Edit: The OP was originally a discussion on synopses. I've changed it into a "reply to this comment to let me know you want help" type thing.

So. Reply to this comment, and I'll try to help out.

Go!

Luck. Massive amounts of blind luck.

439985

Yeah, but luck in what? Luck in writing the synopsis or getting lucky in that your fic happens to get frozen on the front page during one of Poultron's sleeping sessions. (I can't have been the only one to notice that occasionally the front page freezes for a few hours, right?)

And it can't just be blind luck by itself. Background Pony had a helluva lot of people commenting that they read it because of the synopsis. Was that because it promised something that the fic delivered or was it just based on the prose of the story itself?

Or, in other words, what makes a good synopsis: one that tells you everything about the fic, one that hints at it or one that has you going in blind? And should we try and figure this out by applying logic or going out and finding successful first time fics and analysing them...

What the hell am I talking about. Of course we do science to this! To the statistics machine!

A good synopsis would explain the story without giving too much away, revealing primary characters and the general plot, usually ending in a cliffhanger-esque question. A bad synopsis would be peppered with "this is the best story ever" and the like, showing conceit and assurance of what may not be true to everyone. I admit I'm guilty to an extent of this fault, as, so as not to discourage readers, I asked that they at least give my current tale, Living in Equestria, a chance before denouncing it as 'just another human in Equestria' story, as my first reader did.

440040

I'll admit: that's normally what I'd aim for in a synopsis.

However, looking through all the stories that (in my opinion) got featured because of their synopses, the most successful tactic seems to be revealing the crux of your story right up there in the synopsis. Not all of it, of course, or else there's really no reason to read.

It seems that the best (or most successful) synopses straight up tell the reader what the main idea behind their fic is immediately, as in, before they've even started reading immediately. And for me, well, that's mildly counter intuitive.

Something to consider, at any rate. (Though I'll admit there's a few which just hint at what the story's like, but the successful one's of that breed then seem to deliver on that promise within the first paragraphs of the fic. So... not that much different in the long haul.)

I think you require a good synopsis, but also need ungodly amounts of luck, because even if your write the best synopsis ever if no one finds your fic there's almost no point.

440097

That's a valid stance, but at the same time, every fic does get a spot on the front page. In a perfect world that'd mean every fic gets the same chance at being found. In practice, though, they don't. So, yes: luck is most definitely a part of your fic's success.

But on the other hand, we can't control the luck aspect what-so-ever. What we can control is the synopsis aspect of it, which is mainly why I created this post. How, exactly, do you go about writing a good synopsis?

440122I would try to make a unique synopsis, because due to thousands of people writing about the same subject; there's a chance they already read a similar story, and i've had to ignore several stories because the synopsis where to similar to others and i think "I already read a story about the same thing".

For example this from one of the stories in the the magical box of awesome.

The title is "Twilight Sparkle: Patient #107497"

We know Twilight Sparkle as the silly little mare who didn't have any friends until she was sent to Ponyville by Princess Celestia. However, the rest of Equestria knows Twilight Sparkle as poor number 107497, a number even foals are taught to be wary of. The filly was perfectly fine, until one last taunt pushed her over the edge, into her own imagination, where she made friends; each friend a part
of her mind.
Five years later, as Princess Celestia sits with her comatose student, aforementioned student moves. Both in the physical world, and slowly from her dream world as well.

When i saw the title i think " oh, another crazy twilight story", but the synopsis is unique and interesting enough that it makes you want to read it.

440139

So difference from most other stories? Perhaps.

Then again, I can look up into the feature box right now and see what must be the twentieth 'X was secretly a changeling all along' synopsis + story. Admittedly, most of those are done with different characters, but still: it's the same damn story told over and over again, and the synopsis doesn't really suggest there's anything that unique about it.

I'd suggest that people aren't as concerned with originality as they are with an interesting twist. (Not suggesting 'X was secretly a changeling all along' is an interesting twist, though. It's a terrible, boring twist.)

440139

Wow, edit to the original. Curiously enough, Twilight Sparkle: Patient #107497 has been submitted to SALT proper, and I've already dumped opinions on improvements to the first two scenes on there. I'd agree that that's a catchy synopsis, though.

440148 Ok, i agree not all synopsis are good (especially all the recent changeling ones (when did changelings start to get popular, or more like that ponyis a changeling start to get popular)), but when you have to fight for recognition in this place you have to be unique. If anything the synopsis should at least let the reader know what sets your fic apart from the hundreds of clones out there.

439982

I'll bite at a critique of the sample synopsis.

Delete "out" after "radiating." It's vital to cut all unnecessary words from a synopsis.

I can't pronounce "Equulei." I'm not saying don't use it, but I am saying don't use it as the first word in your synopsis. Maybe don't use it in the synopsis at all; perhaps you could start with, "On a dead planet circling a dying star . . . " I wonder if you can cut the first part of the synopsis down to a single sentence.

I might throw in one of my own for critique. I've decided my synopses are generally meh. Here's one for a story I have rattling in my head, and which I may or may not write:

After a spell gone wrong sends Twilight Sparkle and her friends to Earth, they find themselves at the mercy of an international ring of slave-traders known as the Pound Puppies.

440155

True. Something that defines your story as 'not another generic HiE' probably needs to be in there. I'd still say that mentioning the main 'twist' of your story is more important than it being a completely original twist, but uniqueness certainly plays a part.

I blame Wanderer D and his Three Sisters fic for causing the craze. Not that there was anything wrong with that fic, it's just that it's given people a cheap template they can latch on to multiple characters. Kinda like Ponyfall, now that I think about it.

440171That's a good point.
Also as a side note when i respond it always looks like scootaloo is looking down at my avatar, also why are almost all scootaloo stories i see always so depressing and sad.

440169

Excellent! A customer! Performing critique...

Spell gone wrong sends Twilight

STOP! Twilight getting a spell wrong is a terrible cliche by now, to the point that EQD has it on their blacklist. You'll need a new method of getting them to Earth.

As for the rest of it, I think it's a bit too short. I'm not one-hundred percent sure on what I'd be getting by clicking on your fic. Is this a story about ponies breaking a slave-trading ring, ponies getting enslaved and then breaking out in a Great Escape or ponies assisting pups in enslaving humans? On the one hand, you want it to be a bit of a mystery whilst reading, but on the other, I want to know what sort of ticket I'm buying here.

I'd also suggest having something in there to set up a question which the fic then answers. At the moment, your synopsis sets up a scenario rather than a question. It's a curious scenario, but not curious enough to pull me in.

Oh, and thanks for the help on the synopsis. Making changes now...

440192

There was a sorta meme going round a while back called 'scootabuse', based on a comment Faust made about the RD - Scoots relationship. Most of it's refuge left over from that.

And Scootaloo is looking down on your avatar. Scootaloo is highly difficult to please, you see. Only pictures of Scootaloo please her.

440204 I have a few pieces of advice for you (or anyone who actually needs them). DO NOT fill your summary with what if questions. They are so overused at this point that it actually turns me off of reading stories sometimes. DO spell and use correct grammar. If you can't even do that in the summary, your fic has no hope. DO NOT write in an excuse for poor writing. If you know your writing is poor, work with it and wait till the author's notes to explain why. Bronys tend to understand and can help by sending you to an editor. DO explain whats going on succinctly. There are exceptions to all of these, but in general they are good pieces of advice.

440621

I dunno about the questions bit. Flat out presenting them as questions is certainly a big no-no, but at the same time you want your description to pose a question that the story promises to answer. I suppose it all depends on how you style them; these are questions which you want to ask without ever really using a question mark.

I agree with everything else, though. Especially if something along the lines of "read this to find out!" is used.

It never makes me want to read your story. Never.

Oh, and have some music from my new favourite Brony musician. Just because class.

440927

Wait a minute, no questions ever? I actually thought a single question at the end of the synopsis isn't a bad idea, at least if it's the right question.

441328

TBH, a direct question's always struck me as being a bit too... forced. Artificial. It tells me that the author isn't certain that I'm wondering about what they want me to be wondering about, and that they feel the need to step up and tell me what sort of question I should be asking.

A good synopsis should try and evoke that question from the reader; make them be the ones asking 'hey, what's going to happen here?'. That and, usually, the question's personalised: they're asking a question which they want an answer to, which brings us to the all important reader-piece engagement. The writer's got to be good enough to weave that into the synopsis, of course, and tilt it enough so that any question asked is one their fic should answer.

Quick note, too: this is all my opinion. Feel free to debate me on it. Without some form of hard data on the topic, it's all going to be conjecture and mass guessing about what should appeal to readers.

440150
As I mentioned when I read the ORIGINAL draft of that story, it may be the only time ever that an idea alone has gotten a story to the feature box, because the writing certainly doesn't set the world on fire. Of course, the fact that they took my advice and sent it to SALT shows a great spirit, so I'm really hoping they take what you wrote to heart.
And yes, it IS one of the worst synopses I've read in quite a while. Tells you damn near everything, it does.

440192
EXACTLY why I wrote Scootaleukemia. That filly needs a freaking break.

441334 441328
I won't go so far as to say that a synopsis should NEVER have a direct question in it, but the purpose of a synopsis is to create MORE questions. When you read it, you should be going "hey, yeah... what would happen?" A synopsis should never answer questions. It can be one sentence or a paragraph, but it should leave the reader slightly mystified and curious to see how, or why, or who.
And yes, spelling is not optional.
Never, EVER draw attention to your writing or the quality thereof. Art is what the viewer makes of it, after all. Even poorly written stuff has a place, even if it's merely in the bucket of "How Not To Do It". Always let your work stand on its own merits.

443899

I filled the first two scenes up with lots of little yellow lines, taking up over three pages worth of side-space on the Gdoc. That was some time ago, and unless I see some response to them, I ain't doing any more.

I've got too much going on right now to just throw out time to people who aren't going to use it. So... yeah. I really hope she takes what I've said to heart too.

As for the on-topic thread issue, yeah. I echo much of what you said, which echoes much of what's been said, so... lots of echoes in here

Anyway. Let's try and get some new crap down.

I disagree with 'A synopsis should never answer questions', and I start my disagreement with an asinine one. The synopsis should answer the question of whether or not you want to read what happens. None asinine responses would include informing the reader about the type of style used (2nd person fics usually come with a warning), any adult material in the fic and what, exactly, the fic is about (Sci-fi, adventure...).

So... I wouldn't go as far as saying that the synopsis should never answer questions. A better way of phrasing your thoughts might be 'A synopsis should never satisfy a reader's curiosity over the story'.

And even then you could argue that "It should satisfy the reader's curiosity over how good it is or not."

444380

You guys are giving some sharp advice here. I'm taking (mental) notes.

Okay, try this one, for a story of which I have four chapters already drafted:

He had loved her since he was a foal, and now that he was a full-grown stallion, he hoped to court her, but he had a problem: she was an immortal goddess, and he was only an earth pony. Worse, she had vowed never to marry anypony who couldn't defeat her in combat!

445166
Hmmmm...
Okay, what I'm reading makes me think this is supposed to be a tragedy. If it IS a comedy, then ignore everything I say here.

Too many "he's". It all just kinda runs together on me, like I walked into the middle of a conversation. Also, if you're going to use that colon it should be a single space between it and the next clause. And the last sentence... I dunno, the whole thing just puts me in the mind of a Rob Schneider movie trailer, and that's generally a bad thing.
IMO, I think you can get a lot of mileage out of first-person narration in a tragedy synopsis, or at least structuring it like it was one.

445166

He had loved her since he was a foal, and now that he was a full-grown stallion, he hoped to court her, but he had a problem: she was an immortal goddess, and he was only an earth pony.

Commas again. I'd suggest loping the sentence off at "court her" and starting the next one with a conjunction. It gives the part after it the needed gravitas, anyway.

That and it gets rid of any awkwardness surrounding the shuffling of various past tenses. I understand why it's there, and it makes sense, but... Yes. Period please.

Worse, she had vowed never to marry anypony who couldn't defeat her in combat!

Helloooo Atlanta.

I'm not so sure about this sentence. Ending it with an exclamation mark feels off to me. Then again, they always do outside of dialogue. I feel like the sentence is trying to jolly me up, like an old British gentleman. I dislike anything that's so obviously trying to impose a mood on me; I occasionally kid myself that my views are shared. Regardless, that exclamation mark's telling me your sentence is exciting. That should be a conclusion I reach all by myself.

Moving away from my unnecessary fussiness over punctuation, I'll tell you this straight up: this isn't something that would get me reading. Your first (potentially two) sentences are interesting. Two characters are established and a conflict is defined. The second one... feels unnecessary by comparison. And it's trying to get me excited. Bah.

As for raising questions, it does do that, but not in an easily accessible way. Based off what I'm reading, I'd want to know the following things: why she was willing to get married to anyone in the first place, how you're going to work in combat to MLP and the exact direction the fic's going to take. That last one isn't entirely obvious from the synopsis, mainly because the first sentence reads like the start of a desperate romance that the second then morphs into a do-or-die type contest. I'd add more sentences into this to make your direction clearer.

Speaking about that, all I can say is that I really, really hope you don't just stop the story after the combat's done. A childish crush turned into infatuation and a woman offering herself up as a prize to be won is no basis on which to have a relationship. I trust you enough to know that you'll handle it well (probably), but still. I worry. And so far, that's the signal I'm getting loud and clear from your synopsis.

So... In summary, my main suggestions would be to make this longer and to clarify what type of story this is. I'd personally go for some form of thematic structuring covering the contrasts between the two of them.

445634

You're really good at this. I'm afraid you're going to have to put up with my sending all my synopses your way from now on, though the result may simply be my never posting a story because I can't write a synopsis that satisfies.

445680

Feel free to continue sending them. Synopses are short and thus fairly quick to deal with. It's high speed helping as opposed to the long, in-doc review style I've gotten used to on SALT.

I am thinking about making a general thread for it, though. Problem is that would violate the 'Archive stuff in the Archive; Reviewing stuff on SALT' rule I've been holding over my head for a while now. So at the moment, I'd post any new ones in here. I'll try and come to some form of a decision over whether or not to start a debate over the relationship between the Archive and SALT in the meantime.

445694

I admit my synopsis philosophy and yours might differ slightly, but you are gving such good reasons that I think you will persuade me to change my opinion. I have never before mistrusted question marks or exclamation points at the end of synopses, viewing them as the sort of run-of-the-mill boosterism I expect in story summaries, but I think you are right to hold us to a higher standard by encouraging us to avoid run-of-the-mill boosterism.

I have been trying to trim myself down to one- and two-sentence synopses, but I get the impression that you are pushing me in the other direction, encouraging me to give you a very clear idea of what you're getting into before you open the story. Admittedly, my favorite synopsis I have seen on this site, at least that I can recite off the top of my head, is, "Rainbow Dash flies east." On its face, that tells me nothing except that Rainbow Dash is in the story and that she is travelling eastward, but it also seems to open in my imagination a world of possibilities: I expect, rightly or wrongly, that this will be an adventure story involving exploration, that Rainbow Dash will likely be the only character who isn't an OC, and (for some reason) that Rainbow Dash will be angsty, which will cause me as a brony to want to comfort her. Weirdo. It also gives me the impression that the author, regardless of his talents, has a lot of chutzpah: he must think he's pretty damn good to write a synopsis that short and vague.

Ironically, the synopsis I most hate, and which I most definitely cannot recite off the top of my head, is the one for All-American Girl, the longfic I love to hate and hate to love. I don't know if I've ever even managed to read its entire synopsis before quitting from boredom. Somehow, that hasn't stopped me from reading the story and alternating repeatedly between "This is pure genius" and "You stupid, stupid moron!!"

Okay, okay. Just one more for now, since I have to go totally rethink my others. This last one is for a novel-length work, the incomplete draft of which is presently at about 40,000 words, which means it is just barely, technically, the length of a novel and/or one chapter of All-American Girl. And yes, since I know you've read some of my blog, believe it or not, I am actually writing this.

Jack Andrews is a Catholic studying to be a priest and missionary in the newly established diocese of Canterlot, but a visit to Equestria will undermine his basic assumptions, and an indiscreet relationship with a pony might undermine more than that.

445761 Quite well put together comparatively. It absolutely follows my hints and gives a question without being a question. Nothing is forced down your throat and doesn't sound like a movie announcer needs to voice it for the upcoming film no one wants to see. Bravo!

445876

Heh heh. Glad to know I may have gotten one right!