Write a Fanfiction Summary

A summary gives your readers a first impression of your fan fiction, so it's very important. If they see a horrible summary or no summary at all, they won't be interested enough to read more or review. This article will help you write good summaries. Do not say in the summary, "I suck at writing summaries," because most people will take you at face value and avoid your story.

Steps

  1. Even if you are just starting to write your story, it is not too early to think about your summary. Once your story is complete, read it again and try to determine your main theme. Any major pairings, battles or dilemmas should be included in the summary if possible.
  2. Type properly. If someone reads a summary with several misspellings or incorrect grammar, they will assume that the fan fiction is also typed in a similar way and not even bother to check out the story. Therefore you should keep it to proper English. Make sure you do not type in all caps.
  3. Add warnings if your fan fiction qualifies for a warning, such as with stories that feature abuse. That way your readers won't get any nasty surprises. It is much better to use ten characters in a brief warning than to get a flame the next day. If you cannot list a warning in the summary, you should list it in the first chapter. There is no excuse for posting triggering material without warning. Warnings include "AU" (meaning "alternate universe"), "Abuse", and things of that nature.
  4. Limit your summary to one paragraph at most. If you've ever turned a book over, it only has about half a page of a summary. Remember that the average book is usually much longer and deeper than the average fan fiction. Therefore, the summary for a fanfiction should be shorter than that of a book. An average is about 150 to 277 characters. Some websites, such as Fanfiction.net, will not let you go over that amount of characters.
  5. Give a preview if you have the space, such as a brief quote from your story. Often people will want to read it more if they actually see a bit of your writing! You may also have a quote that sums up the whole story well. If you do, use it, as such quotes can make great summaries.

Tips

  • Fanfictions should always have a summary, regardless of the story's length. Whether you've written a short story or a seventy chapter novel, it should always have at least a basic summary. Never leave it blank or insert something like "Can't think of anything to say...Please review." It does not encourage readers to spend their time reading it. Instead, just a few words will make people think it's worth their time to read it. Just for kicks, put one in.
  • Things you may like to warn about or things the reader may want to know include:
    • Yaoi/Shounen-ai/Slash Writing two male characters, usually not gay in the canon, as gay.
    • Yuri/Shoujo-ai/Femslash Writing two female characters, usually not lesbian in the canon, as lesbian.
    • AU (Alternate Universe) Used if the author takes the characters from the canon and puts them in a different society. This would also include changes to canon, for instance Harry Potter being sorted to a house outside of Gryffindor would be AU.
    • OOC (Out of character) Used if the author intentionally writes a character so that they don't act how they usually do.
    • OC/OFC/OMC/FC (Original character/Own female character/Own Male Character/Fan Character) Used if there's a character created by the author in the fanfic as one of the characters (usually a main).
    • Lemon Explicit sexual scenes. PWP for "Porn Without Plot" is also used if this is all the story is.
    • Lime Non-explicit sexual scenes.
    • Fluff Used if the story has no plot and is just a slice of life or the two characters simply being happy together.
    • Drabble Used for a very short fanfic of 100 words exactly.
    • Songfic Used if the story based off the lyrics or music of a song
    • Torture or rape Also known as Non-Con for Non-Consensual, and can include Dub-Con (Dubious Consent).
    • Crackfic Used for a humorous fanfic, usually written out of character or not sticking to the original plot. Used to make the reader laugh, not be taken seriously.
    • Abuse
    • Political or religious content
    • Character death This depends on the fanfic since character death is a very moving thing and warning about it can ruin the story. Sometimes a genre label and rating is enough to show that death may happen.
    • Racial slurs or foul language Only warn about this if it is more than average for the fandom. If the characters curse in canon, don't warn because they say it in your fic.
    • Oneshot This refers to a story that is longer than a drabble but will not be continued. Not really a warning, but good to note so you don't get told to update soon in your reviews.
    • Mpreg This is a warning for if the story contains Male Pregnancy.
    • Childbirth If your story contains childbirth with sensitive or graphic scenes, it is good to warn about it.
  • Pairings can be shown in a variety of ways.
    • An x between their names (such as Kagome x Inuyasha) is the most widely used for every type of pairing.
    • Sometimes their names are put together without spaces, but still capitalized (such as KagomeInuyasha)
    • Especially for pairings with people of the same gender, a slash between their names is used (Draco/Harry).
    • Some pairings have their own shortenings, which are their names being put together (such as SasuNaru). Look around websites such as Fanfiction.net to see if one already exists. If not, you could try making your own.
    • Using the character's initials instead of their full name can be used as a variation of any of these.
    • The character's names don't have to be mentioned at all in the pairings. m/f, for male and female pairings, f/f for two females in a pairing or m/m for two males in a pairing would work as well.
  • Use as many characters as you need and don't hesitate to use complete sentences. Just because everyone else is using chat speak, that doesn't mean you should. Good grammar and spelling make people believe that's also what's inside. To continue this, you might also want to make sure what's inside matches the summary - good spelling and grammar included.
  • Don't rush your summary. Take your time writing one, and you will be surprised at how many people check out your fan fiction. Remember, the first impression is critical.
  • The summary of a story is what the reader is going to base their judgement on. Now, of course you'd like to give a good impression of your story so by adding maybe a small section or quote from you story — with good grammar and no spelling mistakes — it will help the reader understand your story and give it a chance.
  • Whatever you do, be sure to make it interesting. Keep it alive and keep it cool. People want to read. They just can't find the good stuff if it's hidden behind a badly written summary.
  • Putting "Summary inside." does not constitute a summary. You can use a short summary with a longer one inside, but never, ever leave it blank.
  • Try to write your summary in an informative, yet subtle way.

Warnings

  • Avoid clichés in your summary. "Will X and Y get together?" is a silly thing to ask if your genre is Romance or if you named them as a pairing.
  • Don't play down your fan fiction because you're afraid people won't like it. Nobody cares that it's your first fan fiction, nobody cares that you don't want flames (who does?) and if you say it's not that good, they may just take you at your word and avoid all your work.
  • When people read summaries they are not looking for a condensed version of your story. Just because it says you have the ability to use 277 characters, it does not mean you should necessarily use all of them. Your summary should tempt people to read the whole story, not tell them all about it before they read it.
  • Do however mention any relevance to the fan fiction, e.g. character bashing and OCs. It does tend to be a deciding factor on whether people read it or not.
  • Don't reveal your ending in your summary. It ruins the story before the reader even begins reading it!
  • Try to avoid specifically naming your Original Characters. Many readers assume that when a writer takes the trouble to name their OC in a twenty-word summary, there's going to be less focus on the canons they are looking for, and more on the OC.

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