Story summaries in posts

[q-dicted.livejournal.com]

First of all - I really appreciate this community. It has helped me many times and I have found some really great stories through other people's queries as well. Kudos.

I was wondering though, is there some way of asking for help with a specific story (rather than, say a genre) without giving away the entire plot in the process? It's great to jog the memories of those who can help, but kind of takes something away from the story-telling for those who may not have read it yet. Perhaps starting with a general description and then spoiler'ing the details that are obviously major plot points? A clunky solution but maybe somebody has a better idea.

Moderators: if this is not allowed, please delete, but I'm hoping maybe it can help the comm in general.

Comments

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

Good question!!

I think that what happens is, in the search for a fic, a requester is trying to give as much info as possible to describe the story, not realizing that when they're done, they've pretty much described the whole thing. And so, yeah, you're like, "well, hell, don't need to read this, I know how it ends!"

A good example of not giving up the entire might go like this - let's use Myrna's If You Needed Me, since practically everyone has read it.

"I'm looking for a B/J fic, it's in four parts with different POV's, and it's about Justin having a brain tumor."

As opposed to

"I'm looking for a fic where Justin has a brain tumor, and he gets operated on, and moves in with Brian after, and they were broken up so Justin was with Ethan first, but then he dates another guy and Brian gets jealous, and..."

Thing is, it's all in the details. I think so many of us have been around so long, we've read all of the classics and forget that not everyone else has, too. I find that rec lists are very helpful when looking for fics. Most of them give a basic story outline without spoiling the whole thing.

Any way, consider this as your official mod permission for this post! After you've received some helpful (hopefully!) hints, will you update? I'll keep an eye out and make sure the discussion doesn't veer off too much.

[q-dicted.livejournal.com]

Thanks, vlredreign. I know it's a really fine line to tread and the point of the comm is to find fics, so...

It's really just a personal thing for me - I don't even like movie trailers that make me feel like I've already seen the film before it ever hits theaters. I guess there's a reason that writing the dust-jackets for novels is a profession, huh?

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

Even writing dust jackets is a tricky thing. Most of the time, they tell you just enough to draw you in, other times...yeah. I always thought Stephen King had the best ones, cause they would tell you the plot outline, and you still came out the other end going WTAF JUST HAPPENED!?!" lol