SO YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO WRITE A SUMMARY
Maybe it's your first baby bang and you've seen this detail when we've been posting about claims...and you're not quite sure what it means. Never fear, the mods are here with your complete guide to bang summaries!
For a bang, you're looking to catch the interest of an artist. A rough idea of a beginning, middle, and end would be ideal, as well as a setting and some visuals. Have a look at the below examples for a better idea.
When Chrissy sneaks away to a concert after she'd been forbidden to by her mother, she falls in love with a kind stranger. But she's forced to leave before she can give her real name.
So, this isn't a good summary. It would be to post it on AO3! But you're not trying to hook a reader so they will click on your fic. You need a little more. It doesn't tell the artist about when it's set, what they might be drawing or any big story beats.
Chrissy wants just one night to feel normal so when Robin offers to smuggle her to the Corroded Coffin concert in the WSQK van, she takes it. While sneaking around backstage, she stumbles across a handsome stranger who she has an instant connection with. She promises to meet him after the concert but has to leave before she's discovered missing by her mother. If she wants a chance at love and freedom she's going to have to be brave.
This is better. It gives us an idea of Chrissy's journey but it ends by being too vague rather than actually giving us an idea of what will happen at the climax. It does give some visuals, however, suggesting a meet cute and the potential for some fun scenes.
Chrissy's life got even smaller after her father died. Suddenly her dreams of escaping to college have gone up in smoke, made to work in Benny's and help her mother clean. When Robin, who works at WSQK, offers to take her along while she covers the Corroded Coffin concert, Chrissy jumps at the chance for a night out. While in disguise backstage, she meets a mysterious man but before he can kiss her, she has to leave in the radio van so she's not caught out by her mother. But it seems that's not the end of it when Eddie Munson, the lead singer, turns up on TV with her green scrunchie and looking for his 'princess.'
It is obvious that it's a Cinderella retelling and set in Hawkins. It gives us an outline of the story with a clearer vision of what kind of scenes the artist could create for. You don't want mystery when you want to appeal to an artist!
When writing a summary, think about these things:
1) An idea of setting and location
2) try to make it a brief summary of the story, with a few key scenes described so the artist will have an idea of what they might get to create. The above would perhaps inspire Chrissy in disguise, their meet cute, Eddie searching for her.
3) If some other key characters play an important part, then you can mention those. In the examples above, Robin plays a key role as the fairy godmother making sure that Chrissy gets to the concert.
4) genre and how the story ends might also be important! Someone who likes to draw fantasy elements might not want a more contemporary story and vice versa.
We hope this has helped any authors participating in claims this weekend to have a clearer idea of what to submit for their summaries! As always, if you have any further questions, we're here to help 😊
