Forum: Author Hangout

While looking for stories, I will check the summary, if there is no summary,

I'm with you here. I struggle with my summaries (and know I come up short sometimes) but I won't give a second look to a story that has some no-effort bullshit summary.

'This is a romance.'

I don't care how many of your friends you got to vote 10 on your story, I would have to be bored out of my mind click that link.

In the age of 100k+ stories, that is not desirable. Unless you really write a story that takes the layout of a normal length dead-tree book and make it 100k+ words long and bloat up your story. Not really a good story.

I suspect that's the real problem. A new author decides to start a story, posting each chapter as they go. Soon, the story starts to drift, and the story no longer bears any resemblance to their initial blurb. That's why it's important to restrict your stories and have a distinct ending in sight before beginning. Regardless of how long you want a book to be, you need to guard against thread drift, meandering story lines and unnecessary distractions. The size of a story isn't that relevant anymore, but a story's central focus is always vital to the quality of a tale.

"He is going on an Adventure!"

That is nothing like I suggested. Who is he? What's at risk? What happens if he fails? That's the blurb.

It's not a story summary no matter how long the story is. My first novel has two sub-plots that come together at the end. But there are two separate stories going on until the end. My blurb doesn't even mention the second sub-plot or the hero and heroine in it. I try to draw the reader in with the first sub-plot. When they get to the second, it will (hopefully) be a pleasant bonus.

The purpose of the summary (or what's called "blurb" in publishing) is to get the potential reader to sample your story. It's not to summarize the story.

In the age of 100k+ stories, that is not desirable.

What is not desirable? Getting the readers attention or writing a blurb that isn't a summary of the story.

As Switch said, the Blurb's purpose is to gain the potential readers' interest. A summary of the story may do that, but the purpose of a blurb is to garner interest.

Blurbs used as story descriptions for SOL stories are limited in size. Saying things like "He is going on an adventure." and my favorite "Just read it." are extremely poor attention getters.

You said in an earlier post that if the summary is too long it should be put in the first chapter. The purpose of the blurb or summary, regardless of whether it is on a book jacket or in a story description is to get you to start reading the first chapter of the story. Putting the summary in the first chapter is a very poor place for an attention getter, since the reader isn't going to start reading the first chapter if you haven't grabbed their attention beforehand.

Which isn't to be confused with a summary (or what's called "summary" in publishing), which is the author's summary of the story.

That's the synopsis.

That's the synopsis.

Damn. Way to torpedo an attempt at humour :(

AJ