Story Teasers

"After a millennia an ancient evil returns to Equestria.
But how do you defeat an evil that is immortal?"

So what's the most important part of publishing a story?

Well, you need to start with an engaging story that people will enjoy reading (the job of the author). It's good if it flows well and doesn't contain any plot holes that Cherry Berry can fly her balloon through (the job of a pre-reader).  And of course the spelling, grammar, and sentence structure should be solid enough to not drive people away who start to read it (the job of an editor).

But as critical as all that is, it's absolutely, 100% pointless if no one reads the story.  Ouch.  All that work... Poof.

"Canterlot is destroyed. All the alicorns are gone,
and the sun will never set again. Now what?"

OK, so there's cover artwork. This can be eye catching, perhaps causing a potential reader to look closer.  A well done piece of artwork can tell a story all by itself.  On the other hand, how many times have you checked out, or even read a story just based on the picture?  There's the story's long description. A couple paragraphs about the story (which is pretty important), if it's a sequel, supplemental information, artwork/pre-reader/editor credits, chapter list, etc.  All good information, and some of it might influence a potential reader. But... Well... They have to actually open the story page to see any of that.

So again, it's all worthless if they don't click on the story.

"The fall of Canterlot to the changeling invasion alters everything.
Is survival now more important than friendship?"

OK, so what do we have left?  What's the one hook you have to try and get a potential reader to take a closer look?  If they see your story listed on the front page of the site, or as a result of some search, or some other way, how do you get them to click on it?

Enter the story's short description.  This is a 120 character text string that gets used most anytime the story is listed somewhere on the site.  Only 120 characters, enough for 2-3 sentences. BTW, I exceeded 120 characters in this paragraph with the word 'characters' in the third sentence.  What's worse is that depending on other factors, like the number of tags a story has, not even the full 120 characters may be displayed.  That doesn't give you much space to catch a potential reader's attention.

"I’ve been asked to find some strange things over the years, but this?
Maybe this is one case I should walk away from."

So how do you write an engaging short description?  How do you make it entice a reader to look closer?  I'll quote https://www.fimfiction.net/user/64357/Winston

A good description should be an offer, not an explanation. It shouldn't be the goal of a description to explain what your story is about. It can do that, of course, because explaining certain things is one possible way of presenting an offer. 

I'm evoking the core engagement feature(s) of the story. I'm conveying the feel of the story. That's what story descriptions should do. They make the pitch to potential readers: "This description made you feel a certain way, so read the story to engage with that feeling further and more deeply!"

Unfortunately, knowing what to do and being able to successfully do it are two different things.

The short description scattered in this post are drafts from various stories in The Quicksilver Chronicles.  If they don't make you want to click on the story, then I better figure out how to fix them before that story is published.

Next week: Other Artwork, part 1