I am utterly, utterly hopeless at writing summaries. I usually just throw up my hands and pick a line or two from early on in the story that I think sums it up well.
My favorite summary I've written recently, one that breaks that mold, is for "Tôi Kratistôi":
It is said that when Alexander the Great was on his deathbed, his advisers and companions gathered around him and asked, to whom shall your ring of rule be passed? He answered, tôi kratistôi -- "to the strongest". (If you try to call Tseng Hephaestion, though, he'll probably shoot you in the face.)
The problem was that I was using a reference in the title that most people wouldn't get -- I could have titled it "To The Strongest", but that wasn't quite the feel I was going for. (I have trouble with titles, too. That one took me longer to title it than it did to do the final edits.) I knew it was a really obscure reference, and I first tried putting the explanation in some kind of "author's notes", but that felt really pretentious, like I was shouting "look how clever I am!" Eventually I decided it read better in the summary, because then it wasn't "look at my cleverness!", it was more in the way of being descriptive.
Most of my worst summaries are just boring, not laughably bad -- cases where the summary just doesn't give a feel for the story.
I generally don't look at summaries very much when I'm skimming for stuff to read. If it's from an author I know I like, or if I come across it and it's for a fandom I'm reading right now (I pick up and drop reading fandoms at the drop of a hat, really) I'll generally give it a go. The only time I'll bypass a story from the summary is if the summary is badly misspelled/has grammatical errors (and doesn't make it clear it's a trope I love, for which I am often willing to overlook things like mechanics), or if the summary makes it clear it's a trope I hate. But generally I only read by rec/linkage, or from curated recs lists/bookmarking accounts, instead of indiscriminately. Unless I'm in the First Flush of New Reading Fandom, in which case I read everything. Or at least start reading everything. (My backbutton and I are good friends.)
no subject
My favorite summary I've written recently, one that breaks that mold, is for "Tôi Kratistôi":
The problem was that I was using a reference in the title that most people wouldn't get -- I could have titled it "To The Strongest", but that wasn't quite the feel I was going for. (I have trouble with titles, too. That one took me longer to title it than it did to do the final edits.) I knew it was a really obscure reference, and I first tried putting the explanation in some kind of "author's notes", but that felt really pretentious, like I was shouting "look how clever I am!" Eventually I decided it read better in the summary, because then it wasn't "look at my cleverness!", it was more in the way of being descriptive.
Most of my worst summaries are just boring, not laughably bad -- cases where the summary just doesn't give a feel for the story.
I generally don't look at summaries very much when I'm skimming for stuff to read. If it's from an author I know I like, or if I come across it and it's for a fandom I'm reading right now (I pick up and drop reading fandoms at the drop of a hat, really) I'll generally give it a go. The only time I'll bypass a story from the summary is if the summary is badly misspelled/has grammatical errors (and doesn't make it clear it's a trope I love, for which I am often willing to overlook things like mechanics), or if the summary makes it clear it's a trope I hate. But generally I only read by rec/linkage, or from curated recs lists/bookmarking accounts, instead of indiscriminately. Unless I'm in the First Flush of New Reading Fandom, in which case I read everything. Or at least start reading everything. (My backbutton and I are good friends.)