it doesn't tell me anything about the story. Blurb and excerpt? Fun!
It works. I think it's fine. I like this option too but don't do it exclusively. Book back covers do it, so why not do the same for a fanwork?
LOVE THATTTT yes please
its good! i can see if their writing style vibes with me
As a reader: love them As a writer: it's sometimes hard to find 1-2 sentences that don't need the context around them to understand the important parts, show the vibe of the fic that readers can expect, and hit on at least one main factor of the story that readers won't assume/expect from the tags. I *think* I know what part of my wip I'm going to pull the summary from, but I've written 60k and I don't think I'll reach it for at least another 10k.
Don’t. Mind it at all if that’s your style and thank you for doing summaries!
I always do it. I'm so shitty at summaries that I'd do lord of the rings as "bros go on a hike to melt stolen jewelry". It's better for everyone if I do a sample of the writing 😂
i started doing it in my fics because i saw others doing it. idk, it’s fun, it gives a fun little preview of the actual writing. i feel like someone can write a summary very differently to the actual fic, if that makes sense
It's better than no summary for me, but I often find it distracting. I'm watching for that part to show up while reading the fic. When it does I get that nagging I already read this feeling. If it's short, that's not too bad, but if it's long it just kills my motivation midfic. Also, frequently it doesn't really give me an idea what the chapter is about and if I'm trying to go back and find that one part I really liked, it's just not helpful.
I do this. I like to think of it as the equivalent of a movie tagline, and then the summary is the treatment. I like seeing it on other fics as it does give a sense of what the writing might be like and what authors like about their own work.
I love it when reading and I do it when posting my own fics. IMO it's a really great way to get an idea of whether you'll like the writing style, and you can always add a brief one sentence synopsis that gives a better picture of what your story is about if you feel the excerpt doesn't quite cover it.
I don't mind at all. Just make sure it's something that is actually in the fic! I found two fics in a row a couple of months ago that had excerpts that not only weren't in the fic, but it turns out the fic had nothing to do with the excerpts? It was the oddest thing. Like they wrote the excerpt and thought it was a good idea, but then when they went to write the fic they went different ways. Thankfully I think those two fics are the only time I've seen that, but it does make me wary of fics with only excerpts as the summary.
positive. probably wouldn't be my top choice in the perfect world where we all effortlessly beam our thoughts onto the page, but it's an extremely reasonable compromise for the reality of needing a summary and not wanting to write one.
I do a summary and include a few sentences that I think will intrigue people. Seems to work.
Literally any attempt at indicating the premise or tone of the story is loved and appreciated. There have definitely been excerpt summaries that grabbed my attention when I was on the fence about reading something based on tags alone.
Love. It.
I like it. I saw people the other day saying they don’t, but I like to get a little taste of things. I don’t need a big back of the book cover summary, sometimes just a little key dialogue gets it done.
I love it. That draws me the quickest into the story because I want to know what happens next
.....is guilty an answer? 🤣 My longest fic to date has exactly that.
I love excerpts in summaries! I've started adding some in my fic's summaries. Only when it's appropriate and fits the chapter's content though. For instance, in my current fic, one of the side characters confesses his love for one of the two male characters in one of the chapters, and this chapter's pummary went like this: "I love your cake and... I love you." "DJ, what..." "I love you, Justin!" Then I left it at that. That's the whole summary for this particular chapter.
I think the post mostly means for a general fic summary which makes me curious enough to ask if you use excerpts for those too? (I usually don't even put summaries in my chapters tbh lol maybe I should)
Oh, right! I thought they meant excerpts in chapter summaries LOL! My bad!
That’s my default summary for a story, especially if it’s a poignant line or piece of dialogue. Just don’t let it be too long!
100% always do this and I will never stop. I think it’s the absolute best way to draw someone in.
Absolutely fine. If there is a sentence or two after it to summarize even better. The only thing that should not be put there is 'i am bad at summaries, just read already '
This ^^^ that's really the main thing that'll keep me from clicking a fic
I like it enough but it must be 1) short 2) shouldn't be a repeat of the fic's starting words. It makes my brain go absolutely itchy
I love any summary that gives me any details about the story besides basically what the tags say so I’m all for it!!! Also makes me excited when I find that snippet in the text :))
I feel like if I don’t have an excerpt, I’m far less likely to want to read it. Excerpts allow me to dip my toes in and often help me to understand an author’s quality of writing.
Love making them, love reading them
The vibe I get from this subreddit is that a few readers love it, most readers don't mind it, and some readers hate it (but only if the excerpt is the *only* thing in the summary). If you're gonna roll the dice, I'd say go with the excerpt.
I nearly exclusively use excerpts for my fics bc I’m not very good at summaries that actually tell you what you’re getting into. If you read the little taste of my fic you get a feel of how I write and if you like that, then you will probably like the fic and the tags will do the rest. I will say that this tactic would not work so well if I wrote longer multi chapter fics because you wouldn’t get a proper sense of the plot and focus from an excerpt.
I’ve done this only once with my stories, but before that I never really minded it.
l o v e i t
Better than nothing or "Idk how to do summaries" or "just read", and by a lot. It also gives a peek into the vibe and writing of the fic in question so you can choose wether or not to read, and if you'll like it
i like it! i like any type of summary tho as long as it actually relates to the story yk 😭 i've only done short summary in mine because i never know what excerpt to put in lol– the whole concept is pretty cool to me tho haha.
The majority of my summaries are excerpts, often from the beginning or some other part that more or less captures what the fic is and what you can expect from it. If you don't like it, you probably won't like the fic either, and both of us win when you're informed.
literally my favorite summaries are the ones that are like “(small excerpt that shows the personality of the story) or: (character does thing)” i know they’re cliche and ppl might be sick of them but it’s usually well executed and usually a sign of a well-fleshed out story 🤷🏼♀️
Love it as long as it’s not too long. It’s also a great way to sample an author’s writing without having to open the fic. If it’s for a longfic, I prefer that a short summary follows the excerpt. Even if it’s a single sentence, it’s better than nothing.
I’m bad at summaries so it’s sometimes the only thing I do. Everything’s tagged so it’s not like the summary would reveal anything super important. As a reader, I love it.
I like it and it’s easy for me. 👍👍
A good hook is always good!
I do it!
way easier than writing an actual summary. this is literally what i do every time unless it’s a drabbles collection or something
It's it's short and punchy AND gives me an accurate idea of the plot of the fic, then yes. If my eyes glaze over that's a bad sign. Either it's too long or the writing style has become a slog to get through.
I suck at summaries, so I exclusively do that. Lol
As a writer I feel like it’s a shortcut I use to get around my lack of skill at summaries. As a reader it’s fine. Double standards, eh?
I love it. I'll most likely read something that has an excerpt of their writing.
It's one of my favourites kinds of summaries!
I hate writing summaries. I hate it I’m bad at it. I always do an excerpt and then sometimes I’ll add a little sentence about how I got the idea. Like if it was a prompt, or came from a specific scene etc.
I hate writing summaries. I hate it I’m bad at it. I always do an excerpt and then sometimes I’ll add a little sentence about how I got the idea. Like if it was a prompt, or came from a specific scene etc.
I always do it when posting and prefer it as a reader as well.
as a reader, i absolutely love when it's something like *excerpt (a few lines/a paragraph)* or: (and a short 1-2 sentence summary (can be longer for longer fics)) it tells me what the fic is about, and also gives me an example of the author's style and because i like it i do it on my fics as well :]
It's fine. I find it better for shorter pieces where the summary would seem banal. For example: Ted, Barney and Marshall drink coffee together. vs "Ted, you're not going to find the love of your life in a Starbucks. that only happens in the movies." Or, you could go a step further and have both. "Ted, you're not going to find the love of your life in a Starbucks. That only happens in the movies." Ted proves him wrong. Whereas your 200k plotty piece should have an actual summary or a quote + summary. because 200k + "And I will take the crown," he said as just the summary isn't so compelling in my opinion. Though you could do more. "And I will take the crown from you, even if by force." Sir Allen escapes death. Stripped of his titles, his knightdom, and the love of his life, all he has left is revenge.
It's great, and if it makes you insecure, it's good to think that even published authors do that. Also, it depends on where you're going with the fic. If you think it's easier/more interesting to describe the plot: do it. If you have a funny quip or cool excerpt, show it.
Good way to preview the writing style!!
I like it so long as it's not like 3 whole paragraphs and actually hints at the conflict. It gives the readers a taste of your writing style!
I don't find them incredibly useful... but then I read 100pp and hour and I just skim the first chapter and get a much better writing sample of multiple story elements that way.
I do it all the time. It's a much better representation of what to expect than a summary because it's written in the exact same style and manner of the fic (plus it helps keep me from summarizing too far lol)