#fic summary

mitch smirks and asks pat to repeat what he said, slower this time, while pat's face burns to a fucking crisp. he stammers and fails to speak, and mitch says some shit like, "use your words, darling."

when pat has finally asked him properly, mitch is still gently teasing him and pat thinks he's going to say no. he's panicking when someone else (maybe one of the most sought after girls in the school) happens to be there as well and asks mitch out, ignoring pat, but he just bluntly says, "no thanks, i got a date,” and gestures to pat.

the build up to the prom has pat’s blood pressure rising. pat asks him a couple weeks before, and now is being teased by mitch every second of every day. picks him up from school, calls him babe and darling and sweetheart very loudly, absolutely catcalls him

pat blushes as he hisses at him to stop, because his sisters will hear. mitch just winks and blows him a kiss (of course, his sisters have seen already, he's going to get bullied some more at home)

"why are you so mean to me?"

"because i like you, darling. and don't look at me and say you don't like it. how can i not be mean when you look so precious when i do it?” mitch says this while poking his pink cheeks

they don't kiss yet, though. mitch will corner him everywhere and get him absolutely weak in the knees, then just grin, smack a kiss on his cheek and leave him like that in agony. their first kiss is at prom, mitch just likes torturing pat. maybe mitch kisses his cheek when they take pictures as they arrive

their first proper kiss is on the dance floor. mitch getting handsy and pat getting redder while he tries to push him away, but mitch just catches his wrists and yanks him closer on the dance floor

it's pat who actually kisses mitch first, just a small lil smooch without warning, shocking him completely before he asks, "you're sure?"

when pat shyly says yes, mitch absolutely devours him right in the middle of the dance floor. music blares as pat clings to him desperately, and mitch is just murdering him with a kiss.

pat was not expecting mitch to be a romantic and gets surprised when mitch sweeps him up in his arms during a slow song and smiles at him so sweetly that his knees buckle. they're so close that pat can count mitch's eyelashes, their smiles keep touching, and they're just giggling softly at each other, arms around waists and arms over shoulders

there's always a sort of expectation that prom dates will put out after the party and all, so pat is anxious at the prospect of having sex with mitch.

maybe pat’s friends are teasing him, saying things like “ooh, get some!” or “someone’s getting lucky tonight!”

at first mitch thinks pat doesn't have a problem with it, and he laughs along with them but stops when he sees pat’s nervous face

mitch is such a gentleman all night that pat can't even deny he's so attracted to him

it's possible someone spikes the punch, because high school kids are notorious for doing shit like that, and pat ends up a little tipsy

it would be a cute little scenario for mitch to take pat home and coax him into his bed. pat is mumbling about how he's sorry mitch had to deal with that and mitch shushes him gently as he takes his shoes off and pulls the blanket over him. he leaves with a kiss to his forehead

mitch thought nobody was home at pat's house but as soon as he turns to leave after getting pat settled, he bumps into Older Protective Sister

"i. thought. no one was. home?"

"why were you hoping no one would be home? so you could defile my baby brother?!"

"no no no no, that's not -- i didn't -- he's sleeping! not -- not with me! i just put him to sleep! wait, no, not because we -- he was drunk -- I didn't give him any alcohol -- he got drunk and i took him home -- please i didn't do anything!”

mitch is in hysterics before she admits she's just pulling his leg

mitch wouldn't normally be the type but pat once mentioned he likes cute and romantic gestures, and never had anything like that before. so mitch leaves a note with a quote on it or something pat would like

a fun touch of angst: pat doesn't hear from mitch after the prom and thinks maybe mitch only agreed to be his date until the dance, maybe it was just a transactional thing or he was just amusing himself. but turns out mitch was waiting for pat to call. pat was terrified at first that mitch was just taking it as a game and having fun with him, and mitch is terrified of vulnerability until he can trust pat enough

we had other hcs outside of the prom storyline:

mitch is just taller than him, so pat has to look up at him when they talk, and he gets bowled over by his clear blue eyes every time.

he can't say no to pat for anything. pat just has to break out the puppy dog eyes and mitch breaks down

"how does anyone in this family get anything done when he's looking at you like that?!”

"we're not smitten fools like you, starc.”

just imagine pat gazing up at him and inching closer, saying, "please, love?" while mitch sweats and tries to get away, and oh look, when did he come up against this table, now he's trapped.

this is how pat gets back at him for all the embarrassing teasing before the prom

pat gets away with everything. it pisses mitch off that pat walks around making people believe he's an angel, and people are pulling him aside to threaten him

"if you hurt that boy—"

“no but what about how he hurts me!!"

mitch tells pat, “they don't know what the fuck you get up to when we're alone, you little shit," and pat just gives him a sweet smile

pat is generally seen as off limits because mitch has scared everyone off. mitch was always popular and pat was a leetle bit of a loser but he's climbing the ranks now that people see him with mitch

after pat tortures him for smiling at another boy for 2.7 seconds, mitch now has to scare people off from himself

"i'm not worth it, man, go find someone else or we're both fucked”

they both rope josh into their shenanigans. pat wants to get fucked so he clings to josh in mitch's line of sight, and mitch wants to get tortured so he is unnecessarily touchy with josh, too. josh is just regretting his life decisions in the middle

we had an idea about pat standing up for mitch or stepping out of his comfort zone for him and shocking mitch

mitch has a reputation and there are always people commenting on him when they're out together, and pat defends him. mitch doesn't care about the comments, he's used to them. but pat is frothing at the mouth

mitch always has an eyeroll or a "yeah, yeah, so clever" or a snarky comment ready to go when someone's taking a shot at him

pat, on the other hand, just whirls around like, "what did you say?!”

mitch grabs pats arm and mutters, "whoa, stand down, tiger" in his ear

imagine they both have a long day and when they're finally together, mitch drops into a chair and pat crawls into his lap. they curl up like that for hours, like their arms fully around the other and holding each other close, with pat's face in the crook of mitch's neck while he sighs into pat's hair

and some nsfw hcs:

mitch pressing pat against a wall before they become official, during the weeks before prom, and smirking at him like that while pat's life flashes before his eyes

since mitch is the "horniest most depraved kinda guy who's actually a gentleman and sweetheart", pat probably initiates any kind of sex

(no but the image of babyface pat riding mitch for the first time? i’m dead)

mitch kinda gets turned on by pat spitting insults at assholes who comment on him. he pulls a still cursing pat to the nearest washroom and proceeds to drop to his knees to suck him off.

pat who is still ranting as mitch unhooks his belt and just stutters to a stop as he gets started. he doesn't even realize where they are or what mitch is trying to do because hes so caught up in the comment

he's rudely pulled back to reality as mitch looks up at him and he thinks he's actually ascended to heaven

mitch discovers he has a liking for pat mouthing off and pat absolutely exploits it

1. Start With a Hook

Just like with the first sentence of a story, the first sentence of your summary should immediately spark the reader’s interest.

A bold statement! A good (short) quote from your fic! A shocking discovery! A cool word definition/the definition of your title!

I always like to put the hook of the story on its own line/paragraph, just to emphasize it.

Examples of a hook (Note, these are rushed and off the top of my head. Just meant to give a general idea, not be literary masterpieces): - "It all started when Character A puked on their Uber driver." - "War was inevitable." - "Character A would be dead by sunrise. That’s what Character B vowed." - "By the time they got to the city, it was too late."

Your hook is probably the most important part of your summary; someone will know within milliseconds whether or not they will continue reading.

Once you’re past that initial hump, it’ll be easier to convince a potential reader to skim the rest of the summary. Giving something that jumps out at them will set your story apart from others and ensure it gets that click you deserve!

2. Give Some Context

For shorter one-shots, sometimes a single hook is enough! But if your fic is longer, with a bit more moving parts, you might want to choose a few highlights. Get the essence of your story on paper.

This can be super hard, so don’t feel discouraged if you feel like you’re not getting it. I’d suggest keeping your context to about 1-3 sentences depending on the length of your story, so make sure they count.

Buzzwords are a key factor in getting the main points across. Use ones that relate to your main plot to your advantage! 

For example, if I were to make a short summary of Game of Thrones for someone who has never watched it before, I would definitely include some of these buzzwords: - Dragons - Conquest - Succession - Revenge - Slaughter - Betrayal

Using powerful words (i.e. slaughtered instead of killed) can help draw in your audience!

I can't dictate exactly how you should write your context, since every fic is different and shouldn't be brought under an umbrella of the same rules, so it might help to find inspiration from other people’s summaries.

3. Pose a Question the Reader Will Want the Answer To

The biggest point of a summary is the “so what?” factor. You have all of these tags, but how does the fic make use of them?

A summary shouldn’t be giving all of the answers, but it should still leave crumbs for the reader’s imagination! This doesn’t mean that you literally need to put a question in the summary, but rather pose an unresolved scenario/problem that the reader will want to click to know the solution to.

Here are some example sentence templates that pose an indirect question, often put at the end of a summary to spark interest (Note, these are rushed and off the top of my head. Just meant to give a general idea, not be literary masterpieces): - "Everything changes the moment Character A makes a choice they can't take back." (What is that choice? How does it affect the other characters?) - "As the truth comes to light, nothing will ever be the same." (What is the truth? How does it change things?) - "A dangerous game begins, and only one can emerge unscathed." (Who will be that person?) - “It’s the first time they meet, but it won’t be the last” (What will be these next instances? How do their worlds collide?)

4. Some General Advice

If you don't think the above format works well with your fic, here's just some general advice that can help you out!

DON'T MAKE IT TOO LONG

The biggest mistake I see writers making when posting their work is having a giant four-paragraph summary for their story that takes up half of the feed.

Unfortunately, in an age of fast swiping and instant gratification, a reader may skip over a super long summary simply because they don’t feel like reading all of it.

(The reason why long summaries work for books is because people are more patient when they intend on paying to read something; they’ll take more time considering investments than they would with a free read, since they want to make sure it's worth their money. It’s not fair, but that’s kind of how it goes.)

In my opinion, a fic summary should be no more than one short paragraph, two or three sentences max for a one-shot and maybe five sentences for a long fic.

This isn't exact. It really depends on the length and complexity of the sentence, because no matter the how many you use, if there are enough words to make folks comprehend it as a big block of text, then they’re going to be more likely to skip it.

People looking for long fics will be more patient (since they’re making an investment with their time, rather than money) but if you want to appeal to a wider audience that may be casually browsing and stumble across your fic, definitely consider a more brief route.

PROOFREADING MATTERS!

Because summaries are often an afterthought, many writers don’t put as much effort into it as they would the rest of their story.

I wouldn’t recommend this; people are basing their ENTIRE initial opinion of your fic on this small blurb.

If you rush it and make spelling or grammar errors, people will assume that the rest of your fic is also riddled with errors and scroll past!

Make sure to proofread!