Advice for writing a comic summary?

[NotedDreams]

I believe summaries/blurbs are really important to a comic, however; I can never really write an eye catching one without giving away the whole plotline. How do you write your summaries?

[ovisrock]

I find that if the comic's summary is too long, I don't even bother reading it (the summary). I just look at the art and skim through to see if I like what I see.

That being said, when I was writing the summary for my comic, I thought about what I wanted my comic to represent. What it is in it's essence. I also kept it very short and simple. My advice would be to keep it as simple as possible.

This may be just me, but for comics, I never really read the summaries. I look at the pictures and flip through. If I like the art, I'll read the comic more thoroughly.

[jjfresh]

Hmm... well, I'm not sure how to word it but...

First, make it brief. Get straight to the point lie if you were writing a persuasive essay. What is you story about? And then make sure you have impact. Open and end with impact.

My webcomic, Beautiful Lies, it's summary is this:

"It's a story about a group of adolescents living dull or miserable lives who seek comfort in their own fantasy world.

They all encounter a similar situation which transports them to a lawless, fantasy world that shapes itself to their inner desires. There is no time to age them, no rules to control them, no authority to subdue them.
As they search for a way to return to the real world, they begin to question if they want to leave at all."

Now, my opening is okay. It's direct but the ending has impact. Sounds like something you may want to peek at.

The idea is to have impact, at least for me. Now, that often differs depending on your genre. Shoujo and shounen have much different kinds of summaries than psychologicals but in general, they have impact.

I suggest to start with a premise of 15 words or less. What is your story? "A group of high school students are stranded on an island." Then extend it.

[scythe]

I don't mind a longish summary as long as it's well written and intriguing. But a couple of paragraphs of the plot is probably as long as you want it to get. Make sure you write the pot summary in the present tense. Introduce your main character, or whatever element of your story will be a focal point, and rather than revealing exactly what is going to happen, speak to the kinds of the things that might go down. Will there be danger? Will a decision have to be made? Will it be funny? Sad? Romantic?

Lastly, cap it off with a short description of the kind of comic it is. If it's a comedy, say something like it'll leave you in stitches. If it's a horror story, you could say it's a macabre tale of bones and bloodlust. That sort of thing. Good luck!

[NotedDreams]

Alright, thanks for the advice! How about this:

"Zoe Lilith disguises herself as her missing brother to fight a deadly super virus with the Provinciency Annihilation Organization. While battling to keep up her guise, Zoe also battles a mutated form of the virus that has infected her. Through her journey she discovers the secrets her brother hid from her, the true reasons behind the virus, and connections to new friends."

Is that giving away too much?

[melonramune]

1) Short and sweet and SIMPLE [no fancy pants words, keep it simple and easy to digest]
2) Start off with an eye catching phrase
3) Give your reader information that will grab their attention but withhold information they would want to know
4) Hyperbole...Blow things up big time

Zoe Lilith disguises herself as her missing brother to fight a deadly super virus with the Provinciency Annihilation Organization. While battling to keep up her guise, Zoe also battles a mutated form of the virus that has infected her. Through her journey she discovers the secrets her brother hid from her, the true reasons behind the virus, and connections to new friends.

Imo this is fine, but needs some grab to it. As a reader, it wouldn't really do much to grab my interest.

[Agentzap]

The first line is important, I skim through the rest of it. From there I rely on the art and stuff to judge how a comic is worth. Also there's a topic here on the forums to describe your comic in three words. good practice.

[ogawaburukku]

Zoe Lilith disguises herself as her missing brother to fight a deadly super virus with the Provinciency Annihilation Organization. While battling to keep up her guise, Zoe also battles a mutated form of the virus that has infected her. Through her journey she discovers the secrets her brother hid from her, the true reasons behind the virus, and connections to new friends."

I would edit it down to something like this:

Disguised as her missing brother, Zoe Lilith must fight to destroy a deadly super virus alongside the Provinciency Annihilation Organization to not only save the world from infection, but to find a cure for the mutated strain that threatens her own life!

That's one sentence (a long one, admittedly) and emphasizes the direness of the situation to the reader. Sounds more exciting to me this way.

I find blurb writing to be really difficult for a series. I have an atypical magical girls series, so if I am making banners I use a really short catchphrase of just "FaLLEN: An alternate magical girls webcomic", but I will write something like "A team of magical girls fight for the answer to the world's simplest question; 'What's your name?'" or expand on that if I have more space. The series is about amnesiacs who are told they are magical girls, but there are certain buzzwords I think should be avoided in promotional material (amnesia, post-apocalyptic world, orphaned hero, ninja assassins) because they've been overused to the point that they've become a bit of a punchline. You might even put the name of the virus in your description to make it seem more threatening, since even "a deadly virus" is a phrase that is pretty overused.

Not saying don't write about these things, haha, but overused genres and phrases won't sell your story. Emphasize that the protagonist is infected, since that's the hook, I think.

[NotedDreams]

Oh thank you so much! That really does sound more interesting.
I agree that blurb writing is hard.

[nikamaclein]

Hello, I may be a little late here, but if you're still needing the help, you can visit this web page and find there a lotta useful tips on writing the summary. Check it out

[kazukitakamura126]

I somewhat ran into this problem with the series description for my romantic drama In The Midst. The first series description just a giant text wall that didn't engage the reader or interest them. My suggestion is to keep it short. For my first comic I believe the comic description was engaging because people were able to understand the jest of my comic. What did with that comic summary is establish the world, describe the conflict in the story, how it affects the main character and a question to make the reader curious about the story.

Here's the example I was talking about earlier

Two races of people exist, humans and the spiritual beings known as, Seishins. Humans use the Seishins as tools of convenience and pleasure. A human named, Zethero wants to free the Seishins from oppression, but he will need the help of a Seishin named, Aureen. Will they be able to change the relationship between the humans and the Seishins?

[camillabluejay]

This one is also good because it's not really a description of the plot you're trying to put into the summary, it's the feel of the comic, you know? So, from reading these blurbs, without seeing your comic, I can tell it's a sci-fi, with mystery and action elements. Which is good- anyone who likes those types of comics will be immediately be interested in your comic, and will then look further into it. : )

[camillabluejay]

I usually write two. I have a really short tagline for mine. "Dumb boys doing dumb things for money." and then, if that catches their eye, I go into the longer spiel. You honestly don't need to give readers that much about the plot at all, the more important thing is the genre and feel of the comic.
So, the important elements of your story are mutated virus and disguised girl. See if you can write it in one sentence, and then, after that sentence, if you feel you need additional information about the characters or the world, put it below. : ) Good luck!

[mattcleaver]

Imagine if someone asked you describe your comic in one sentence. This can be incredibly hard to do, but if you can sort of do it, or put it into two sentences, then that's the overview right there. Forget everything else. The reader will pick up on the rest when they actually read it.

I had such trouble with this on a previous comic (because it was fairly complicated) that I decided to think of the overview of the next story before I even start it. Having an easily grasped main through-line can help a story a lot, and yeah, that tiny overview needs to be fairly graspy to people.