#rookfic

"Gavin," interrupts Wright. "I'll stop you there, okay? Look, have a drink."

The rest of Klavier's words wheeze out of him in a winded sigh. He opens and shuts his mouth. "I am not one for grape juice, Herr Wright."

"I've also got water," says Wright.

Two minutes later, Klavier is gingerly seated on the edge of the couch with a glass of room temperature tap water. On the back of the couch is draped Herr Justice's suit jacket and from somewhere deep in the cushions, the smell of pasta emanates. Making himself comfortable is a pipe dream.

"It's nice of you to swing by," says Wright.

"I... I should have done so sooner."

Wright shrugs. "Good thing you didn't, really," he says. "I wouldn't have made such a great host before now."

The pasta smell somehow intensifies. Wright's lip is twitching when Klavier glances warily back at him.

"Besides," Wright goes on, "why would you? For all you knew, I was rightfully disbarred for trying to beat you with forged evidence."

Klavier leans forward. "Herr Wright, I owe you an apology."

"Okay," says Wright. He leans back, settling without issue, and waits.

Refusing to be wrong-footed, Klavier persists: "It was remiss of me not to interrogate my brother's knowledge. He told me something he had no justifiable reason to know. As the attorney previously responsible for the matter, why should he know of any evidence he hadn't himself intended to use? The case was transferred to you at the last minute; when would you have had the opportunity to prepare such an exceptional fake? I did not interrogate it, Herr Wright. I did not do my due diligence. I allowed my trust in my brother to override my responsibility to our profession. As a result, I did you great harm. I apologise."

Wright nods.

"Cool," he says. "Thanks."

"Er," says Klavier. "You're... welcome. Do you... Am I..."

"Good speech," Wright assures him. "You covered it all off, I think. Conduct rules, check, paramount duty to the court, check, young and naïve, check, all reasons and no excuses. And you look so damn sincere. I'd be an ass not to accept an apology like that. Sit back, would you? Apollo got his suit from Target. You can wrinkle it."

Klavier shifts back a millimetre.

"Should I take that as... Erm, do you forgive me?" he asks.

"Yeah, sure," Wright says easily. "Hey, can I ask you something else?"

"Of course, go ahead."

And now Wright leans forward, and Klavier sees the Turnabout Terror.

"Just wondering," he says, elbows on his knees. "What do you think you should've done instead?"

Klavier flounders. "I... Did I not mention the due--"

"Due diligence, yeah," Wright says, waving a hand. "Interrogating the brother who raised you, hey-wait-a-minute-this-doesn't-add-up, etc, no way a guy like me could pay a forger like that, your Honour there's a contradiction. Got it. We get to court, I pull out the page. What do you think you should've done rather than call me out?"

Is this some kind of cryptic pop quiz? Klavier struggles for a moment and eventually says, "Herr Wright, I am sorry, I do not know what point you are making."

"Uh-huh," says Wright. "So you erred in not doing your due diligence. As a result, you got me busted for presenting evidence I didn't forge, and now you're all riddled with guilt. Aren't you missing a step, kid?"

"Herr Wright, I--"

"Don't overthink it," Wright instructs, not unkindly. "The lawyer across from you presents evidence you know is forged. What are you supposed to do?"

Klavier blinks.

Wright sighs.

"Prosecutor Gavin," he says. "I spent the first three years of my career presenting any random evidence I found off the floor."

"Herr Wright, I believe this is still in your teachings," Klavier points out before he can stop himself.

Wright cracks a smile but doesn't stop talking. "Reasons, not excuses," he says. "You were seventeen. Kris is your brother. Hey, it's fucked that you were a lawyer at seventeen. I know that's not the issue but I have to point that out."

"In Europe--"

"Yeah, yeah." Wright sighs. "You didn't know me, you did know him. You weren't expecting me. So the man you know best in the world gives you a tip-off that turns out to be correct. Come on, kid, work with me here. Two lawyers in a courtroom, one presents dodgy evidence. Who didn't do their due diligence?"

"But you were not responsible for the forgery!"

Wright shrugs. "I'm not saying it was all my fault," he says. "Your brother wasn't that good a lay. I'm not gonna take the fall for his shit anymore, I did that long enough." He smirks at Klavier's expression. "Jesus, your salon ever tell you to take it easy on the fake tan? You've gone all pale, but orange on white isn't a great colour combo on you."

"Please do not," says Klavier, "say that?"

"These courts were fucked long before either of us got here," says Wright. "There's precedent for dodgy evidence. There's even precedent for presenting it without knowing. It's not like I was the first to do it. Neither was Kris. Yeah, I shouldn't have been disbarred--that was for forging, which I didn't do. But I fucked up. I got cocky. Moved without thinking. And none of that matters to you, Gavin."

"Of course it matters," Klavier says hotly. "You are a good man. I ruined your career."

"That's a lot of credit you're giving yourself," Wright says lightly. "I meant, it doesn't matter, does it, what I meant to do? I presented something that had no place in a courtroom. Should you have let me win on fake evidence? You didn't answer, Gavin. You're so sorry for what you did--so what should you have done instead? Let me present that page? Let me win off the back of it?"

"I... I should have looked into it more! I should not have advocated for your destruction!"

"Why not?" Wright asks. "You didn't know me. Why should you believe in me? What reason did you have to believe I wasn't what Kris said I was?"

Klavier slumps slightly. Apollo's Target jacket creases against his back.

Wright sits back in his own chair.

"Sorry," he says. "I'm sorry. I should have reached out to you first. I let seven years of guilt build up and crash into you in one go, and you were already having such a bad fucking day."

Klavier finds his tongue. "You're sorry?"

Wright's smile is wry. "I'm the veteran," he says. "You're a kid."

"Herr Wright, I am twenty-five."

"You're a good prosecutor," Wright says. "Good man. You jumped the gun, but you did the right thing. Maybe I didn't deserve what I got, but of the two of us, I had a choice to not do what I did. You didn't."

"You cannot even find it in your heart to resent me?"

"Oh, I fucking resented you," Wright laughs. "Didn't I say it's good you didn't come before now? Come on, Gavin. I'm not that good a person."

He stands and holds his hand out. Uncertain, Klavier takes it.

Wright starts laughing again.

"Your glass," he says. "The tap water here tastes like shit. I gave it to you as a wind-up. You want to go get an actual drink? I think I owe you one."

"Oh. Ja, if you... ja, okay." Thoroughly embarrassed, Klavier lets go of Wright's hand and gives him the glass of water. Wright sets it down on a random nearby surface, dangerously close to the edge.

"My shout," he says. "Just don't order anything top shelf. And once I get my badge back, you're buying."

1: can you describe your premise in maximum three lines?

fewer is better. im not saying your summary has to BE fewer than three lines, you just need to be able to describe the premise as concisely as possible. not the whole fic. not everything that happens. just your premise.

being able to condense your ideas this way will improve your understanding of the work and make it easier to summarise.

sometimes it's a bit hard to isolate what exactly your premise is, especially if you were just writing into the void. so here are some questions you can ask yourself to figure it out:

what was the idea that spurred you to write the fic?

what is the climactic action in the fic?

if the fic is an au, canon divergence, what if, etc - what is the point of difference between this and canon?

if the fic is based around a trope, a genre, a particular device - how did you apply it, what makes the work familiar, and what makes it different?

this is important, because:

2: brevity is the soul of wit

now that you know your premise, it's time to jazz it up. turn it into a one-liner or similarly catchy pitch. give it a makeover.

it doesn't have to be literally one line. however, do not make your summary super long. do not make either your summary or your tags a massive block of text. the reader is scrolling. they have not yet decided to invest time in your fic.

the ideal summary is stylish and concise. your reader should be able to take it in without pausing for too long. it gives them a good impression of you: you know how to be economical with your sentences, which means your writing is probably easy and enjoyable to read.

and on that note:

3: including an excerpt is always an option

an optional option. but if you're stuck, it's a free card to play.

readers want to know that your writing style matches what they like to read. showing off your style can help you stand out to an interested reader.

try and find a few lines which are representative of the premise, representative of your style, and sufficiently intriguing. an excerpt is a try before you buy. you just wrote a whole fic. you want people to read the whole fic and enjoy your work. so show them what you have to offer.

what is an example, postmaker

look im not more qualified to give this advice than anyone else, but here's what i do if it helps. i typically pick out a short excerpt and include a short pitch underneath it. that way the reader knows what i sound like and what the fic is about.

here is a baldur's gate 3 fic summary

shadowheart says, “kill l–” “not lae’zel, darling, it’s too obvious. in fact, both of you are banned from killing each other.” astarion thinks for a moment. “in the game, at least.” -- the gang plays fuck, marry, kill.

this fic has a basic premise and hinges on dialogue, so i picked some sample dialogue to demonstrate what my grasp on the character dynamics looks like and then added one line to explain what the fic is about.

here is a death note fic summary (death note spoilers) (i guess)

The night Ryuzaki dies, L appears in Light's bed. -- (every night when light goes to sleep, his dreams place him in a romantic relationship with his newly-dead rival. it makes him sick.)

this fic has a more abstract premise, so i picked a short excerpt to demonstrate what the tone of the fic is (a bit mysterious). then i added two lines: just enough information to explain what the catalyst of the fic is, but no more than that, so that the reader will be intrigued.

here is a persona 5 fic summary

Ren grins. “You want me to date Goro?” “Pretend-date Goro,” Ann corrects. “And make his crush jealous.” “This is not going to work,” Goro says. “Sure, I’ll do it,” says Ren, still grinning. He does his own rendition of Ann’s eyelash bat. “Go out with me, Goro-kun?” “I’m older than you, so show me a little respect,” Goro says crossly. “Our relationship is off to a bad start, Ren-kun.” -- (or: what not to do when you're fake-dating your real crush.)

this fic is based on a premise everyone knows well (fake-dating trope), so i picked dialogue that samples the tone of the fic and of the key relationship so that readers can decide if i write the dynamic in a way they personally vibe with. then i added a line to tell them what the trope is, so that fake-dating trope enjoyers know that's what it is.