I have the opposite problem. The task of picking a quote to put on the summary section fills me with indescribable horror. Suddenly, nothing I wrote feels impactful enough to stand on its own or catch people's attention, or if it does, it's something I adamantly refuse to let people read without context. On the other hand, summarizing comes easily to me, though I've been told multiple times that I tend to make things sound better than they are with my pitches, which is rather unfortunate. I guess that, as OP said, summarizing is an acquired skill, and when you built it up too much or faster than your other skills, you condemn your work to always fall short.
Lot of posts circulating about AO3 summaries, both of the “begging people to please write them” variety and the “helpful summary tips” variety, but I haven’t seen a lot that bring up the positive meta-implications of summaries.
See, summarizing something effectively is a specific writing skill, one that has to be practiced and honed intentionally. It’s hard to pick up really good summarizing skills passively the way one might pick up say, dialogue flow. And that means that a fic with a good summary indicates a writer with at least some intention behind their craft. Off the top of my head, a good summary usually indicates that the fic will also have solid editing, proofreading, pacing, and structure, which is why the mere existence of a decent summary is as much of a draw as the contents of that summary.
Consider: TGCF... but metal.
Written by: Yabanned. Art by: Tiiracotta. Beta-read by: Leonidskies.
Read Withering Lotus (part 1 of 3) on AO3.
Summary:
Xie Lian is a talented multi-instrumentalist who had a meteoric rise as a metal star when his band, White Lotus, released their first EP and got the attention of the prestigious label Immortal Records. When he became the youngest artist to sign with them at the age of 17, he felt that he had the world in the palm of his hand. Three years later, though, a song he wrote tore everything down: he lost his contract, his career, his friends and his family. Vetoed and blacklisted, he was forced to live on the move, as far away from the offices of his old record label as possible, picking little odd jobs related to music in order to survive.
After eight years, a bureaucratic nightmare forces Xie Lian to come back to the capital. He tries his best to go unnoticed, yet he receives two unsettling requests upon arrival: a man in red wants his permission to cover a song he wrote, and a man in white wants him to inherit his mask.
Part of the TGCF Minibang 2022.
ABCDMXTX - Day 7: Guoshi.
Guoshi Fang Xin's mask and sword. I almost always stick to the default brushes, but I wanted to experiment with textures this time, and here's the result.
List of prompts.
ABCDMXTX - Day 10: Jiang Yanli.
Yes, you're going into the lotus root and pork rib soup.
List of prompts.
So I thought this was commonly known internet navigation (but apparently it might just be those of us who have been using the internet since the 90’s who still know it). Or so it seems based on… a grumpy comment I got.
When you see an arrow like this:
It means you click it to expand out a hidden section.
It’s an accordion section/menu! It’s useful in web design to hide information that may be overwhelming under specific headers so people can only see what they need.
Here I’m using it for people who need the content warnings to be able to check, but for those who don’t need them and don’t want to be spoiled to just move right past without accidentally reading anything.
It’s still the user’s responsibility to click the arrow and read things as they need! But it is all warned. (And, yes, the all encompassing issues are already a tag on the fic, I’m just providing additonal warnings per chapter.)
Bonding time with Ruoye.
ABCDMXTX - Day 16: Pei Ming.
This one is based on the fic No Paths Are Bound by Evie.
List of prompts.
This links to a wheel with nearly a hundred fic tropes for plots, settings, and more. Spin it twice.
This could also work with art inspiration, but the buttons only allow for so many characters on them. And please do ramble in the tags! I'm going to have no idea what most of you are talking about, and it's going to be great.
Tagged by @e-n-t-r-o-p-i-c-f-r-o-g weeee
The last line I wrote:
The sight is so that Xie Lian concludes he’s still dreaming. The proportions of this person are mythological. How tall can he be?
If you're reading this and want to join, feel free!
30+ | They/them - Ace | 🇩🇪 🇨🇴 — Fancreator: creative writing and translation EN-ES, cosplay, clothing and doll making, digital painting, photography and video edition
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