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So, for today, I am looking for advice on a fanfiction posting question. I've been posting stories for, oh, twenty years? So, I've mostly got it down, but, for all that, there is one thing I truly suck at.
The blurb.
At least, that's what I call it. It's the short summary you write to entice people to click and read your fic. Now, if this were a novel, you'd write a book jacket or a synopsis, something that might be a paragraph or two long that beautifully tempts your reader. When you google how to hook readers, there's lots of advice on how to write that. But in fanfic, the summary, or blurb, must be contained in around 350 characters.
That's a lot shorter. Also, there's no cover to go with it, so it's all about those very few words.
Some folks will throw up an excerpt from their story. (I tried this once. Didn't work for me.)
Some folks write an actual summary of the plot (and, wow, if you can fit that in 350 characters, you are awesome).
Then there are the people who just write "I suck at summaries. Please just read it." I feel their pain, I really do.
Some folks on A03 have no summary, and instead put their summary into the tags, which I do not get. Does that make sense to anyone? Aren't tags for searching purposes, not strangely unique statements like "Loki is the shizzle?"
So I'm looking for advice. If you're a fanfic writer, how do you write that short little blurb? What do you think it must contain, and what should it not contain? Or, if you're more a reader than a writer, what do you look for in a blurb? What will actually get you to hit the button?
The blurb.
At least, that's what I call it. It's the short summary you write to entice people to click and read your fic. Now, if this were a novel, you'd write a book jacket or a synopsis, something that might be a paragraph or two long that beautifully tempts your reader. When you google how to hook readers, there's lots of advice on how to write that. But in fanfic, the summary, or blurb, must be contained in around 350 characters.
That's a lot shorter. Also, there's no cover to go with it, so it's all about those very few words.
Some folks will throw up an excerpt from their story. (I tried this once. Didn't work for me.)
Some folks write an actual summary of the plot (and, wow, if you can fit that in 350 characters, you are awesome).
Then there are the people who just write "I suck at summaries. Please just read it." I feel their pain, I really do.
Some folks on A03 have no summary, and instead put their summary into the tags, which I do not get. Does that make sense to anyone? Aren't tags for searching purposes, not strangely unique statements like "Loki is the shizzle?"
So I'm looking for advice. If you're a fanfic writer, how do you write that short little blurb? What do you think it must contain, and what should it not contain? Or, if you're more a reader than a writer, what do you look for in a blurb? What will actually get you to hit the button?
