what not to say in summaries...

[ratcreature]

I generally don't do ff.net mocking, because I've actually read a fair amount of good fic there, and even more that I quite enjoyed despite some problems, but some things are just too amusing not to quote. Like, why would anyone finish their summary with "I'm no good at writing these things so just read it."? WTF? I guess "these things" are supposed to refer to summaries, and excuse why the summary wasn't that enticing (though honestly it wasn't all that bad either), but that's not the best advertising strategy. OTOH maybe it was some sneaky reverse psychology thing, because in the end I did read the story after all... Heh.

Comments

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

I've noticed a LOT of the exact same thing lately. (Don't look at me that way -- I hadn't ventured to the Pit for ages until I got so damn HUNGRY FOR SPN FICTION.) I really, really hate the "just read it" crap, and I hate even MORE when they say, "I suck at summaries." My response is usually: Yeah, you probably suck at writing fiction, too, so no thank you.

::sigh::

[ratcreature]

If that kind of thing worked as a reliable badfic indicator I wouldn't mind so much. I would be like chat speak in summaries, which as far as I can tell is always a sure sign that the story sucks. But strangely enough the story in question wasn't bad or anything. It wasn't great either, but, I mean, once I started reading it kept my interest, I finished it, it didn't have awful spelling or anything... And the story even had a decent one line summary, so why this self-depreciation tacked on at the end?

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't know, but these authors are NOT doing themselves or their stories any favors by this tactic. It always makes me think that the author is aware of some shortcoming, and doesn't care enough to remedy it with a beta or by more careful writing. And it's kind of sad, because that's enough to make me take a miss on this or that story, and who knows what I'm missing out on? As you say, this particular one was pretty good -- but I suspect I wouldn't even have looked at it to begin with, based on the summary. ::sigh::

[penknife.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this always boggles my mind. I mean, often I think I do suck at writing summaries -- it makes my head hurt trying to say something clever that will entice the reader into reading the story and give them some idea what the story is about without telling them the entire story up front. But "I suck at writing summaries, just read it" as a summary is not going to do anything but make readers run away.

[ratcreature]

Exactly.

And in this case it was even weirder in that this story actually had a decent summary before the author tacked that sentence on afterwards.